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James's notes on Topic 35 — triage (2 October 2026)
Source: reviews/james/NOTES_G3T35_2026-10-02.md. Nine notes (the intro, L01–L06, the summary). None of this topic's videos exists, so every change is a text edit; nothing is committed.
In plain words
The intro says "every one has a backbone, so they are all vertebrates", "what type of animal is the bat, and what type is the frog", "these five animals", and asks "what features separate the animals into their groups?". "Backboned animal" is gone everywhere after the coining — the blurb, the lexicon, L06's title ("Place a vertebrate in its group"), forest, article, rule and script, the group key's title, the summary — with the one-line recap "A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone" on first reuse in L06 and in the summary. L03 has a zoo-keeper, says only "not a reptile" (no "a fish" yet), and adds a frog as a non-example. L04 says the salamander "was in the pond first, then moved onto the land. It is an amphibian." L05 describes gills before naming them. L06 has no invented game: the class is sorting animals into their groups, the river otter is the worked case, and the script says "Here are the five groups of vertebrates in a table. Now, let's sort different animals into their groups." The summary uses verbs and "vertebrate" throughout and asks "how do you sort animals into their groups?".
The table
| his note (verbatim) | action | where |
|---|---|---|
| "Five animals, and every one has a backbone --> add 'so they're all vertebrates'" | applied | content/G3T35.py intro beat 2 |
| "'So what type of animal is the bat, and what is the frog?' --> more specific" | applied: "So what type of animal is the bat, and what type is the frog?" | intro beat 4 |
| "these five what? these five animals --> … be specific" | applied: "Scientists put these five animals into five different groups." Vault: Say the specific thing, 2026-10-02 section | intro beat 5; vault |
| "So what's the giveaway? --> previously, you've coined the term features --> we should stick with that --> so, what features separate the animals into the different groups?" | applied: "So what features separate the animals into their groups?" (chip WHICH FEATURES?) | intro beat 5 |
| "backboned animals --> vertebrates --> general rule, once we've introduced the technical term, we should stick with it from therein, just providing a brief recap of the term on the first repeated use… ideally, we should have a recap question before the video here that checks they remember the term vertebrate" | applied: "vertebrate(s)" everywhere (blurb with the recap "which is an animal with a backbone"; lexicon; L06 title, forest, article, rule, script; the group key's title; summary) and the recap line at first reuse in L06 ("A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone.") and the summary. The recall before the intro video: the site has no slot before an intro video (the intro's attached item is the poll), so the recall sits at the top of L01's quiz — the existing opening recall item sharpened to "A horse has a backbone: a line of bones down the middle of its back. What is an animal with a backbone called?" (a vertebrate / an invertebrate). Vault: new 10 Rules/A coined term is used from then on, with a one-line recap on first reuse.md; lines in write-video-script and write-lesson | G3T35.py, G3T35_lessons.py, figures.py; vault |
| L01, L02: "nice example sequence :)" / "great example sequence" | no change | — |
| "Here's a keeper with a snake --> zoo-keeper -- keeper is too vague." | applied: headache, article (three lines), script, cartoon alt and brief | L03; figures.py |
| "'Not a reptile. A fish' -- use verbs - an eel is not a reptile, its a fish. … since we haven't introduced the term fish yet, you can just say its not a reptile for now" | applied: "So the eel is not a reptile." (article, forest, script); the salmon the same; "It is a fish" removed from both | L03 |
| "you could use some more compelling non-examples - e.g. a frog. … since we haven't introduced the term amphibian, you can just say its not a reptile" | applied: the frog added after the salmon in the article ("A jumper on the bank": smooth, wet skin; eggs in the water; "So the frog is not a reptile.") and in the script between the sea turtle and the lizard; new feature card fc_frog_rept (rendered and opened: the frog, two crosses, chip NOT A REPTILE) reusing L04's photo_frog | L03; figures.py |
| "'and a pond first.' what do you mean? use verbs --> and it was in the pond first, then moved onto the land. It's an amphibian" | applied: "A salamander has smooth, moist skin. It was in the pond first, then moved onto the land. It is an amphibian." | L04 script |
| "don't just say combs. say under the flap on each side of its head are little red features that look a bit like a comb. They are called gills." | applied: article "Under the flap on each side of its head are little red parts that look a bit like a comb. … These little red parts are called gills."; script the same; caption; terms["gills"] | L05; G3T35.py |
| "'A fish.' - no --> it is a fish. use a verb" | applied: every feature-card caption in the topic ends "It is a fish." / "It is not a reptile." etc. (26 captions); script "So it is a fish." | L01–L06 captions, L05 script |
| "don't invent non-existent games like this. just say they're trying to put different animals into their groups… start with: Here are the five groups of vertebrates in one table. Now, lets sort different animals into their groups..." | applied: headache "Jonquil's class is sorting animals into their five groups… Here is a river otter. It has fur, its mother fed it milk, and it swims in the river all day. 'A fish!' says someone."; article and script rebuilt on the otter; script beat 3–4 in your words; the mystery card figures become sort_otter / sort_otter_solved and class_sort_cartoon (the class sorting animal cards). Vault: No invented apparatus, agents or models in stems.md, second 2026-10-02 section (an invented game) | L06; figures.py; vault |
| summary: "use verbs … use the coined term vertebrate throughout … 'And the sort.' nonsense --> now, how do you sort animals into their groups?" | applied: "Finally, how do you sort animals into their groups? A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone. To place a vertebrate in its group, look at its features, not where it lives or how it moves." / "A river otter swims all day, but it has fur, so it is a mammal."; opener "Here's everything we found out about the five vertebrate groups." | G3T35.py summary |
Judgements
- Word counts: intro 119 (3 question marks); L03 150 (the eel, sea turtle and lizard beats shortened to make room for the frog; "So, here's what we've seen" dropped); L04 146; L05 151 by my count, 150 by the checker's; L06 150; summary 171.
- Topic 33 now says "gills" before this topic coins it (your Topic 33 note); L05's coining by look still stands. Flagged on the Topic 33 record.
- Checker: 0 FAIL, 75 WARN. Names tool: no new names (Jonquil kept). Page rebuilt.