Aseptic technique, culturing, selection, resistance genes, and data reliability.
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 - Growing the evidence: aseptic culturing and superbug data
Use aseptic technique to culture bacteria and analyze a superbug data table to evaluate how resistance is selected.
- 1Review aseptic technique steps and identify two ways contamination could ruin your plate.
- 2Streak or inoculate your culture (or run the simulation) using clean, aseptic moves.
- 3Label your plate with date, sample, and your initials before incubation.
- 4Open the superbug data table and find which colonies survived after antibiotic exposure.
- 5Identify evidence of mutation or horizontal gene transfer in the dataset.
- 6Write one sentence judging whether the data are reliable and what could improve them.
- • You will be able to apply aseptic technique 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 culture data.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
Written CER on risky pathogen research: position with specific safeguards, evidence about benefit and containment risk, reasoning, and rebuttal.
Numbered aseptic technique procedure, contamination routes list, explanation of why plates are kept closed, safety rules for cultures and waste, and contamination prediction sketch.
Colony data table: colony count, size estimate, color, shape, edge type for target colonies; separate tally for contamination colonies.
HGT mechanism definitions, conjugation diagram with labeled parts, multi-resistance explanation, colony-data application scenario, and linking sentence connecting culturing to resistance to stewardship.
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: culture 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 aseptic checklist and data analysis are graded in the PLTW course shell.
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.
- • Aseptic technique keeps cultures free of contaminating organisms.
- • Selection pressure lets resistant colonies outgrow susceptible ones.
- • Culture bacteria using aseptic technique.
- • Identify mutation and horizontal gene transfer in a resistance dataset.
📋 PLTW tracker evidence due this week: aseptic technique checklist and a superbug data reliability analysis.
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, Mar 1 | Bioethics debate: research vs risk | Written CER on risky pathogen research: position with specific safeguards, evidence about benefit and containment risk, reasoning, and rebuttal. |
| Tuesday | Tue, Mar 2 | Aseptic technique | Numbered aseptic technique procedure, contamination routes list, explanation of why plates are kept closed, safety rules for cultures and waste, and contamination prediction sketch. |
| Wednesday | Wed, Mar 3 | Culturing and colony data lab | Colony data table: colony count, size estimate, color, shape, edge type for target colonies; separate tally for contamination colonies. |
| Thursday | Thu, Mar 4 | Mutation, HGT, and superbugs | HGT mechanism definitions, conjugation diagram with labeled parts, multi-resistance explanation, colony-data application scenario, and linking sentence connecting culturing to resistance to stewardship. |
- M: debate + aseptic checklist
- T: culture plan
- W: data / image analysis
- Th: superbug claim
- F: no school
Due by week's end: Superbug lab data table or image-analysis packet.
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: Virtual resistance case dataset.
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.
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Culturing, aseptic technique, 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).
Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched Culturing, aseptic technique, superbugs by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-1_How-to-Fight-Infection/1.2_Antibiotic-Treatment. Score 126. 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 7 here. Use a clear file name (your initials + project). Routine work still goes to Schoology (via the CMSD portal).
Upload a project