This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 05 at home — learning targets, the answers that count as correct, the mastery rubric, calibration examples, and a clipboard score sheet. No multiple-choice test: the student shows mastery by classifying a plate boundary from a seismic and volcanic map and tracing how it builds or destroys crust.
By the end of the Plate Tectonics & Mountain Building unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Read a seismic and volcanic map; classify the boundary.
The student explains the driving forces behind the motion (Page 4).
Map, boundary call, and reasoning kept distinct.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Not yet, Approaching, or Mastered — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both make the boundary call and defend the driving forces behind it. A student carries three tokens per term; one token buys a re-do of one criterion on another day, so a single bad afternoon never sinks the unit.
Accept any answer in the synonyms column — they are pre-approved as equivalent. The third column flags the confusions that look close but are not yet, so you can coach precisely.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| Boundaries & their features | ||
| Divergent boundary | spreading boundary | Plates pull apart; mid-ocean ridges and rift valleys form |
| Convergent boundary | colliding boundary | Plates collide; subduction or continental collision |
| Transform boundary | sliding boundary | Plates grind past; shallow earthquakes, no volcanism |
| Orogeny | mountain building | Folding, faulting, and uplift raise a range at convergence |
| Crust cycling & the driving engine | ||
| Seafloor spreading | ridge accretion | New crust at ridges; magnetic stripes and seafloor age record it |
| Subduction | slab descent | Dense oceanic slab dives at a trench; volcanic arc behind it |
| Mantle convection | mantle flow | Heat-driven flow in the mantle; drags plates but is not the only force |
| Ridge push & slab pull | plate-driving forces | Gravity forces — ridge push shoves, slab pull drags the sinking slab |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plate boundaries & their features | Cannot tell divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries apart. | Names the three boundary types but misreads which features mark each. | Classifies a boundary from its landforms, earthquakes, and volcanism, distinguishing divergent, convergent, and transform. |
| Seafloor spreading & subduction | Treats the ocean floor as fixed and ageless. | Describes spreading or subduction but not how they balance. | Explains how new crust forms at ridges and old crust returns at trenches, using seafloor age and magnetic stripes as evidence. |
| The driving engine | Says plates move but cannot say why. | Names mantle convection but omits ridge push and slab pull. | Explains plate motion through mantle convection, ridge push, and slab pull, and weighs their relative roles. |
| Orogeny & mountain building | Cannot connect colliding plates to mountains. | Links collision to uplift but not to folding or faulting. | Traces how convergence folds, faults, and uplifts crust into a mountain belt and reads that history from rock structure. |
| Lab technique (plate-boundary & seismic-map modeling) | Cannot locate boundaries on a map. | Plots earthquakes or volcanoes but draws boundaries loosely. | Maps earthquake and volcano patterns to locate plate boundaries and defends each boundary type from the seismic evidence. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts; makes no cross-domain connection. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend why it matters. | Connects the unit to its anchor across History · Reading · Writing (plus chosen electives) and defends why the connection matters. |
The split between Approaching and Mastered is the evidence drives the call: a deep, inclined band of earthquakes with a volcanic arc means convergence with subduction. Ask “which features told you the boundary type, and what force is moving that plate?”
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastered and Not yet actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plate boundaries & their features | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Seafloor spreading & subduction | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | The driving engine | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Orogeny & mountain building | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (plate-boundary & seismic-map modeling) | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | NY / Appr / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________ Tokens remaining: ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ 0
NY = Not yet · Appr = Approaching · Mast = Mastered · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.