Unit 2.2 Everything Endocrine: Endocrine glands, hormones, feedback loops, blood sugar/insulin model.
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 - Everything Endocrine: hormones, feedback loops, and the blood-sugar model
Build a working model of a negative feedback loop and use it to explain how insulin and glucagon keep blood glucose in a healthy range.
- 1List the major endocrine glands you can find on a body diagram and note one hormone each releases.
- 2Define hormone, endocrine gland, feedback loop, and homeostasis in your own words in your notebook.
- 3Set up the blood-sugar model with cards or tokens to represent glucose, insulin, and glucagon.
- 4Run the model after a meal: show how rising glucose triggers insulin and lowers it back toward set point.
- 5Run the model during fasting: show how falling glucose triggers glucagon and raises it back toward set point.
- 6Sketch the full negative feedback loop and label the stimulus, sensor, response, and return to homeostasis.
- • You will be able to match key hormones to the endocrine glands that release them.
- • You will be able to trace a negative feedback loop from stimulus back to set point.
- • You will be able to explain how insulin and glucagon balance blood glucose.
Daily lessons this week
Open any day for its full lesson, the work due that day, and guided notes.
One-sentence written position on minor hormone-therapy consent, citing one medical fact and naming one genuine tradeoff.
Annotated body diagram labeling at least four endocrine glands with their primary hormones, plus definitions of hormone, target cell, and receptor.
Feedback loop diagram showing insulin and glucagon responses for both a meal and a fasting scenario, with labeled negative-feedback arrows.
Written CER analyzing blood-glucose graph data: claim about homeostasis restoration, two specific data-point evidence entries, reasoning naming negative feedback.
Completed weekly progress tracker showing submission status for the gland diagram, feedback model notes, and CER, plus a written reflection naming one mastered concept and one to revisit.
Quick intro to the week
- Hook: your body runs a silent chemical thermostat every minute, and today you build the model that shows how it works.
- Today's goal: prove you can trace a negative feedback loop and explain the insulin and glucagon balance with your model.
- This week's Monday bioethics debate: who should pay for insulin when the price keeps people from staying healthy?
- Reminder: your graded feedback-loop organizer and model evidence live in the PLTW course shell, not on loose paper.
Your PLTW coursework this week
Do this: Advance the PLTW Everything Endocrine benchmark by completing the online evidence on glands, hormones, and feedback regulation in the course shell.
- • Endocrine glands release hormones that travel through the blood to target tissues.
- • A negative feedback loop returns a variable like blood glucose toward a set point.
- • Insulin lowers blood glucose and glucagon raises it, working as a balanced pair.
- • Model a negative feedback loop using stimulus, sensor, response, and set point.
- • Explain how insulin and glucagon maintain glucose homeostasis.
📋 PLTW evidence due: completed feedback-loop organizer modeling blood-glucose regulation with insulin and glucagon, 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 | Wed, Oct 21 | Hormone therapy bioethics debate | One-sentence written position on minor hormone-therapy consent, citing one medical fact and naming one genuine tradeoff. |
| Tuesday | Thu, Oct 22 | Endocrine glands and signaling | Annotated body diagram labeling at least four endocrine glands with their primary hormones, plus definitions of hormone, target cell, and receptor. |
| Wednesday | Fri, Oct 23 | Negative feedback model build | Feedback loop diagram showing insulin and glucagon responses for both a meal and a fasting scenario, with labeled negative-feedback arrows. |
| Thursday | Mon, Oct 26 | Glucose data CER analysis | Written CER analyzing blood-glucose graph data: claim about homeostasis restoration, two specific data-point evidence entries, reasoning naming negative feedback. |
| Friday | Tue, Oct 27 | Submit tracker and evidence | Completed weekly progress tracker showing submission status for the gland diagram, feedback model notes, and CER, plus a written reflection naming one mastered concept 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: Feedback-loop organizer.
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: endocrine system; diabetes/blood sugar.
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: Endocrine DiseasesVocabulary
Virtual resources
Standards this week
WebXam practice
Drop your Week 9 here. Use a clear file name (your initials + project). Routine work still goes to Schoology (via the CMSD portal).
Upload a project