Unit 2.2 Everything Endocrine: Endocrine glands, hormones, feedback loops, blood sugar/insulin model.
Your PLTW coursework: Human Body Systems ▸ Unit 2: Research Ready ▸ Lesson 2.2 Everything Endocrine ▸ "Activity 2.2.2 A-Mazing Worms (C. elegans)"
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. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Week overview - Everything Endocrine: hormones, feedback loops, and the blood-sugar model
Build a working model of a loop and use it to explain how and keep in a healthy range.
- 1List the major endocrine glands you can find on a body diagram and note one each releases.
- 2Define , , , and in your own words in your notebook.
- 3Set up the blood-sugar model with cards or tokens to represent glucose, , and .
- 4Run the model after a meal: show how rising glucose triggers and lowers it back toward set point.
- 5Run the model during fasting: show how falling glucose triggers and raises it back toward set point.
- 6Sketch the full loop and label the , sensor, response, and return to .
- • You will be able to match key hormones to the endocrine glands that release them.
- • You will be able to trace a loop from back to set point.
- • You will be able to explain how and balance .
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 -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 , target cell, and .
diagram showing and responses for both a meal and a fasting scenario, with labeled negative-feedback arrows.
Written CER analyzing blood-glucose graph data: claim about restoration, two specific data-point evidence entries, reasoning naming .
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 loop and explain the and balance with your model.
- This week's Monday bioethics debate: who should pay for 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 loop returns a variable like toward a set point.
- • lowers and raises it, working as a balanced pair.
- • Model a loop using , sensor, response, and set point.
- • Explain how and maintain glucose .
📋 PLTW evidence due: completed feedback-loop organizer modeling blood-glucose regulation with and , submitted on the class site.
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 22 | Hormone therapy bioethics debate | One-sentence written position on minor hormone-therapy consent, citing one medical fact and naming one genuine tradeoff. |
| Tuesday | Tue, Mar 23 | 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 | Wed, Mar 24 | 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. |
| Monday | Mon, Apr 5 | 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 | - | 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.
5 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: 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 Clever, then myPLTWHow to get there: open Clever and sign in with your Microsoft (district) account. Both myPLTW and Schoology are in Clever. Do the activity in myPLTW. Turn the work in on this site or hand it to Mr. Mendoza, because that is the step that counts as submitted. Schoology only shows your report-card grade later.
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
Resources & readings
Hand-picked readings, videos, and interactives for this lesson, all free and from authoritative open organizations (NIH, CDC, OpenStax, Khan Academy, PhET, HHMI, and more).