Plasmids, restriction enzymes, ligase, transformation, protein expression.
Your PLTW coursework: Medical Interventions ▸ Unit 4: How to Prevail When Organs Fail ▸ Lesson 4.1 Manufacturing Human Proteins ▸ "Activity 4.1.2 Protein Factories"
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 - Building a Gene Factory: Cloning Basics
Use restriction enzymes, , and steps to plan how a gene is cloned into a and expressed.
- 1Open the virtual cloning task in the PLTW course shell and read the map before you start cutting.
- 2Put on goggles and gloves, then set up your cloning workstation with the provided and insert models.
- 3Use the restriction- step to cut both the and the gene insert at matching sites.
- 4Use to join the insert into the and write one sentence on what ligase actually does.
- 5Model by moving your recombinant into the host cell and note how you would select successful cells.
- 6Predict whether the gene will be expressed and write one line of evidence using the word expression.
- • You'll be able to describe how restriction enzymes and build .
- • You'll be able to explain what does in cloning.
- • You'll be able to predict from a cloning plan.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
Written final stance on engineered- access and pricing, plus a one-sentence rebuttal to the opposing strongest argument.
Labeled cloning-tools diagram showing cuts, sticky ends, gene , and sealing to form .
Cloning and recording results, selection counts, fraction data, yield, and a quality observation.
Annotated notes tracing and of the inserted gene, two yield-affecting conditions, and one piece of expression evidence from sample data.
Completed cloning quiz using , , , and expression vocabulary with correctly ordered workflow steps.
Quick intro to the week
- Today matters because cloning a gene is how labs make , vaccines, and the proteins that save lives.
- Goal for today: run the cloning from cut to and predict whether your gene will express.
- Tie back to Monday's allocation debate by asking who benefits when a can be mass-produced cheaply.
- Upload your cloning and prediction to the class site, where the grade is recorded.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance the Unit 4 cloning benchmark by submitting your completed cloning and expression prediction on the class site.
- • Restriction enzymes cut DNA at specific sites so an insert and can join.
- • seals the insert into the to form .
- • moves the recombinant into a host cell for expression.
- • Sequence the steps of cloning a gene into a .
- • Predict whether a cloned gene will be expressed.
📋 Tracker evidence due this week: your completed virtual cloning and expression prediction posted in the PLTW 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, Nov 23 | Engineered-protein debate | Written final stance on engineered-protein access and pricing, plus a one-sentence rebuttal to the opposing strongest argument. |
| Tuesday | Tue, Nov 24 | Plasmids and enzymes | Labeled cloning-tools diagram showing restriction enzyme cuts, sticky ends, gene insertion, and ligase sealing to form recombinant DNA. |
| Monday | Mon, Nov 30 | Cloning and purification workflow | Cloning and purification workflow data table recording transformation results, selection counts, fraction data, yield, and a quality observation. |
| Thursday | - | Protein expression | Annotated notes tracing transcription and translation of the inserted gene, two yield-affecting conditions, and one piece of expression evidence from sample data. |
| Friday | - | Cloning workflow quiz | Completed cloning workflow quiz using plasmid, ligase, transformation, and expression vocabulary with correctly ordered workflow steps. |
- M: engineered protein debate
- T: recombinant DNA flow
- W: shortened-day cloning check
- Th: expression notes
- F: workflow quiz
Due by week's end: Cloning workflow quiz.
5 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: Virtual cloning.
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:
Genetic Science Learning Center: CloningVocabulary
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.
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched and cloning by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-4_When-Organs-Fail/4.1_Manufacturing-Human-Proteins; keywords:, pglo. 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 and cloning by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-4_When-Organs-Fail/4.1_Manufacturing-Human-Proteins; keywords:, pglo. Score 138. 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 and cloning by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-4_When-Organs-Fail/4.1_Manufacturing-Human-Proteins; keywords:, pglo. 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.