This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 01 at home — the 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 observing living things and giving evidence for what makes something alive.
By the end of this unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Comparing living and non-living things and what organisms need.
The student explains their reasoning aloud (Page 4 anchors).
A real record of observations, labeled sketches, and evidence.
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 observation and explain the biology 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Living, non-living & once-living | ||
| Living thing | organism; alive | Does all the life processes — one clue like “it moves” is not enough |
| Non-living | never alive | A rock or water was never alive — not the same as once-living |
| Once-living | dead; formerly alive | A fallen log or dry leaf was alive; still not “non-living” |
| Organism | a living thing | One complete living thing, from a bacterium to a bear |
| Traits all living things share | ||
| Uses energy | needs food or energy | Every living thing takes in energy — even a still seed |
| Grows | develops; gets bigger | Growth is part of being alive, not just getting taller |
| Responds | reacts | A reaction to the surroundings, not random movement |
| Reproduces | makes more of its kind | Making offspring, not just growing larger |
| Needs & response | ||
| Basic needs | food/energy, water, air, space | What a thing must have to live — not the same as wants |
| Stimulus | a change nearby | The trigger from the surroundings, not the reaction |
| Response | the reaction | How the organism reacts — and it usually helps it survive |
| Life processes | the jobs of living things | Using energy, growing, responding, reproducing — together, not one alone |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living, non-living & once-living | Sorts things as living or not by a single clue, like “it moves.” | Sorts most things correctly but is stumped by tricky cases like seeds or a fallen log. | Sorts living, once-living, and never-living things and backs up each call with more than one trait. |
| The traits all living things share | Can name one or two traits but leaves out most. | Lists the traits but can’t point them out in a real organism. | Names the shared traits — using energy, growing, responding, reproducing — and finds each one in a living thing they observe. |
| What living things need to survive | Thinks living things only need food. | Lists needs but mixes up needs (water, air, energy, space) with wants. | Explains what living things need and predicts what happens when one need is missing. |
| Stimulus & response | Doesn’t connect a change in the surroundings to how a living thing reacts. | Gives one example of a response but can’t explain why it helps the organism. | Identifies a stimulus and the response, and explains how reacting helps the living thing survive. |
| Lab technique (observing & recording) | Rushes the observation or writes down guesses instead of what is seen. | Observes carefully but records vaguely or skips the hand lens. | Uses a hand lens well, records clear observations in words and labeled sketches, and separates what they saw from what they think. |
| 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 give evidence rather than a guess — “how do you know the seed is alive?” The evidence (it uses energy, grows, responds, reproduces) is where Not yet and Mastered separate. A guess is Not yet; evidence you can point to 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 | Living, non-living & once-living | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | The traits all living things share | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | What living things need to survive | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Stimulus & response | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (observing & recording) | 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.