Microscopy image baseline
This page has four parts, in the order you use them. Part 1 is what you need to know. Part 2 says what to do, in plain English. Part 3 shows the work done once on a case that is not yours. Part 4 is your own work and where to turn it in.
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Use cell and tissue images to establish a baseline for normal versus abnormal morphology and a diagnostic workflow.
Optional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Part 1 of 4 · Background and definitions▸
💡 Big idea: cells lose their normal shape and break through boundaries, so a pathologist can read invasion and disorganization on a slide to judge whether a can metastasize and how dangerous it is.
- • Normal cells are uniform in size and shape and maintain orderly architecture; cells are pleomorphic with disorganized arrangement.
- • Benign tumors grow locally without invading surrounding ; tumors invade and can shed cells into the bloodstream or .
- • is the spread of cells from the primary site to a distant organ via blood or ; it is the leading cause of cancer mortality.
Tracing each step of a plan to ranked evidence, and naming what would overturn it, is what separates clinical reasoning from a confident guess.
cells lose their normal shape and break through boundaries, so a pathologist can read invasion and disorganization on a slide to judge whether a can metastasize and how dangerous it is.
Driving question: Given three unlabeled slides, one normal, one benign, and one with cells crossing the border, how do you decide which patient's is most likely to spread and kill?
What you already know: Tracing each step of a plan to ranked evidence, and naming what would overturn it, is what separates clinical reasoning from a confident guess.
New idea: cells lose their normal shape and break through boundaries, so a pathologist can read invasion and disorganization on a slide to judge whether a can metastasize and how dangerous it is.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in microscopy image baseline.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: Structure creates possibilities and limits for function.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: Given three unlabeled slides, one normal, one benign, and one with cells crossing the border, how do you decide which patient's is most likely to spread and kill?
What the evidence supports: E1 to E3 and the figure support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : A group of diseases in which abnormal cells grow and divide uncontrollably, ignoring normal signals and sometimes spreading to other parts of the body.
- • : An abnormal mass of formed when cells grow and divide more than they should, which may be benign or .
- • benign: Not harmful or not cancerous; a benign stays in one place and does not spread, and a benign gene variant does not cause disease.
- • : Describing a that grows aggressively, invades nearby , and can spread to distant parts of the body, making it cancerous and dangerous.
- • : The spread of cells from the original through blood or to form new tumors in distant parts of the body.
- • : A mutated or overactive gene that drives uncontrolled cell growth and can turn a normal cell into a cell.
- • : A gene whose normally slows cell division or triggers cell death, so losing it can let cells grow uncontrolled into .
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice. This is thinking practice for the one turn-in named under Turn in, not a second submission.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
Limit: The composite classroom case cannot support a real diagnosis, stage, prognosis, or treatment recommendation.
Structure creates possibilities and limits for function.
Limit: Living tissues adapt and interact with other systems; a metal tool does not.
You can tell normal from abnormal morphology.
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
Today's decision · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: medical interventions team member
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from microscopy image baseline supports before submitting the lab report named on today's page.
- • Wait on the step until stage and overall health are added, since one slide cannot set the treatment.
- • Rank the slide with cells crossing the border as most dangerous, because invasion is what lets spread.
- • Call every growing on the slides dangerous, since a lump that keeps growing can spread.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Use it inside the one turn-in named under Turn in; it is not a separate submission.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about microscopy image baseline. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from microscopy image baseline supports before submitting the lab report named on today's page.
Context: A pathologist reads in the itself. Normal cells are uniform and orderly, and the more a sample loses that order and starts invading, the more dangerous the cancer is, which is why a slide can drive a diagnosis and a .
- • T1: Open the labeled microscopy images your teacher projects (or the set posted in Schoology) and identify normal first.
- • T2: Compare a benign and a sample, noting differences in cell size, shape, and arrangement.
- • T3: Mark one image showing and explain in one line how it differs from a local .
- • T4: Sketch the diagnostic from image to classification in three steps.
- • T5: Submit your morphology comparison and sketch as your daily evidence.
- • E1: diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
- • E2: Structure creates possibilities and limits for function.
- • E3: You can tell normal from abnormal morphology.
Measurements: No patient measurement is supplied unless it appears explicitly in E1-E3 or F1. Do not invent a value.
Figure finding: Two side by side panels, one with uniform circles in orderly rows above a dashed tissue boundary and one with circles of varying sizes in irregular clumps, three of which cross the dashed boundary, above an empty three-row feature grid with rows cell size and shape, tissue arrangement and boundary and columns Panel 1 and Panel 2.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Students often think a is as soon as it grows, so any lump or growth must be dangerous and able to spread. The trap: that benign tumors grow too, but they stay inside their boundary and do not invade or spread. What makes a is invasion: cells breaking out of the and traveling through blood or . Growth alone is not the danger, crossing the border is.
- 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.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Microscopy image baseline. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Part 2 of 4 · Directions in plain English▸
2.1 Open your materials
Use the materials named in the first step below. Open lesson resources.
2.2 Start the work
Open the labeled microscopy images your teacher projects (or the set posted in Schoology) and identify normal tissue first.
Show all 5 required steps
- Open the labeled microscopy images your teacher projects (or the set posted in Schoology) and identify normal tissue first.
- Compare a benign and a malignant sample, noting differences in cell size, shape, and arrangement.
- Mark one image showing metastasis and explain in one line how it differs from a local tumor.
- Sketch the diagnostic workflow from image to tumor classification in three steps.
- Submit your morphology comparison and workflow sketch as your daily evidence.
Lost your place? Absent or interrupted? In the course shell, open the labeled microscopy images and start by identifying the normal tissue, then work the steps in order: benign vs malignant comparison noting size/shape/arrangement, mark the metastasis image and explain it in one line, sketch the three-step diagnostic workflow, submit your comparison and sketch. Resume at the first step you have not finished.
- 0-8Hook micrographs; establish normal as the baseline; review lab for image analysis
- 8-25Open labeled images; identify normal features; record cell size, shape, arrangement
- 25-45Compare benign vs. samples; record differences in two-column table
- 45-58Mark image; write one-line explanation of how it differs from local
- 58-72Sketch three-step diagnostic : image acquisition, classification, clinical report
- 72-80Submit morphology comparison and sketch; preview the trial-access debate next class
- • Hook: Show side-by-side micrographs of normal colon and colon adenocarcinoma; ask what differences students notice without being told which is which.
- • Why it matters: Pathologists read these images to classify tumors and guide treatment; the vocabulary you learn today is used in every diagnosis.
- • Today's work: You compare normal, benign, and images and build the three-step that connects the image to the clinical call.
- • Exit goal: Morphology comparison and sketch submitted before the bell.
PLTW connection and today's work
Open Activity 3.1.1 Who Is Affected by Cancer? in myPLTW, the activity that opens the unit, then use the labeled microscopy images your teacher projects to compare normal, benign, and malignant tissue.
Today's stopping point: Unit 3 opens today; morphology comparison and diagnostic workflow due today.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Course connection
- Activity 3.1.1 Who Is Affected by Cancer?
Use the turn-in directions in Part 4 of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
Need help? Choose a starting point
Part 3 of 4 · Worked example▸
This is a parallel case, not your own. Read it for the order of the work, then do your own in Part 4.
Practice pair, not your slides: two images of the same organ, one normal and one from a tumor.
Morphology comparison (benign vs. malignant), from what I saw in the practice pair:
- Cell size and shape: in the normal panel the nuclei are about the same size and round; in the tumor panel the nuclei vary about three-fold in size, some are angular, and two cells carry more than one nucleus (pleomorphism).
- Tissue arrangement: the normal panel keeps its layered architecture, cells lined up along a boundary; the tumor panel is clumps with no consistent orientation, the layering lost.
- Boundaries: the normal panel's tissue stops at a clean edge; in the tumor panel a finger of cells crosses that edge into the neighboring tissue (invasion).
Metastasis (one line): the practice metastasis image shows a clump of the tumor's cells sitting inside a distant organ's tissue, so cells left the original site through blood or lymph instead of staying put.
Diagnostic workflow (three steps):
1. Take a tissue sample (biopsy) and prepare it on a slide.
2. Examine the cells under the microscope for size, shape, arrangement and the tissue edge.
3. Classify the tumor as normal, benign, or malignant, and note any sign of invasion or spread.
How to use this: your images will not match these words. Write what you see in your own panels, the feature named and the observation beside it.
| Feature | Benign tissue | Malignant tissue |
|---|---|---|
| Cell size and shape | Uniform, alike | Pleomorphic, varied |
| Arrangement | Orderly architecture | Disorganized |
| Boundary | Stays local, clear edge | Invades surrounding tissue |
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: Completes the cancer-launch baseline task: a two-column comparison of benign versus malignant tissue morphology, a one-line metastasis explanation, and a three-step diagnostic workflow sketch.
- State the question and method.
- Present the observations and data with units.
- Explain the result, limitations, and next investigation.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Submit your morphology comparison and workflow sketch in Schoology before end of block.
A mechanic studies a tool whose shape allows one job but limits another.
- Which feature makes the tool work?
- What changes if that feature bends or breaks?
- Which observation shows function rather than appearance?
Structure creates possibilities and limits for function.
Living tissues adapt and interact with other systems; a metal tool does not.
- • Tool shape maps to .
- • The job maps to physiological function.
- • Damage maps to a predicted functional change.
Part 4 of 4 · Your work▸
Check your work before submitting
- You'll be able to tell normal from abnormal tissue morphology.
- You'll be able to outline a basic cancer diagnostic workflow.
Working rules for today
- All materials are image-based; no wet lab hazards today.
- Microscopy images are de-identified patient tissue samples; treat them as clinical data and do not photograph or share beyond the class.
- If using a light microscope to view prepared slides, follow school lab safety protocol: carry microscope with two hands, report broken slides to the teacher immediately.
4.1 Turn in your work
DueCheck the Schoology assignment for this day- Hand in
- Two-column morphology comparison (benign vs. malignant), one-line metastasis explanation, and a three-step diagnostic workflow sketch.
How to submit and name your file
Submit as one PDF in Schoology.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
PDF upload helpYou get two school days for every day you were absent, so this deadline moves with you.
Today's lesson is in Schoology
Each school day has one lesson page in Schoology that holds everything for the day: the goal, the story so far, every table and data value, the numbered steps, and what to turn in. Open it first and work from it. The other rows for this day, if any, are the score line for a paper quiz or test and the John Carroll debate item; they do not add work. Check Schoology for each deadline.
- Today's Lesson · Mon 11/16 · Wk13 · Microarray colors to ratios and log2, then the Pearson correlation for Mike(today's lesson page: the goal, the data, the steps, and what to turn in are all on it)
Link will not open? Open Schoology, choose your course and section, and find the title shown above.
- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Schoology attaches your name to your upload; on the page itself, write your period and code. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: Tracing each step of a plan to ranked evidence, and naming what would overturn it, is what separates clinical reasoning from a confident guess. Today: Malignant cells lose their normal shape and break through tissue boundaries, so a pathologist can read invasion and disorganization on a slide to judge whether a cancer can metastasize and how dangerous it is.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about microscopy image baseline. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
You examine two tumor samples. Both are growing. In sample A the cells stay neatly inside the tissue boundary. In sample B the cells are pleomorphic and some have crossed into surrounding tissue. Which sample is malignant, and what single feature told you?
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Optional practice for this unit's lab skills. Nothing in it is due today. This lesson has more than one, and they cover different skills.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
At home: read NCI's What Is page, then compare the labeled images posted in Schoology if you can open them; either way, write the three-row morphology table from what you can see and sketch the three-step diagnostic .
NCI: What Is Cancer?Submit as one PDF in Schoology.
Class still runs. Complete today's work as this page describes (it is self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
National Cancer Institute: What Is Cancer?The optional extra-credit track is open. Complete reserved-unit work from home, including virtual labs, for extra credit. Each item shows its correct submission route.
Open the extra-credit trackSources: slides, readings, and resources▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Play the cold open at the start of the unit to set the scene. Each recording is AI-generated and simulated (fictional callers, no real people or student data).
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.
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Sign in to Clever with your district Microsoft account to open Schoology or myPLTW. Follow today's posted steps. If myPLTW will not open, use the posted alternative and tell Mr. Mendoza. Turn in your completed work through the Schoology assignment.
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