Semester 1 (Fall) · Week 7 (teaching week 7 of 17)Oct 5–8

Aseptic technique, culturing, selection, resistance genes, and data reliability.

Your PLTW coursework: Medical InterventionsUnit 1: How to Fight Infection ▸ Lesson 1.2 Antibiotic Treatment ▸ "Project 1.2.3 Attack of the Superbugs", "Activity 1.2.4 When Antibiotics Fail"

What to do if absent
Color keyLearn firstGet orientedDo the workLab daySafety netCheck yourself
Portal terms
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.
Learn first

Week overview - Growing the evidence: aseptic culturing and superbug data

Oct 5–8

Use to bacteria and analyze a superbug to evaluate how resistance is selected.

Week arc
  1. 1Review steps and identify two ways could ruin your plate.
  2. 2Streak or inoculate your (or run the simulation) using clean, moves.
  3. 3Label your plate with date, sample, and your initials before .
  4. 4Open the superbug and find which colonies survived after exposure.
  5. 5Identify evidence of or in the dataset.
  6. 6Write one sentence judging whether the data are reliable and what could improve them.
By week end
  • You will be able to apply when culturing bacteria.
  • You will be able to read a resistance dataset for evidence of selection.
  • You will be able to evaluate the reliability of data.
The plan

Daily lessons this week

Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.

MondayMon, Oct 5
Culturing and colony data lab

: colony count, size estimate, color, shape, edge type for target colonies; separate tally for colonies.

TuesdayTue, Oct 6
Mutation, HGT, and superbugs

HGT mechanism definitions, conjugation diagram with labeled parts, multi-resistance explanation, -data application scenario, and linking sentence connecting culturing to resistance to stewardship.

WednesdayWed, Oct 7
Cochlear implant debate

One CER (claim, two evidences, reasoning) on cochlear implant ethics plus a three-sentence reflection.

ThursdayThu, Oct 8
Audiogram interpretation

Labeled with threshold plots, speech banana marked, and one-sentence severity classification.

Get oriented

Quick intro to the week

  • Hook: a single careless touch can contaminate a plate, just like one careless habit can breed a superbug.
  • Today's goal: bacteria cleanly and read a superbug table for how resistance gets selected.
  • Tie-in to Monday's stewardship debate: selection pressure is why overusing antibiotics backfires.
  • Reminder: your checklist and data analysis are graded in the PLTW course shell.
Do the work

Your PLTW coursework this week

Do this: Advance the PLTW Unit 1 culturing-and-resistance benchmark in the online course shell with your superbug data analysis.

Know when done
  • keeps cultures free of contaminating organisms.
  • Selection pressure lets resistant colonies outgrow susceptible ones.
Be able to do
  • bacteria using .
  • Identify and in a resistance dataset.

📋 PLTW tracker evidence due this week: checklist and a superbug data reliability analysis.

All PLTW activities are completed inside the PLTW course environment: this page only gives direction.

The plan

This week's PLTW tracker

Use this chart to keep your place. Nothing on it is turned in through the portal.

DayWorkTurn in
Monday · Mon, Oct 5Culturing and colony data labColony data table: colony count, size estimate, color, shape, edge type for target colonies; separate tally for contamination colonies.
Tuesday · Tue, Oct 6Mutation, HGT, and superbugsHGT mechanism definitions, conjugation diagram with labeled parts, multi-resistance explanation, colony-data application scenario, and linking sentence connecting culturing to resistance to stewardship.
Wednesday · Wed, Oct 7Cochlear implant debateOne CER (claim, two evidences, reasoning) on cochlear implant ethics plus a three-sentence reflection.
Thursday · Thu, Oct 8Audiogram interpretationLabeled audiogram with threshold plots, speech banana marked, and one-sentence severity classification.
  • M: debate + checklist
  • T: plan
  • W: data / image analysis
  • Th: superbug claim

Turn in: Aseptic technique, culturing, selection, resistance genes, and data reliability. weekly work due Superbug lab data table or image-analysis packet.

Go to Schoology to turn this in.

Submit one PDF. Put your first and last name in the document header. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf.

Open Schoology PDF upload help

If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.

The week, drawn

4 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

Lab day: what to bring & watch

Equipment you'll need
Agar plates (or culturing simulation)Inoculating loopBunsen burner or sterile single-use loopsBacterial sample or brothIncubatorLabeling marker and tape
CDC Antibiotic Resistance

This explainer accompanies the PLTW lab protocol: watch it before lab.

Safety net

What to do when absent

If YOU are 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 myPLTW

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.

Was today a lab or a group activity?

You can't do those from home: do this instead: Virtual resistance case dataset.

If MR. MENDOZA is absent

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 Resistance
Words

Vocabulary

Explore

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.

Catch-up / reteachFor: Need extra support
PLTW-MI Daily Activity Tracker Unit 1 (Final)
worksheet/handoutPosted in Schoology
Open in Schoology

Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.

Placement rationale

Matched Culturing, , superbugs by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-1_How-to-Fight-Infection/00_Unit-Overview. Score 126. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).

Use during lessonFor: Everyone
MI Activity 1.2.1 Antibiotic Therapy
worksheet/handoutPosted in Schoology
Open in Schoology

Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.

Placement rationale

Matched Culturing, , superbugs by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-1_How-to-Fight-Infection/1.2_-Treatment. Score 126. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).

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.

Aligned to

Standards this week

Genetics of Disease 072130 · 5.6 Culturing
Genetics of Disease 072130 · 5.5 Laboratory SOPs
Check yourself

WebXam practice

Tap an answer to check it · nothing is recorded or graded
What is the purpose of a four-quadrant streak plate when inoculating a bacterial culture?
On a transformation plate you see the expected white E. coli colonies plus several fuzzy gray-green colonies. What does this most likely indicate, and what should you do?
You inoculate selective LB-ampicillin broth with E. coli that you transformed with a plasmid carrying the ampicillin-resistance gene. What outcome do you expect after overnight growth at 37 degrees Celsius?
A single random mutation gives one bacterium a stronger cell wall that resists an antibiotic. How does this lead to a resistant infection?