Use these targets, vocabulary, rubrics, examples, and score sheet with the instructor's approved lesson and procedure. This is an assessment companion, not a complete lesson or safety authorization.
Student lessons, data, and worked answers: Unit 02 learning pathway.
The student demonstrates the following:
Five science criteria plus separately reported integration (Page 3).
Annotate approved images; analyze supplied geometry. No live feeding or stimulus trials.
The student explains the body plan behind what they see (Page 4).
Observations, sketches, and responses kept distinct.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both analyze the approved evidence and justify the model and its limits. Each student has three tokens per term; each token retries one rubric criterion. Approved accommodations, equipment failures, and approved absences are handled separately and do not consume these tokens.
Accept listed synonyms; use the distinction column to resolve near-matches.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| Sponges & cnidarians | ||
| Sponge | poriferan; filter feeder | An animal with no true tissues; not a plant |
| Nematocyst | stinging capsule | A capsule within a cnidocyte, not the whole cell |
| Radial symmetry | body parts around a center | No head end; a hydra, jellyfish, or anemone |
| Cnidarian | hydra / jellyfish / anemone / coral | United by radial symmetry and nematocysts |
| Body forms & worms | ||
| Polyp | anchored, tube-shaped form | The attached stage — a hydra or coral polyp |
| Medusa | free-swimming, bell-shaped form | The drifting stage — a jellyfish |
| Bilateral symmetry | mirror-image left and right halves | Comes with a head end and a front and back |
| Cephalization | anterior concentration of sensory/nervous structures | Not the origin of all nervous tissue; cnidarians have nerve nets |
| Surface-area/volume ratio | A/V, mm^-1 for this model | More total surface need not mean more surface per volume |
| Criterion | Developing | Proficient | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponges & filter feeding | Thinks a sponge is a plant or names no defining trait. | Calls a sponge an animal but cannot say how it feeds or that it lacks true tissues. | Explains that a sponge is an animal with no true tissues that filters food from water pulled through its pores. |
| Cnidarians, symmetry & nematocysts | Cannot name a trait that unites hydra, jellyfish, and anemones. | Groups cnidarians together but misses radial symmetry or the stinging cells. | Identifies cnidarians by radial symmetry and nematocysts and explains how the stinging cells capture prey. |
| Polyp & medusa forms | Treats every cnidarian as one fixed shape. | Names the forms but assumes every cnidarian alternates between both. | Distinguishes polyp and medusa forms with sourced examples and recognizes that not every cnidarian has both stages. |
| Worms, bilateral symmetry & cephalization | Treats wormlike shape as a single lineage or a rank. | Identifies bilateral form but overlooks cnidarian nervous tissue. | Compares flat, round and segmented worms; explains cephalization alongside cnidarian nerve nets without placing living groups on a ladder. |
| Observation & exchange-model reasoning | Invents observations or confuses area and volume. | Annotates a source figure but needs help normalizing the geometric model. | Independently calculates surface-area-to-volume ratios and diffusion-distance comparisons, labels units, annotates an approved figure and limits a fresh scale-factor prediction. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Makes no supported connection between the source and the science. | Uses the source but needs help connecting evidence, writing, or limitations to the science. | Independently connects History, Reading, and Writing using a cited source, appropriate evidence, a limitation, and a scientific explanation. |
The split between Proficient and Mastery is body plan explains behavior: not just naming radial or bilateral, but using it to say why a hydra drifts food into its tentacles while a planarian moves toward food with a real head end. Ask “so what does that body plan let it do?”
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastery and Developing actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sponges & filter feeding | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 2 | Cnidarians, symmetry & nematocysts | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 3 | Polyp & medusa forms | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 4 | Worms, bilateral symmetry & cephalization | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 5 | Observation & exchange-model reasoning | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | Dev / Prof / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________
Tokens left this term after this session (choose one): ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ None left
Dev = Developing · Prof = Proficient · Mast = Mastery · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.