Cancer as loss of regulation; tumor types; diagnostic workflow.
Your PLTW coursework: Medical Interventions ▸ Unit 3: How to Conquer Cancer ▸ Lesson 3.1 Detecting Cancer ▸ "Activity 3.1.1 Who Is Affected by Cancer?"
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 - When Cells Forget the Rules: Cancer Launch
Use cell morphology images to tell benign from and describe the diagnostic that follows a suspicious finding.
- 1Open the labeled morphology packet in the PLTW course shell and read the image key before judging any slide.
- 2Set up the microscope, focus on the provided prepared slide, and sketch what a normal cell layer looks like.
- 3Compare your normal sketch to a image and circle two features that look out of place, such as crowding or odd .
- 4Label one image as benign and one as , writing one reason for each using the word .
- 5Match the terms and to a one-line description of what each does when it goes wrong.
- 6Draft one question for the Monday -screening debate about who should be screened and when.
- • You'll be able to tell benign from using cell features.
- • You'll be able to define and in your own words.
- • You'll be able to outline the steps of a basic diagnostic .
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
One CER on whether broad screening does more good than harm, plus a reflection naming one false-positive or cost counterargument.
Two-column morphology comparison (benign vs. ), one-line explanation, and a three-step diagnostic sketch.
Quick intro to the week
- Today launches Unit 3: is what happens when the cell cycle loses its brakes and growth runs wild.
- Goal for today: read images like a pathologist and capture a clean baseline of normal versus abnormal.
- Monday is our bioethics debate, and the question is screening: who should be tested, how often, and at what cost?
- Remember, all graded work, including your morphology packet and image baseline, lives in the PLTW course shell.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance the Unit 3 -launch benchmark by submitting your benign-versus- image baseline on the class site.
- • is a loss of normal growth regulation, and a is a mass of cells that can be benign or .
- • is the spread of cells to distant tissues.
- • Oncogenes push growth while suppressors normally hold growth in check.
- • Distinguish benign from using cell morphology.
- • Describe the diagnostic from suspicious finding to classification.
📋 Tracker evidence due this week: your labeled benign-versus- microscopy image baseline uploaded to the class site.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Fri, Nov 6 | Cancer screening debate | One CER on whether broad cancer screening does more good than harm, plus a reflection naming one false-positive or cost counterargument. |
| Monday | Mon, Nov 9 | Microscopy image baseline | Two-column morphology comparison (benign vs. malignant), one-line metastasis explanation, and a three-step diagnostic workflow sketch. |
- M: cancer screening debate + concept map
- T: diagnostic workflow ticket
- W–F: no school
Due by week's end: Short-week cancer launch checkpoint.
2 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.
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 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: Labeled morphology 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:
National Cancer Institute: What Is Cancer?Vocabulary
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 launch, , diagnosis by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-3_How-to-Conquer-Cancer/3.1_Detecting-Cancer; keywords:cancer, , biopsy. Score 146. 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 launch, , diagnosis by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-3_How-to-Conquer-Cancer/00_Unit-Overview; keywords:cancer, diagnosis, osteosarcoma. 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 launch, , diagnosis by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-3_How-to-Conquer-Cancer/3.1_Detecting-Cancer; keywords:cancer, osteosarcoma. Score 138. 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.