Design brief, floor plan logic, staffing, process flow, safety, and human factors.
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 — you open it through Schoology.
Week overview - Prototyping the ER: floor plans, process flow, and human factors
Use CAD or modeling tools to draft an ER floor plan that supports efficient process flow, safe staffing, and good human factors.
- 1Write a one-line design brief stating who your ER serves and the top problem it solves.
- 2Open the CAD or modeling tool and place the major ER zones: triage, treatment, and waiting.
- 3Draw the path a patient takes between zones and check it for backtracking.
- 4Mark where staff stand so they can see and reach patients, addressing human factors.
- 5Add at least one safety feature, such as a clear path to an exit or to equipment.
- 6Save and export your floor plan, then write one sentence defending a layout choice.
- • You will be able to draft an ER floor plan in a modeling tool.
- • You will be able to lay out zones to support efficient process flow.
- • You will be able to justify a layout choice using human factors.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
CER contribution on an ER layout ethics tradeoff (e.g., privacy versus visibility), plus two questions and a reflection connecting the ethics to a prototype decision.
Design brief with one-sentence problem statement, measurable criteria, real constraints (space, staffing, budget, safety codes), and a prototype success definition.
CAD or scale floor-plan model with labeled triage zone, treatment areas, corridors, and patient-flow path, verified against design brief constraints.
Patient-flow process flowchart using standard symbols, annotated with one human-factors principle, and verified against the Wednesday floor plan.
Prototype revision log: accepted changes tied to criteria or evidence, and at least one rejected alternative with reasoning.
Quick intro to the week
- Hook: where you put a door can save a life, because seconds and sightlines matter in an emergency.
- Today's goal: turn your research into a real floor plan that a nurse could actually work in.
- Monday's bioethics debate on ER ethics carries in: a layout decides who is seen and how fast.
- Reminder: your graded floor plan and design brief live in the PLTW course shell.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance PLTW Problem 1 by drafting and uploading your ER floor-plan prototype in the online course shell.
- • Process flow describes how people and work move through a space.
- • Human factors design fits a system to the people who use it.
- • Lay out zones to reduce patient backtracking.
- • Justify a staffing or layout choice with human-factors reasoning.
📋 PLTW evidence due: ER floor-plan prototype and one-line design brief uploaded to the Problem 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Mon, Feb 8 | ER-ethics debate | CER contribution on an ER layout ethics tradeoff (e.g., privacy versus visibility), plus two questions and a reflection connecting the ethics to a prototype decision. |
| Tuesday | Tue, Feb 9 | Design brief | Design brief with one-sentence problem statement, measurable criteria, real constraints (space, staffing, budget, safety codes), and a prototype success definition. |
| Wednesday | Wed, Feb 10 | CAD floor plan modeling | CAD or scale floor-plan model with labeled triage zone, treatment areas, corridors, and patient-flow path, verified against design brief constraints. |
| Thursday | Thu, Feb 11 | Process flowchart | Patient-flow process flowchart using standard symbols, annotated with one human-factors principle, and verified against the Wednesday floor plan. |
| Friday | Tue, Feb 16 | Prototype revision log | Prototype revision log: accepted changes tied to criteria or evidence, and at least one rejected alternative with reasoning. |
- M: ER ethics debate
- T: design brief
- W: floor plan
- Th: flowchart
- F: prototype revision log
Due by week's end: Draft floor plan, flowchart, revision log.
Lab day — what to bring & watch
This explainer accompanies the PLTW lab protocol — watch it before lab.
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 Schoology (CMSD) and keep goingHow to get there: open the CMSD website, click Clever, sign in with your Microsoft (district) account, then open Schoology from Clever.
You can't do those from home — do this instead: Paper/digital floor plan.
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:
NGSS Engineering DesignVocabulary
Virtual resources
Teacher-posted resources
Classroom documents for this lesson. Ones marked “Open the file” open right here; the rest are posted in Schoology. Use the label on each card to choose the right move.
Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Prototype planning and project management by path:Biomedical-Innovations/Problem-1_Emergency-Room/1.1_Emergency-Room; keywords:gantt, project management. Score 142. 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 Prototype planning and project management by path:Biomedical-Innovations/Problem-1_Emergency-Room/00_Problem-Overview; keywords:gantt, design. Score 134. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Prototype planning and project management by path:Biomedical-Innovations/Problem-1_Emergency-Room/1.1_Emergency-Room; keywords:design. Score 134. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
How to get there: open the CMSD website, click Clever, sign in with your Microsoft (district) account, then open Schoology from Clever.
Standards this week
WebXam practice
Drop your Week 4 here. Use a clear file name (your initials + project). Routine work still goes to Schoology (via the CMSD portal).
Upload a project