For students and families
You were handed a calendar, a story and a comic for the same course. They are not three versions of the same thing and they are not extra reading. Each one answers a different question, and they all sit on the same set of dates.
The same thing on paper. Print either one, or keep it on a phone for when there is no signal.
Three documents tell you what to do. Four places are where it lives. Mixing them up is the single most common way work goes missing.
The project-based curriculum lives here. You complete the PLTW activity itself in myPLTW. Reach it through Clever with your district Microsoft sign-in.
This is the step that counts as submitted. Use the one route named under Submit here. A digital item uses that page's form; a physical item is handed to Mr. Mendoza only when the page names that route. Doing the activity in myPLTW is not the same as turning it in.
Every file you turn in lands in Mr. Mendoza's district OneDrive automatically. You never have to navigate there, and no one else in your class can see it. He downloads from it to grade.
Schoology carries your report-card grade and nothing else. You read it. You never submit there. An empty Schoology assignment list does not mean your work was lost.
Done and submitted are different. Clever is the single sign-on door to Microsoft, myPLTW and Schoology. It is how you get in, not a place work goes.
Call the file whatever you like. The form records who you are and which assignment it is, and it renames the file for me when you attach it. Answer the Assignment box carefully instead: that is the answer that decides where your work lands, and it is the one you can fix before you press submit.
What is due, and where does it go?
It will not tell you why a lesson matters.
What will this actually feel like?
It is fiction. No real student appears in it.
What does the room look like?
It is not a substitute for the lab itself.
One spine holds all three. Every date in the story and every panel in the comic is generated from the same schedule that prints the calendar. If a date moves, all three move together. That is why you can open any one of them and land on the same day.
Where to read them. The story is on this site, and each day's part of it also appears on that day's own page. The calendar and the comic The calendar is here as the where-work-goes view: folders, night-before and weekend chips. Topics live on each day's own page. The comic is the printed copy you were handed.
One or two sentences at the end of a block, showing you can state the day's point.
Cornell pages, at-home prep notes, and anything that belongs in your notebook.
Trackers, contracts, pretests, goal setting, and other records of the course.
The numbers you took, laid out so someone else could read them.
The full write-up of a lab you ran at the bench.
A CER: your claim, the evidence for it, and why the evidence supports it.
These are the real ways work goes missing. If one of them is you, the fix is in the same line.
Finishing the activity in myPLTW is step 1. It is not turned in until you use the route named under Submit here. Done and submitted are different.
That is fine. The file name is not read. The form renames your upload when you attach it, and I file it from your answers, so call it whatever you like.
A physical handoff counts when the day page names that route. Ask me to confirm it in the same block. If you want your own record, photograph it before you hand it over.
Schoology only shows report-card grades. Nothing is submitted there, so an empty list there says nothing about whether I have your work.
The form only accepts the district account. If it asks you to request access or will not let you attach a file, you are on the wrong account. Sign out and use your school one.
Night-before and weekend work is assigned, not optional, and it goes to a named folder like anything else. The calendar prints which folder.
Wait for the thank-you page before you close the tab: the one that says your response was submitted. That is the confirmation. You will never see a list of what was turned in, and neither will anyone else in your class.
It still reaches me, it just lands in the wrong drawer. Send it again with the right type: a second response is expected and both are kept, newest last.
You do not need to know the biology to be useful here. Open the calendar to this week and ask three questions.
Every point is written down before the semester starts. The whole course is 1,000 points, split the same way in all four courses.
A framework given before new material helps you file it as it arrives. That is the calendar's job, and why it is handed out on day one rather than in week six.
Advance organizers, Ausubel 1960
People learn more from words and images than from words alone, when the two are about the same thing at the same time. That is the comic, panel-matched to the day.
Dual coding, Paivio; multimedia principle, Mayer
Of ten common study techniques reviewed, spacing practice over time and testing yourself rated highest for real learning. Hence nightly minutes instead of cramming, and an exit ticket every Monday.
Dunlosky et al. 2013
Narrative is generally recalled better than the same content written as explanation. The story is a worked example of a good week, mistakes included, not a pep talk.
Narrative recall, Graesser and colleagues
Ohio uses one title, the District another, Project Lead The Way a third, and the WebXam a fourth. The PLTW name is printed alongside every course on this site, because that is the name inside myPLTW where you do the work.
| On this site | Project Lead The Way | Ohio WebXam assessment | Code | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principles of Biomedical Technology (PBT) | Principles of Biomedical Science (PBS) | Principles and Practice of Biomedical Technology | 072110 | confirmed |
| Human Anatomy & Physiology (HAP) | Human Body Systems (HBS) | Human Anatomy and Physiology | 072040 | indicated |
| Genetics of Disease (GenD) | Medical Interventions (MI) | Genetics of Disease | 072130 | confirmed |
| Biotechnology for Health (BFH) | Biomedical Innovations (BI) | Biotechnology for Health and Disease | 072125 | indicated |
Where a row reads indicated rather than confirmed, the assessment matches by title and blueprint but district confirmation is still outstanding. It is shown that way on purpose rather than rounded up.
Read the story and the comic as fiction. The lessons, labs and dates in them are the real planned course. The student, the classmates and the conversations are invented. Partner activities such as the Cleveland Clinic rotation, the John Carroll ethics Mondays, the research morning and HOSA are what we are planning, not what is confirmed. Treat every partner activity as an intention, not a promise.
