Resources · Mastery
Mastery rubrics.
One rubric per unit, plus the three demonstration rubrics. Every rubric uses the same three levels — Developing, Proficient, Mastery — 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 Mastery.
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
Oral lab-notebook defense
Standing behind your recorded methods, data, and reasoning out loud.