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 identifying a bone, muscle, or joint on a model and defending the call aloud.
By the end of the Skeletal & Muscular Systems unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Bones, muscles, and joints located on a model — observed live.
The student defends an identification aloud (Page 4 anchors).
Labeled sketches and the structures identified, 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 find the structure on the model and justify the anatomy 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The skeleton & joints | ||
| Axial skeleton | skull, spine & ribs | Skull, vertebral column, and thoracic cage — the body's central axis |
| Appendicular skeleton | limbs & girdles | Arm and leg bones plus the girdles that attach them to the axis |
| Ball-and-socket joint | (none) | Widest range of motion — shoulder and hip |
| Hinge joint | (none) | Bends one way like a door — elbow and knee |
| The muscles | ||
| Skeletal muscle | voluntary muscle | Attached to bone; moves the skeleton under conscious control |
| Cardiac muscle | heart muscle | Only in the heart wall; involuntary and self-triggering |
| Antagonistic pair | opposing muscles | One muscle pulls a joint one way; its partner pulls it back — muscles pull, never push |
| Sliding-filament contraction | muscle shortening | Filaments slide past each other to shorten the muscle |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axial vs. appendicular skeleton & major bones | Cannot sort the skeleton into axial and appendicular, or cannot name the major bones. | Names major bones but cannot sort them into axial vs. appendicular, or slips on bone structure. | Sorts bones into axial and appendicular, names the major bones on a skeleton, and describes bone structure — compact and spongy bone, marrow. |
| Joint types & movements | Cannot name a joint type or a movement it allows. | Names joint types from a list but cannot match a movement to the joint on a model. | Classifies the major joint types — hinge, ball-and-socket, pivot, gliding — and demonstrates the movement each allows on a skeleton or model. |
| The three muscle types & major muscle groups | Cannot name the three muscle types, or mixes them up. | Names skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle but cannot say where each is found or name the major muscle groups. | Names the three muscle types with where each is found and identifies the major muscle groups on a torso model. |
| How muscles pull — antagonistic pairs | Thinks muscles push, or cannot pair a mover with its antagonist. | Knows muscles pull and names an antagonistic pair but cannot explain how a contraction shortens the muscle. | Explains that muscles pull and never push, pairs a mover with its antagonist, and describes contraction as filaments sliding to shorten the muscle. |
| Lab technique (model / skeleton ID defense) | Cannot locate a requested bone, muscle, or joint on the model or skeleton. | Points to a bone, muscle, or joint on the model but cannot defend the call from its structure. | Identifies a bone, muscle, or joint on a model or skeleton and defends the call by linking its structure to what it does. |
| 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 structure drives function: not just naming a bone or muscle, but saying what its shape lets it do. Ask “so what does that structure do?”
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 | Axial vs. appendicular skeleton & major bones | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Joint types & movements | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | The three muscle types & major muscle groups | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | How muscles pull — antagonistic pairs | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (model / skeleton ID defense) | 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.