Resources · Mastery
Mastery rubrics.
One rubric per unit, plus the three demonstration rubrics. Every rubric uses the same three levels — Not yet, Approaching, Mastered — so the bar is identical for every student.
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How the rubrics work
The grading philosophy behind every rubric — decisions not points, a vocabulary published in advance, three tokens that absorb a bad day, and how unit mastery becomes a letter grade.
Unit rubrics
A mastery rubric for each of the eight units. Each one names exactly what a student must be able to do — not how many points they earned — to reach Mastered.
Unit 01
Minerals
Crystal structure, the diagnostic properties, and the systematic identification of common rock-forming minerals.
Unit 02
Igneous Rocks & Volcanism
Magma, cooling rate and texture, the intrusive–extrusive divide, and volcanic landforms.
Unit 03
Sedimentary Rocks & Stratigraphy
Clastic and chemical sediments, depositional environments, and reading a layered sequence.
Unit 04
Metamorphic Rocks & the Rock Cycle
Heat, pressure, foliation, index minerals, and how the three rock families cycle into one another.
Unit 05
Plate Tectonics & Mountain Building
Plate boundaries, the driving mechanism, orogeny, and the structures deformation leaves behind.
Unit 06
Earthquakes & Earth's Interior
Seismic waves, locating an epicenter, and reading the layered interior the waves reveal.
Unit 07
Weathering, Erosion & Landforms
Mechanical and chemical breakdown, the agents that move sediment, and the landforms they carve.
Unit 08
Geologic Time & Earth History
Relative and numerical dating, the principles of stratigraphy, and Hutton's deep time.
Demonstration rubrics
The three live demonstrations a student defends in person. These are the AI-proof assessments — you can't paste your way through any of them.
Demonstration
The rock & mineral ID defense
Identifying unknown specimens by property test and key, then defending each call out loud.
Demonstration
Timed map & cross-section reading
Reading a geologic map, cross-section, or seismogram and defending the story, against the clock.
Demonstration
Lab-notebook defense
Standing behind your recorded field notes, observations, and reasoning out loud.