Recommendation CER
This page has four parts, in the order you use them. Part 1 is what you need to know. Part 2 says what to do, in plain English. Part 3 shows the work done once on a case that is not yours. Part 4 is your own work and where to turn it in.
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Students write a CER that recommends a diagnosis and next steps from synthesized evidence.
Check you have the right sheet: the top of it prints today's portal day, Recommendation CER. The PLTW activity itself is in myPLTW and is not posted here.
Optional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Part 1 of 4 · Background and definitions▸
💡 Big idea: A recommendation earns trust because it names a specific condition, cites multiple data sources, and states its own limits, so a clinician can act on it instead of guessing.
- • A diagnostic CER claim must name a specific condition, not just a symptom cluster.
- • Multi-source evidence means citing at least history, one lab value, and one other data type.
- • Recommending confirmatory tests is how clinicians reduce uncertainty without guessing.
Can humans be trusted with control over genetics? And: extinction, or life without ?
A recommendation earns trust because it names a specific condition, cites multiple data sources, and states its own limits, so a clinician can act on it instead of guessing.
Driving question: For your patient, can you write a claim that names one specific condition, back it with history plus a lab value plus one more data type, and say out loud what could still prove you wrong?
New idea: A recommendation earns trust because it names a specific condition, cites multiple data sources, and states its own limits, so a clinician can act on it instead of guessing.
Visual or model: No figure is attached to this lesson. The readings, the worked example and E1 to E3 carry the evidence.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in recommendation CER.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: Keep observations separate from explanations, then collect the evidence that can distinguish the options.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: For your patient, can you write a claim that names one specific condition, back it with history plus a lab value plus one more data type, and say out loud what could still prove you wrong?
What the evidence supports: E1 to E3 support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : The ranked list of conditions that could explain a patient's story. The whole game is narrowing it honestly.
- • : Combining findings from many separate sources into one organized conclusion, weighing how strong and consistent the evidence is overall.
- • : A procedure that analyzes a sample of blood, urine, or to provide measurable information that helps diagnose or monitor a condition.
- • : An organized record of a patient's medical history, test results, medications, and care, used by the healthcare team to make decisions.
- • recommendation: A clear, evidence-based suggestion for what action to take, drawn from analyzing data, results, or a patient's situation.
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice. This is thinking practice for the one turn-in named under Turn in, not a second submission.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
A classroom clinical recommendation must connect case findings to a plausible mechanism, expected benefit and harm, alternatives, and uncertainty without presenting the composite case as a real diagnosis or prescription.
Limit: The classroom case omits clinical history, examination, validated testing, patient preferences, and professional judgment needed for real care.
Keep observations separate from explanations, then collect the evidence that can distinguish the options.
Limit: Biomedical investigations use controlled procedures and validated measurements, not intuition alone.
Write a CER with a clear diagnostic claim and multi-source evidence.
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
Today's decision · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: biomedical team member
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from recommendation CER supports before submitting the claim-evidence-reasoning response named on today's page.
- • Name the confirmatory test and run it before recommending treatment, because the current data still allows a second condition.
- • Write a claim naming one specific condition, backed by history, a lab value, and one more data type.
- • Claim that the poor feeding and the out-of-range values together are the diagnosis, since those findings are what the patient's data shows.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Use it inside the one turn-in named under Turn in; it is not a separate submission.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about recommendation CER. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from recommendation CER supports before submitting the claim-evidence-reasoning response named on today's page.
Context: A diagnostic recommendation is only as strong as its evidence, because multi-source support and honestly stated limitations are what separate a defensible claim from a hunch.
- • T1: State a claim naming the most likely diagnosis for the patient.
- • T2: Cite specific history, vital, lab, and genetic evidence that support the claim.
- • T3: Explain reasoning that connects each evidence point to the diagnosis.
- • T4: Recommend confirmatory tests or referrals to reduce remaining uncertainty.
- • T5: Name assumptions and limitations that could change the recommendation.
- • E1: A classroom clinical recommendation must connect case findings to a plausible mechanism, expected benefit and harm, alternatives, and uncertainty without presenting the composite case as a real diagnosis or prescription.
- • E2: Keep observations separate from explanations, then collect the evidence that can distinguish the options.
- • E3: Write a CER with a clear diagnostic claim and multi-source evidence.
Measurements: Use only the measurements, units, graph, or counts supplied in today's task. No additional patient measurement is implied.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Students often think a CER claim can list findings like 'feeding poorly and one lab value out of range' and count as a diagnosis. The trap: a diagnosis must name a specific condition, not just describe the findings. Signs and results are the evidence pointing at the condition; if your claim only restates them, you have not actually diagnosed anything, and you cannot recommend a confirmatory test for a list of findings.
- 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.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Recommendation CER. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Part 2 of 4 · Directions in plain English▸
2.1 Open your materials
Checklist of what your day-3 sheet asks for
The plan of care has every one of these
- A condition overview with the inheritance pattern, and whether the condition arose in this child or was passed down, with the evidence.
- What to expect across the child's life: now, the first years, school age, adulthood.
- Recommendations for maintaining health, each naming who does it and how often.
- A treatment plan: each treatment, medicine or therapy, what it is for, and what would show it is working.
- A monitoring plan with actual intervals; telehealth only where it genuinely helps this family.
- Referrals, each with the specialty and the reason.
- Education resources and support services that exist and can be reached.
The script for the family, in this order
- 1. How the baby is doing overall. 2. What was found and what it means. 3. The plan. 4. The extra help you recommend.
- End with a teach-back line: ask the parent to tell the plan back in their own words.
2.2 Start the work
State a claim naming the most likely diagnosis for the patient.
Show all 5 required steps
- State a claim naming the most likely diagnosis for the patient.
- Cite specific history, vital, lab, and genetic evidence that support the claim.
- Explain reasoning that connects each evidence point to the diagnosis.
- Recommend confirmatory tests or referrals to reduce remaining uncertainty.
- Name assumptions and limitations that could change the recommendation.
Lost your place? Check that your claim names one specific condition, then work down: cite your history, lab, and one more evidence type, explain each, and end with confirmatory tests and limitations.
- 0-8 minReview your team's evidence table; identify the three strongest data points supporting the top diagnosis.
- 8-20 minWrite the claim: one sentence naming the most likely diagnosis.
- 20-45 minWrite evidence section: cite history, vitals, lab, and genetic data with specific values.
- 45-62 minWrite reasoning: connect each evidence point to the diagnostic claim.
- 62-72 minAdd next-steps recommendation (confirmatory test or referral) and one limitation.
- 72-80 min: check that claim is specific, evidence is multi-source, limitation is stated.
- • Your team built the evidence table on the team project day; today you write the individual CER that turns that evidence into a recommendation. No team table with you? Use the practice newborn record on the Thursday, November 5 team project page and say in your CER that you used practice data.
- • Each CER must have a specific diagnosis in the claim, not a general description.
- • Cite at least three data types from the workup: history, vitals, bloodwork, or genetics.
- • The next-steps recommendation is what separates a diagnosis from a plan of care.
PLTW connection and today's work
In myPLTW, go back to Problem 2.3.1 A New Patient in Lesson 2.3 New to the Practice and use it as your writing guide.
Today's stopping point: Platform prompts should be done in the first 15 minutes; the CER is today's main product.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Use the turn-in directions in Part 4 of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
Need help? Choose a starting point
Part 3 of 4 · Worked example▸
This is a parallel case, not your own. Read it for the order of the work, then do your own in Part 4.
Claim (a second practice patient, an adult woman, not the newborn on your sheet): the most likely diagnosis is iron-deficiency anemia.
Evidence: The history notes ongoing fatigue, feeling cold, and heavy menstrual periods; the complete blood count shows hemoglobin at 9.8 g/dL (below the 12.0 to 15.5 g/dL normal range for adult females) with small, pale red cells; and the physical exam finds pale inner eyelids and a resting heart rate of 98 beats per minute.
Reasoning: These sources converge on one story. The history points to steady blood loss and a body working harder to move oxygen, the low hemoglobin with small pale cells is the direct laboratory signature of too little iron to build normal red blood cells, and the pale eyelids plus faster heart rate are the body compensating for reduced oxygen-carrying capacity. Next steps: I recommend a serum ferritin test to confirm depleted iron stores, since ferritin measures the actual iron reserve rather than just the downstream red-cell count. Limitation: a low hemoglobin alone does not prove the cause, because other conditions such as chronic disease can also lower it, so the ferritin result is needed before the diagnosis is final.
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: A claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph naming the most likely diagnosis, citing multi-source workup evidence, recommending confirmatory next steps, and stating one limitation.
- Write one defensible claim.
- Choose specific evidence that supports the claim.
- Explain the scientific rule that connects the evidence to the claim.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Submit your CER as one PDF to Schoology assignment for this lesson in Schoology.
A detective board holds observations, possible explanations, and one next question.
- Which notes are direct observations?
- Which notes are explanations?
- What new evidence would separate the explanations?
Keep observations separate from explanations, then collect the evidence that can distinguish the options.
Biomedical investigations use controlled procedures and validated measurements, not intuition alone.
- • Board notes map to the signs, results and measurements you recorded.
- • Possible explanations map to the competing biological causes.
- • The next question maps to the test or observation that would separate them.
Part 4 of 4 · Your work▸
Check your work before submitting
- Write a CER with a clear diagnostic claim and multi-source evidence.
- Recommend appropriate next steps and state at least one limitation.
4.1 Turn in your work
DueCheck the Schoology assignment for this day- Hand in
- CER with a specific diagnostic claim, multi-source evidence from the workup, reasoning linking each evidence point to the claim, a next-steps recommendation, and one stated limitation.
How to submit and name your file
Submit your CER as one PDF to the Schoology assignment for this lesson in Schoology.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
PDF upload helpYou get two school days for every day you were absent, so this deadline moves with you.
Today's lesson is in Schoology
Each school day has one lesson page in Schoology that holds everything for the day: the goal, the story so far, every table and data value, the numbered steps, and what to turn in. Open it first and work from it. The other rows for this day, if any, are the score line for a paper quiz or test and the John Carroll debate item; they do not add work. Check Schoology for each deadline.
- Today's Lesson · Mon 11/9 · Wk12 · Kai's genetics report and prognosis, then genes, alleles, and how Kai got NF1(today's lesson page: the goal, the data, the steps, and what to turn in are all on it)
Link will not open? Open Schoology, choose your course and section, and find the title shown above.
- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Schoology attaches your name to your upload; on the page itself, write your period and code. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: Can humans be trusted with control over genetics? And: extinction, or life without culture? Today: A recommendation earns trust because it names a specific condition, cites multiple data sources, and states its own limits, so a clinician can act on it instead of guessing.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about recommendation CER. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
A student's CER claim reads: 'The baby is feeding poorly and has one lab value out of range.' Is that a valid diagnostic claim? Fix it if not.
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Optional practice for this unit's lab skills. Nothing in it is due today.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
If you missed the team project day or do not have your team's evidence table, open the practice newborn record on the Thursday, November 5 team project page. Build a short evidence table from it (history, exam values and lab values with their printed ranges, and the genetic screen), then write the same CER: a specific diagnosis, evidence from at least three data types, reasoning, a confirmatory test or referral, and one limitation. Write "practice record" at the top, and submit it as one PDF to the Schoology assignment for this lesson in Schoology.
Open the Thursday, November 5 page with the practice newborn recordSubmit your CER as one PDF to the Schoology assignment for this lesson in Schoology.
Class still runs. Complete today's work as this page describes (it is self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
NIH MedlinePlus Lab TestsSources: slides, readings, and resources▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Hand-picked readings and interactives for this lesson, from authoritative open organizations and PLTW's own public course outline.
This week
My Progress dashboard