Bacterial structure, antibiotic mechanisms, MIC, resistance, and stewardship.
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 - How antibiotics fight bacteria and why resistance is rising
Chart how antibiotics target bacterial structures and plan a disk diffusion test to estimate effectiveness.
- 1Label a bacterial cell diagram with the cell wall, membrane, and ribosome.
- 2Fill in a mechanism chart matching antibiotics to the structure each one attacks.
- 3Define bacteriostatic versus bactericidal in your own words on the chart.
- 4Plan a disk diffusion layout: where each antibiotic disk goes and how you will measure the zone of inhibition.
- 5Predict which disk will show the largest clear zone and write down your reasoning.
- 6Draft one claim-evidence-reasoning sentence about which treatment looks most effective.
- • You will be able to match antibiotics to the bacterial structures they target.
- • You will be able to plan a disk diffusion test and read zones of inhibition.
- • You will be able to write a CER about antibiotic effectiveness.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
Written CER on antibiotic stewardship: specific rule, evidence about resistance and patient need, reasoning, and rebuttal.
Two-class antibiotic mechanism comparison table (target structure, mechanism, why it spares human cells) plus a sentence explaining why antibiotics do not work on viruses.
Disk-diffusion data table: antibiotic name, zone of inhibition measurement (mm), and effectiveness ranking; plus one sentence connecting zone size to MIC.
Before-and-after resistance diagram, explanation of why completing a course helps, zone-data connection to resistance risk, two stewardship actions with biological rationale, and one connection sentence to Monday's debate.
Antibiotics report: claim citing zone measurements, reasoning connecting mechanism and data, resistance paragraph with zone-data connection, and evidence-based stewardship recommendation.
Quick intro to the week
- Hook: bacteria are evolving faster than we make new drugs, and your generation inherits that race.
- Today's goal: chart how antibiotics work and plan a test that measures whether a drug stops growth.
- This week's Monday bioethics debate is antibiotic stewardship, so think about who should ration these drugs.
- Reminder: your mechanism chart and treatment CER are graded in the PLTW course shell.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance the PLTW Unit 1 antibiotic-treatment benchmark in the online course shell with your mechanism chart and CER.
- • Antibiotics target specific bacterial structures such as the cell wall or ribosome.
- • Resistance can spread when bacteria share genes on plasmids.
- • Distinguish bacteriostatic from bactericidal action.
- • Interpret a zone of inhibition and relate it to MIC.
📋 PLTW tracker evidence due this week: antibiotic mechanism chart and a claim-evidence-reasoning treatment statement.
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 | Thu, Sep 24 | Bioethics debate: antibiotic stewardship | Written CER on antibiotic stewardship: specific rule, evidence about resistance and patient need, reasoning, and rebuttal. |
| Tuesday | Fri, Sep 25 | Antibiotic mechanisms | Two-class antibiotic mechanism comparison table (target structure, mechanism, why it spares human cells) plus a sentence explaining why antibiotics do not work on viruses. |
| Wednesday | Mon, Sep 28 | Disk diffusion and MIC lab | Disk-diffusion data table: antibiotic name, zone of inhibition measurement (mm), and effectiveness ranking; plus one sentence connecting zone size to MIC. |
| Thursday | Tue, Sep 29 | Resistance and stewardship | Before-and-after resistance diagram, explanation of why completing a course helps, zone-data connection to resistance risk, two stewardship actions with biological rationale, and one connection sentence to Monday's debate. |
| Friday | Wed, Sep 30 | Antibiotics report submission | Antibiotics report: claim citing zone measurements, reasoning connecting mechanism and data, resistance paragraph with zone-data connection, and evidence-based stewardship recommendation. |
- M: stewardship debate
- T: mechanism notes
- W: MIC / zone data
- Th: treatment choice
- F: CER quiz
Due by week's end: Antibiotic choice CER quiz.
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: Zone-of-inhibition image analysis.
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:
CDC Antibiotic ResistanceVocabulary
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 Antibiotic treatment, MIC, resistance by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-1_How-to-Fight-Infection/1.2_Antibiotic-Treatment; keywords:antibiotic, therapy. Score 142. 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 Antibiotic treatment, MIC, resistance by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-1_How-to-Fight-Infection/1.2_Antibiotic-Treatment; keywords:antibiotic, resistance. 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 Antibiotic treatment, MIC, resistance by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-1_How-to-Fight-Infection/1.2_Antibiotic-Treatment; keywords:antibiotic, resistance. Score 138. 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 6 here. Use a clear file name (your initials + project). Routine work still goes to Schoology (via the CMSD portal).
Upload a project