Data tables, graphical claims, variables, outliers, correlation vs causation.
Your PLTW coursework: Biomedical Innovation ▸ Problem 4: Investigating Environmental Health ▸ "Activity 4.1.3 Testing the Waters", "Project 4.1.4 Dose Response"
What to do if absent- CER:
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: make a claim, back it with evidence, explain your reasoning.
- SOP:
- Standard Operating Procedure, the exact steps to follow (especially in a lab).
- Tracker:
- Your PLTW progress log where you record completed evidence.
- myPLTW:
- The PLTW course site where you do the online activities. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Week overview - Reading the Data: graphs, trends, outliers, and correlation vs causation
Turn an environmental into a clear graph, describe the trend, flag outliers, and judge whether the data shows correlation or causation.
- 1Choose an environmental and identify the independent and dependent variables.
- 2Sketch axes with labels and units, then plot the points carefully.
- 3Describe the overall trend in one sentence (rising, falling, or flat).
- 4Circle any outlier and write one possible reason it does not fit the pattern.
- 5Write one claim your graph supports and add the words because the data shows.
- 6Decide whether your graph proves causation or only shows correlation, and explain why in a sentence.
- • You will be able to build a properly labeled graph from a .
- • You will be able to describe a trend and flag outliers.
- • You will be able to tell correlation apart from causation.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
Clean labeled plus a drafted graph with titled and scaled axes, outlier notes, and one trend sentence.
CER paragraph with a specific claim supported by cited graph data, reasoning linking evidence to claim, a correlation/causation classification with justification, and one alternative explanation.
Finalized claim graph package: labeled , graph with titled scaled axes, CER paragraph, data-source citations, and outlier notes.
Quick intro to the week
- Hook: the same data can tell the truth or mislead depending on how the graph is built.
- Today's goal: make an honest graph and defend exactly one claim it supports.
- Monday bioethics debate connects: is a misleading graph a lie even if every number is correct?
- Reminder: your graded graphing packet is submitted on the class site.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance your PLTW environmental problem by completing the data-analysis and graphical-claim section in the online course shell.
- • A graph must have labeled axes with units to support a claim.
- • Correlation between two variables does not prove one causes the other.
- • Build and label a graph from a .
- • Distinguish a correlation from a causal claim.
📋 PLTW evidence due: a labeled graph, a written trend description, and a correlation-versus-causation judgment in the course shell.
All PLTW activities are completed inside the PLTW course environment: this page only gives direction.
This week's PLTW tracker
Your week at a glance. Check off each deliverable as you finish it, then submit so Mr. Mendoza can see how the class is pacing.
Use the code Mr. Mendoza gave you, not your name. Saved on this device.
| Day | Date | Focus | Key deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | Tue, Apr 13 | Graph draft | Clean labeled data table plus a drafted graph with titled and scaled axes, outlier notes, and one trend sentence. |
| Thursday | Thu, Apr 15 | CER paragraph | CER paragraph with a specific claim supported by cited graph data, reasoning linking evidence to claim, a correlation/causation classification with justification, and one alternative explanation. |
| Friday | Fri, Apr 16 | Claim graph submit | Finalized claim graph package: labeled data table, graph with titled scaled axes, CER paragraph, data-source citations, and outlier notes. |
- M: no school
- T: no school
- W: graph draft
- Th: CER paragraph
- F: claim graph submit
Due by week's end: Environmental claim graph.
3 panels from the illustrated semester.
Fiction. There is no such student. The lessons, labs and dates are the real planned course; the student, the classmates and the conversations are invented.
What to do when absent
Most days, this class is your PLTW coursework: and PLTW is online and individual. So being out usually just means doing exactly what we did in class, from home.
Open Clever, then myPLTWHow to get there: open Clever and sign in with your Microsoft (district) account. Both myPLTW and Schoology are in Clever. Do the activity in myPLTW. Turn the work in on this site or hand it to Mr. Mendoza, because that is the step that counts as submitted. Schoology only shows your report-card grade later.
You can't do those from home: do this instead: Graphing packet.
Class still runs. A substitute will post today's plan: complete the online activity above; it's built to be self-guided. Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
Khan Academy StatisticsVocabulary
Teacher-posted resources
Classroom documents for this lesson are posted in Schoology. Open Clever, then Schoology, and find each one by the name shown on its card.
Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Environmental data graphing and analysis by path:Biomedical-Innovations/Problem-4_Environmental-Health/4.1_Environmental-Health; keywords:environmental. Score 134. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Environmental data graphing and analysis by path:Biomedical-Innovations/Problem-4_Environmental-Health/4.1_Environmental-Health; keywords:environmental. Score 130. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Environmental data graphing and analysis by path:Biomedical-Innovations/Problem-4_Environmental-Health/4.1_Environmental-Health; keywords:environmental. Score 130. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
How to get there: open Clever and sign in with your Microsoft (district) account. Both myPLTW and Schoology are in Clever. Do the activity in myPLTW. Turn the work in on this site or hand it to Mr. Mendoza, because that is the step that counts as submitted. Schoology only shows your report-card grade later.