Use these targets, vocabulary, rubrics, examples, and score sheet with the instructor's approved lesson and procedure. This is an assessment companion, not a complete lesson or safety authorization.
Student lessons, data, and worked answers: Unit 08 learning pathway.
The student demonstrates the following:
Five science criteria plus separately reported integration (Page 3).
Build a data-grounded recommendation and defend it in debate.
The student defends a recommendation against counterarguments (Page 4).
Evidence, recommendation, and counterarguments kept distinct.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both ground the case in data and defend the recommendation against challenge. Each student has three tokens per term; each token retries one rubric criterion. Approved accommodations, equipment failures, and approved absences are handled separately and do not consume these tokens.
Accept listed synonyms; use the distinction column to resolve near-matches.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| Economics of the environment | ||
| Sustainability | living within limits | Meeting needs without exhausting the resource base |
| Commons dilemma | shared-resource incentives | Overuse can occur; access rules and collective governance can change outcomes |
| Cost-benefit analysis | weighing costs vs benefits | A decision tool; only honest if it includes externalities |
| Externality | spillover cost or benefit | Not fully reflected in a transaction; distinguish measurement from a preferred policy response |
| Laws & agreements | ||
| Clean Air Act & Clean Water Act | major U.S. pollution laws | Each targets a named pollution problem |
| Endangered Species Act (ESA) | species-protection law | Protects at-risk species and habitat; distinct from NEPA |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency | Enforces U.S. environmental law — an agency, not a treaty |
| Montreal Protocol vs Paris Agreement | ozone treaty vs climate accord | Compare substance controls and nationally determined climate contributions using dated official sources |
| Criterion | Developing | Proficient | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sustainability and shared resources | Assumes shared resources must fail. | Names a shared-resource problem. | Explains incentives, limits and possible governance responses without treating shared ownership as inevitable depletion. |
| Cost, benefit and uncertainty | Mixes costs and physical outcomes. | Calculates one central ratio. | Computes net benefit and cost-effectiveness on a common basis; tests uncertainty, constraints and unpriced/distributional effects. |
| Domestic environmental law | Confuses agency and statute. | Names laws without their scope. | Matches CAA, CWA, ESA and NEPA to their purposes and lead roles; cites official sources without claiming legal advice. |
| Treaties and implementation | Treats all agreements as identical. | Names Montreal or Paris. | Compares Montreal and Paris mechanisms, domestic roles and evidence of implementation without assuming success or failure. |
| Data-grounded policy defense | Argues from preference alone. | Cites data without limits. | Defends a feasible recommendation, a counterargument, a sensitivity test and a monitoring plan while separating evidence and values. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Makes no supported connection between the source and the science. | Uses the source but needs help connecting evidence, writing, or limitations to the science. | Independently connects History, Reading, and Writing using a cited source, appropriate evidence, a limitation, and a scientific explanation. |
Ask what would change the recommendation. Credit any defensible conclusion with correct calculations, explicit constraints and evidence limits.
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastery and Developing actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
Integration is reported separately and cannot lower the science grade or block a science demonstration pass. Science and practical criteria determine that pass.
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sustainability and shared resources | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 2 | Cost, benefit and uncertainty | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 3 | Domestic environmental law | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 4 | Treaties and implementation | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 5 | Data-grounded policy defense | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | Dev / Prof / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________
Tokens left this term after this session (choose one): ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ None left
Dev = Developing · Prof = Proficient · Mast = Mastery · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.