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 modeling a marine-mammal adaptation and reading how it helps a lung-breather at sea.
By the end of the Marine Reptiles, Birds & Mammals unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Model an adaptation; measure how it helps a lung-breather in the sea.
The student reasons from the measurements aloud (Page 4).
Adaptation modeled, measurement, and conclusion 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 run the investigation and explain the diving and thermoregulation 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Classification | ||
| Marine tetrapod | air-breathing sea vertebrate | Four-limbed land-ancestor lineage returned to the sea; breathes air, not water |
| Marine mammal | whale / dolphin / seal group | Warm-blooded, breathes with lungs, nurses young — not a fish |
| Cetacean | whales & dolphins | Fully aquatic marine mammals; forelimbs are flippers, not fins |
| Baleen | keratin filter plates | Filter-feeding plates; baleen whales have no teeth |
| Diving & staying warm | ||
| Blubber | insulating fat layer | Holds body heat and stores energy — more than just “fat” |
| Bradycardia | slowed dive heart rate | Heart rate drops on a dive to stretch the oxygen supply |
| Oxygen storage | myoglobin / blood O₂ store | Muscle and blood bank O₂ for long breath-hold dives, not bigger lungs |
| Thermoregulation | holding a stable body temperature | Warm-blooded animals stay warm in cold seas — mainly via blubber |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air-breathing marine tetrapods | Groups every large sea animal as “fish.” | Names some marine tetrapods but cannot say what unites them. | Sorts the air-breathing marine tetrapods and explains each breathes air and descends from land ancestors. |
| Mammals, not fish | Calls whales and dolphins fish. | Says whales are mammals but cannot give reasons. | Identifies whales, dolphins, and seals as mammals — lungs, warm-blooded, nurse young. |
| Diving adaptations | Cannot say how a mammal survives a deep dive. | Names one diving adaptation but not how it helps. | Explains blubber, oxygen storage, bradycardia, and pressure tolerance, and how each extends a dive. |
| Thermoregulation, feeding & migration | Assumes warm-blooded animals cannot live in cold seas. | Names blubber or a feeding mode but muddles the details. | Explains how blubber holds heat, contrasts baleen filter-feeding with toothed hunting, and links migration to feeding and breeding. |
| Lab technique (adaptation analysis) | Skips the measurement or records no result. | Runs the model but reads it carelessly. | Runs a clean marine-mammal adaptation analysis, measured and recorded with units, tied back to the animal. |
| 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 measure and explain: reading the model carefully and tying the result to the animal’s biology. Ask “how does this adaptation help a lung-breather in the sea?”
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 | Air-breathing marine tetrapods | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Mammals, not fish | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Diving adaptations | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Thermoregulation, feeding & migration | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (adaptation analysis) | 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.