This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 06 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 digestive and urinary structures at the bench and defending each call aloud.
By the end of the Digestive & Urinary Systems unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Structures identified on models, a dissection, or prepared slides — observed live.
The student defends an identification aloud (Page 4 anchors).
Contemporaneous record of each observation — magnification, stain, labeled sketch, and the ID.
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 at the bench and explain what it does. 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 digestive tract | ||
| Alimentary canal | GI tract, digestive tract | The continuous tube from mouth to anus; food passes through it |
| Stomach | (none) | Churns food and begins protein digestion with acid and enzymes; not where most absorption happens |
| Small intestine | (none) | Duodenum → jejunum → ileum; main site of chemical digestion and nutrient absorption |
| Large intestine | colon | Reabsorbs water and forms feces; has no villi (vs small intestine) |
| Villi | villus (singular) | Mucosal projections that enlarge the absorptive surface; small intestine only |
| Accessory digestive organs | ||
| Liver | (none) | Makes bile and processes absorbed nutrients; not part of the food tube itself |
| Gallbladder | (none) | Stores and concentrates bile — it does not make bile (the liver does) |
| Pancreas | (none) | Exocrine enzymes and bicarbonate for digestion; also endocrine (insulin, glucagon) |
| The urinary system | ||
| Kidney | (none) | Filters blood into urine; balances water, salts, and pH |
| Nephron | (none) | The kidney’s functional filtering unit; one kidney holds about a million |
| Glomerulus | (none) | Capillary tuft where filtration begins; sits in the renal cortex |
| Renal cortex & medulla | cortex; medulla | Cortex = pale outer band with glomeruli; medulla = inner striped pyramids |
| Ureter, bladder, urethra | (none) | Ureter carries urine kidney → bladder; urethra carries it out — different words, different jobs |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digestive tract & accessory organs | Cannot name the organs of the alimentary canal in order, or confuses them with accessory organs. | Names the major organs but cannot place the accessory organs (liver, gallbladder, pancreas) or their role. | Traces the alimentary canal from mouth to anus in order and places the accessory organs that feed into it. |
| Digestion & absorption | Treats digestion as one undifferentiated process. | Separates mechanical from chemical digestion but cannot say where each nutrient is absorbed. | Distinguishes mechanical from chemical digestion and identifies where nutrients are chiefly absorbed (small intestine) and water reclaimed (large intestine). |
| Kidney & nephron structure | Cannot identify cortex, medulla, or the parts of a nephron. | Labels the kidney’s gross regions but cannot order the nephron. | Identifies cortex, medulla, and pelvis and orders the nephron from glomerulus through collecting duct. |
| Urine formation & fluid balance | Thinks the kidney simply “makes urine” with no steps. | Names filtration but not reabsorption or the kidney’s role in water balance. | Explains filtration at the glomerulus and reabsorption along the tubule, and how the kidney regulates water and salt. |
| Lab technique (specimen / slide ID) | Cannot bring a slide into focus or identify a structure on a model. | Names a structure on a model or slide but cannot point to the features that justify the call. | Identifies a structure on a model, dissection, or prepared slide and defends the ID with two visible distinguishing features. |
| 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. |
Work down the criteria one at a time. Ask the student to defend the call rather than recall it — “how do you know that’s small intestine and not large?” The visible features are where Approaching and Mastered separate. Naming a structure is Approaching; pointing to the features that prove it — villi, cortex vs medulla — is Mastered.
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 | Digestive tract & accessory organs | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Digestion & absorption | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Kidney & nephron structure | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Urine formation & fluid balance | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (specimen / slide ID) | 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.