Domain: Natural Science — Microbiology
Target concept: Time-lapse photography of white mycelium spreading on agar in a petri dish

Video generation prompt: Time-lapse footage captured from directly above of a petri dish with a small white fungal culture inoculated at its center, filmed continuously over several seconds.

Evaluation guide:
(i) Target concept: Radial, apical hyphal growth from a centralized fungal inoculum on solid agar medium.
Minimum mechanism: Fungal cells must be viable and metabolically active; agar must remain solid and non-drying; no external disturbance or contamination; growth requires no external intervention beyond initial inoculation.
(ii)Storyline: Frame 0–1s: Static overhead view showing empty petri dish with pale agar surface and a small, compact, white central inoculum. Frame 1–4s: First visible hyphal tips emerge radially from inoculum periphery; filaments are thin, white, and begin branching. Frame 4–7s: Hyphae extend further outward in all directions, increasing coverage area; branching intensifies; inoculum remains distinct but surrounded by expanding network. Frame 7–10s: Hyphal network visibly covers significantly more agar surface than at start; growth remains continuous, symmetric, and confined to agar plane; no retraction, discoloration, or structural collapse. Perspective constraint: Strictly overhead, fixed, no occlusion, no parallax; all events occur within single planar view of agar surface.

Manual:
Experimental Procedure
1. Place sterile petri dish containing solidified nutrient agar on stable surface.
2. Inoculate single small white fungal colony at exact center of agar surface.
3. Position camera directly overhead with fixed focus and exposure.
4. Capture time-lapse video for 10 seconds, capturing gradual outward spread of white hyphae.
Observation of Experimental Phenomena
White filamentous hyphae emerge from central fungal colony and spread radially outward, progressively covering more of the pale agar surface while maintaining uniform white color and branching morphology.
Summary of Experimental Principles
Fungal mycelium grows via apical extension of hyphae; in nutrient-rich agar, hyphae extend directionally from inoculation site, forming a circular expanding colony. Time-lapse imaging captures this slow, continuous, radial growth pattern.

Prompt Grounding rubric:
level_1: No petri dish is visible, no white culture appears at the center, no agar surface is shown, or the camera view is not from directly overhead; no outward-spreading motion of any kind is observed from a central object.
level_2: A petri dish is visible, but it is off-center in the frame or poorly cropped; the white culture is not positioned at the center of the dish; the agar surface is largely obscured or indistinct; or the camera angle is tilted rather than overhead; no clear outward-spread sequence is discernible.
level_3: The petri dish is centered and fully within frame; a white culture sits at the center of the agar; the agar surface is visible as a pale, roughly uniform background; the camera view is overhead; some outward growth from the culture is visible over time, but the expansion is jerky, one-sided, or stalls partway rather than steadily increasing in coverage.
level_4: The petri dish is centered, fully visible, and framed consistently; the white culture remains at the center throughout; the agar surface stays visible and pale behind the growth; the camera view is steadily overhead; growth expands outward from the culture in a roughly radial, continuous manner, covering more agar over time, with only a minor spatial hiccup, such as one side extending slightly faster than the rest.
level_5: The petri dish is centered, fully visible, with a crisp circular rim; the white culture starts compact at the exact center; the agar surface stays uniformly pale and fully visible around the growth; the camera view is fixed directly overhead for the whole clip; growth expands outward from the center in a smooth, roughly radial pattern that visibly covers progressively more of the agar surface by the end of the clip, with no sudden jump in coverage and no asymmetric stalling on one side.

Scientific and Causal Correctness rubric:
level_1: The growth emerging from the center is not white, filamentous hyphae; e.g., it looks liquid, granular, or colored (yellowing or browning), or resembles a non-fungal contaminant such as a bacterial smear or condensation; the growth's direction shows no relationship to a central fungal source.
level_2: The central growth is fungal-colored, but its spread lacks any filamentous or hyphal texture; e.g., it expands as a smooth uniform blob or isotropic stain rather than threadlike strands; no branching structure is visible anywhere in the growth.
level_3: The growth visible around the culture is thin and filamentous, consistent with hyphae, and originates only from the central culture, but the strands show inconsistent morphology, such as clumping into blobs, blurring together, or lacking any branching points, rather than forming a clean network of individual filaments.
level_4: The growth is composed of thin white filaments that branch outward from the central culture in a treelike hyphal network, staying white and fibrous throughout, with at most one small morphological inconsistency, such as a short segment that fails to branch or a localized patch that looks slightly denser than its surroundings.
level_5: The growth is composed exclusively of thin white filaments that branch repeatedly outward from the central culture, forming a hyphal network with no color shift, no pigmentation, no fruiting-body-like structures, and no non-fungal texture anywhere; branching is visible in multiple directions and the network's density increases gradually and evenly as it spreads, consistent with apical hyphal extension.

Spatiotemporal Consistency rubric:
level_1: The petri dish disappears and then reappears, the culture suddenly jumps to a new position, the whole scene jumps in scale, lighting or shadows change abruptly between moments, the agar surface visibly warps or cracks, or the motion freezes and then jumps forward in time.
level_2: The petri dish stays present but shifts position or rotates during the clip; the culture visibly moves away from center; the agar's brightness changes abruptly at some point; hyphae strands appear or vanish inconsistently between moments rather than growing continuously; the motion is stuttery, with several visible skips or drops.
level_3: The petri dish stays fixed in position and orientation; the culture stays at the center; agar brightness stays steady; hyphae grow continuously with no strand disappearing or teleporting; the motion looks smooth overall, but one small inconsistency is visible, such as a brief flicker in brightness at one point, or a slight shimmer along a growth edge that does not break the overall continuity.
level_4: The petri dish stays fixed, centered, and undistorted for the whole clip; the culture shows no visible drift from center; agar brightness and flatness stay uniform; hyphae expand continuously with no strand popping in or out of existence; the motion looks smooth and steady throughout, with at most one small artifact, such as a brief, barely noticeable flicker along a growth edge that doesn't interrupt the overall sense of continuous growth.
level_5: The petri dish stays perfectly fixed in position, scale, and orientation for the entire clip; the culture shows no visible drift from the center at any point; agar brightness, texture, and reflections stay constant throughout; hyphae grow with continuously visible, intact structure and no strand ever flickers, drops out, or warps; the whole clip reads as one smooth, steady, continuous shot with no lighting changes or viewpoint shifts.