Resources · Mastery
Mastery rubrics.
One rubric per unit, plus the three demonstration rubrics. Every rubric uses the same three levels — Not yet, Approaching, Mastered — so the bar is identical for every student.
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How the rubrics work
The grading philosophy behind every rubric — decisions not points, a vocabulary published in advance, three tokens that absorb a bad day, and how unit mastery becomes a letter grade.
Unit rubrics
A mastery rubric for each of the eight units. Each one names exactly what a student must be able to do — not how many points they earned — to reach Mastered.
Unit 01
What Is an Animal?
The traits that define animals, the levels of classification, symmetry, and reading a dichotomous key.
Unit 02
Sponges, Cnidarians & Worms
The simplest animal body plans: sponges, radial cnidarians, and the first worms with true tissues and symmetry.
Unit 03
Mollusks & Arthropods
Soft-bodied mollusks and the jointed-legged arthropods — the largest, most varied group of animals.
Unit 04
Echinoderms & the Chordate Transition
Spiny-skinned echinoderms and the step across to the chordates, our own phylum.
Unit 05
Fish & Amphibians
The first vertebrates: fish in water and the amphibians that made the partial move to land.
Unit 06
Reptiles & Birds
The amniotic egg, reptile ectothermy, and birds as feathered, flight-adapted dinosaurs.
Unit 07
Mammals
Hair, mammary glands, endothermy, and the three groups — monotremes, marsupials, and placentals.
Unit 08
Animal Behavior & Ecology
Innate and learned behavior, ethograms and signaling, and ecology — niches, food webs, and populations.
Demonstration rubrics
The three live demonstrations a student defends in person. These are the AI-proof assessments — you can't paste your way through any of them.
Demonstration
Specimen-and-adaptation defense
Naming a specimen's structures and adaptations and defending how each fits its way of life.
Demonstration
Timed classification challenge
Keying out and classifying unfamiliar animals from observable traits, against the clock.
Demonstration
Lab-notebook defense
Standing behind your recorded methods, data, and reasoning out loud.