This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 02 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 running food-nutrient tests and reading real nutrition labels aloud.
By the end of the Nutrients & the Science of Food unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Test a food for starch, sugar, fat, and vitamin C — read the evidence.
The student explains what a food provides, without judging it (Page 4).
Label readings, test results, and interpretations 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 gather the evidence and justify the nutrition science 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Macronutrients | ||
| Carbohydrate | carbs; sugars & starches | The body’s main fuel; type and amount matter, not “good vs. bad” |
| Protein | made of amino acids | Builds and repairs tissue; also a backup energy source |
| Fat | dietary fat; lipids | Energy storage, insulation, vitamin absorption — not inherently “bad” |
| Fiber | dietary fiber | A carbohydrate the body cannot fully digest; supports digestion |
| Micronutrients & food science | ||
| Vitamin | micronutrient | Needed in small amounts; vitamin C, for example, prevents scurvy |
| Mineral | micronutrient | Needed in small amounts; iron and calcium, for example |
| Calorie | unit of energy; kcal | The energy a food provides — a measure, never a “bad” thing |
| Nutrient density | nutrients per calorie | How much nourishment a food gives for the energy it carries |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naming macronutrients & micronutrients | Cannot tell a macronutrient from a micronutrient or name examples. | Names carbohydrates, proteins, and fats but is unsure about micronutrients. | Names the three macronutrients — carbohydrates, proteins, and fats — and the micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, with examples. |
| What each nutrient does | Thinks all food does the same one thing in the body. | Knows nutrients have jobs but cannot match a nutrient to its role. | Explains that food is both energy and building material — carbs and fats fuel, proteins build and repair, vitamins and minerals keep systems running. |
| Reading nutrient content | Cannot find the nutrients listed on a food’s nutrition information. | Locates nutrients on a label but misreads the serving size or amounts. | Reads a nutrition label accurately — serving size, macronutrients, key micronutrients — and describes what the food provides. |
| Type and amount, not category | Sorts foods into “good” and “bad” and calls carbs or fats inherently unhealthy. | Senses that category labels are too simple but still leans on them. | Explains that no food is inherently unhealthy — type and amount matter, not the category — and reasons without judging foods or people. |
| Anchor lab (food-nutrient testing) | Skips the food-nutrient tests or records results with no evidence. | Runs a test or two but cannot say what each result reveals about the food. | Runs the food-nutrient tests — starch with iodine, sugar with Benedict’s, fat with a grease spot, vitamin C with indophenol — and reads each as 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 across History · Reading · Writing — including the James Lind scurvy trial that first tied a missing nutrient to a disease — and defends why it matters. |
The split between Approaching and Mastered is evidence over labels: not just naming a nutrient, but reading what a food actually provides and reasoning about type and amount instead of “good” and “bad.” Ask “so what does the test show?”
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 | Naming macronutrients & micronutrients | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | What each nutrient does | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Reading nutrient content | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Type and amount, not category | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Anchor lab (food-nutrient testing) | 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.