Unit 3.2 Body Guards: Skin/accessory organs, lymphatic and immune systems, pathogens, immune cells, antigen response.
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 - Body Guards: skin, the lymphatic system, and the immune response
Model how the innate and adaptive immune systems respond to a pathogen, including the antigen-antibody match and the role of vaccines.
- 1List the body's outer defenses, starting with the skin, and explain how each blocks pathogens.
- 2Define pathogen, antigen, antibody, innate, and adaptive in your notebook.
- 3Build a model showing a pathogen entering the body and triggering the innate response first.
- 4Add the adaptive response and show how an antibody matches a specific antigen.
- 5Use your model to explain how a vaccine prepares the immune system in advance.
- 6Summarize the difference between the innate and adaptive responses in two sentences.
- • You will be able to describe how skin and the lymphatic system defend the body.
- • You will be able to model the antigen-antibody match in an immune response.
- • You will be able to explain how a vaccine builds adaptive immunity.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
Written position on vaccine mandates, citing one scientific reason (herd immunity) and one ethical tradeoff between rights and collective safety.
Lymphatic system body diagram with key nodes and vessels labeled, plus written definitions of antigen, antibody, and lymphocyte in your own words.
Comparison diagram of primary vs. secondary immune response with labeled antibody levels and timescales, plus model notes describing how matched antibodies neutralize the pathogen.
Written CER analyzing a vaccine antibody graph: claim about how vaccines build immunity, two specific data-point evidence entries, reasoning connecting memory B cells to protection, and one limitation.
Completed weekly progress tracker showing submission status for the lymphatic diagram, model notes, and CER, plus a reflection naming one immune concept now understood and one to revisit.
Quick intro to the week
- Hook: every second your body fends off invaders you never notice, and today you build the model that shows how.
- Today's goal: model the immune response from skin barrier to antibody match and explain how vaccines fit in.
- This week's Monday bioethics debate: should vaccination be required to protect a whole community?
- Reminder: your graded immune defense model lives in the PLTW course shell, not on loose paper.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance the PLTW Body Guards benchmark by completing the online evidence on the immune and lymphatic systems in the course shell.
- • Skin and the lymphatic system are part of the body's layered defenses.
- • The innate response is fast and general; the adaptive response is specific and remembered.
- • Antibodies bind specific antigens, and vaccines prime this response in advance.
- • Model the innate and adaptive immune responses to a pathogen.
- • Explain how a vaccine produces adaptive immunity.
📋 PLTW evidence due: immune defense model showing the antigen-antibody match and the role of vaccines, submitted in the 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 | Thu, Dec 3 | Vaccine mandate ethics debate | Written position on vaccine mandates, citing one scientific reason (herd immunity) and one ethical tradeoff between rights and collective safety. |
| Tuesday | Fri, Dec 4 | Innate and adaptive immunity | Lymphatic system body diagram with key nodes and vessels labeled, plus written definitions of antigen, antibody, and lymphocyte in your own words. |
| Wednesday | Mon, Dec 7 | Immune system modeling | Comparison diagram of primary vs. secondary immune response with labeled antibody levels and timescales, plus model notes describing how matched antibodies neutralize the pathogen. |
| Thursday | Tue, Dec 8 | Vaccine data CER analysis | Written CER analyzing a vaccine antibody graph: claim about how vaccines build immunity, two specific data-point evidence entries, reasoning connecting memory B cells to protection, and one limitation. |
| Friday | Wed, Dec 9 | Submit tracker and evidence | Completed weekly progress tracker showing submission status for the lymphatic diagram, model notes, and CER, plus a reflection naming one immune concept now understood and one to revisit. |
- M: Philosophy for Kids / John Carroll bioethical debate
- T: teacher background notes + PLTW launch task
- W: lab / data or model work
- Th: analysis / CER or design revision
- F: submit tracker + weekly evidence
Due by week's end: Immune defense model.
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: Teacher-posted data/model packet, same objective. Supplemental: Khan: immune system.
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:
MedlinePlus: Immune System and DisordersVocabulary
Virtual resources
Standards this week
WebXam practice
Drop your Week 14 here. Use a clear file name (your initials + project). Routine work still goes to Schoology (via the CMSD portal).
Upload a project