Enteric coating lab
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.
Coat and test artificial pills, recording observations at fixed thirty-second intervals through both simulated environments.
Check you have the right sheet: the top of it prints today's portal day, Enteric coating lab. 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: An interval you skipped is data you cannot get back, so the discipline of the interval is what makes the run usable.
- • The is what you deliberately change; the is what you measure as a result.
- • Controlled variables are held constant across all trials so that only the causes outcome differences.
- • Measurement error can come from tool precision, assembler technique, or environmental variability: name the source, not just the effect.
A pill has to survive one organ to reach another, so the coating is solving a transport problem, not a chemistry-class problem.
An interval you skipped is data you cannot get back, so the discipline of the interval is what makes the run usable.
Driving question: Your coated pill goes into simulated stomach acid. How long should it last, and how will you know exactly when it gave way?
What you already know: A pill has to survive one organ to reach another, so the coating is solving a transport problem, not a chemistry-class problem.
New idea: An interval you skipped is data you cannot get back, so the discipline of the interval is what makes the run usable.
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 enteric coating lab.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: A design improves when evidence is compared with explicit criteria and constraints.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: Your coated pill goes into simulated stomach acid. How long should it last, and how will you know exactly when it gave way?
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 repeating cycle engineers work in: define the problem, set criteria and constraints, generate options, choose one on evidence, build it, test it, and improve it. It is a loop, so a failed test sends you back a stage rather than ending the project.
- • criterion: A clear, agreed-upon standard or rule used to judge, compare, or decide between options.
- • constraint: A limit or requirement that a design must work within, such as a budget, available time, materials, or rules.
- • : An early working model built in order to be tested, not to be sold. Its job is to answer one question about the design, so it is allowed to be rough everywhere that question does not reach.
- • : A written outline of what will be tested, how, and what counts as success, used to guide an experiment or product check.
- • iteration: One repeated cycle of building, testing, and improving, where each pass refines the design or result based on what the last pass revealed.
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.
Environmental health risk is characterized by integrating hazard, dose-response, exposure, and uncertainty; an observed association or model result does not by itself establish individual causation.
Limit: A classroom dataset cannot represent every exposure route, susceptible group, confounder, or long-term outcome.
A design improves when evidence is compared with explicit criteria and constraints.
Limit: Biomedical designs also require , ethics, and biological validation beyond a physical test.
Produce an unbroken thirty-second observation record for both environments.
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 enteric coating lab supports before submitting the labeled and result claim named on today's page.
- • Wait until the pill has passed through both simulated environments before judging the coating, because one environment cannot show the whole result.
- • Record an observation at every thirty-second interval, because an interval you skip is data you cannot get back.
- • Note only the moment the pill opens, since the coating makes the pill stronger and longer-lasting either way.
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 enteric coating lab. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Rate or percent = part / comparison total x 100%. Percent change = (new - comparison) / comparison x 100%.
If 18 of 60 records meet a condition, the frequency is 18 / 60 x 100% = 30%.
Name the comparison total. A percent describes the supplied group and does not automatically predict an individual's outcome.
Rework the example with 24 of 60 records instead of 18. Show the denominator, and say what the percent describes and what it cannot tell you about one person.
- • The solution must address the stated need in enteric coating lab.
- • The decision must be supported by E1-E3.
- • The final product must make the success criteria visible.
- • Complete the work inside the 80-minute block.
- • Use only supplied or teacher-approved materials and evidence.
- • Do not trade , accessibility, or privacy for speed.
- • and evidence quality: must pass before scoring other criteria.
- • User need and effectiveness: highest scored criterion.
- • Time, cost, and ease of use: compare only after and effectiveness pass.
Test evidence: For each option, record the E1-E3 result that supports or fails each criterion. Do not assign a score without a named observation.
- Which version or option did you test?
- Which requirement did it meet or miss?
- Which evidence shows that, and what did it say?
- What did you change?
- Why did you change it?
- Who is this for, and what do they need?
- What must it do, and what limits you?
- Which option did you choose, and what evidence backs it?
- What did you test, and what happened?
- What did you change, and why?
Students often think the coating makes the pill stronger or longer-lasting. The trap: The coating is not about strength, it is about WHERE the pill fails. A coating that never dissolves is as useless as no coating at all. It is designed to be acid-resistant and base-soluble, so the release site is the engineered property.
- 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 Enteric coating lab. 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
Use the materials named in the first step below. Open lesson resources.
2.2 Start the work
Put on goggles and confirm the bench is clear and the waste container is open.
Show all 6 required steps
- Put on goggles and confirm the bench is clear and the waste container is open.
- Prepare the polymer solutions and coat the pills exactly as the procedure directs.
- Place a coated pill in the simulated stomach environment and start the timer.
- Record what you observe every thirty seconds. Do not skip an interval and do not round the times.
- Move the pill to the simulated intestinal environment and keep the same interval.
- Write one sentence on what the practice run taught you about how the coating fails.
Lost your place? Check your timer and your interval column. Record the interval you are in now, note the gap honestly, and keep going. A gap you labelled is usable; a gap you hid is not.
- 0-8 minRecord the assembly and testing ; verify all materials are present at your station.
- 8-15 minIdentify and record independent, dependent, and controlled variables.
- 15-40 minAssemble the device or vessel model to specification following the .
- 40-62 minRun at least three repeated trials; record performance data in a labeled after each trial.
- 62-72 minCalculate the average performance across trials; note one measurement error source.
- 72-80 minState one test-setup limitation; begin organizing data for the CER.
- • Today you are the test engineer: your job is to produce clean, repeatable data from a physical model.
- • Read the before you touch any material: the SOP order exists for accuracy and reasons.
- • the part of your end-of-course WebXam about handling, preparing, storing and disposing of materials is assessed today: procedure discipline matters.
- • Three trials minimum: if trial 3 is very different from trials 1 and 2, you have a problem worth noting.
PLTW connection and today's work
Open myPLTW and locate Lesson 4.1 Designing the Future, Activity 4.1.5 Drug Design Lab. Use its Part I data-collection template for your 30-second observations.
Today's stopping point: The myPLTW data submission completed by the end of the lab period.
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
Finish the assigned lab safely before starting extra practice.
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.
Setup recorded before I started: goggles on, bench clear, waste container open, timer at zero, both fluids at the stated temperature.
Variables:
- Independent variable: which fluid the pill was sitting in (simulated stomach, then simulated intestinal).
- Dependent variable: the condition of the coating at each 30-second check.
- Controlled variables: same pill, same number of coating dips, same fluid volume (50 mL), same temperature, same observer for the whole run.
Stomach phase, 0:00 to 4:00:
- 0:30 coating smooth, no color change, no bubbles.
- 1:00 surface slightly cloudy, still sealed.
- 1:30 cloudy, no cracks.
- 2:00 no change from 1:30.
- 2:30 one faint line along the top edge, coating still holding.
- 3:00 same faint line, nothing lifting.
- 3:30 no change.
- 4:00 coating intact. Pill moved to the intestinal fluid at 4:00.
Intestinal phase, 4:00 onward, timer left running:
- 4:30 edges softening.
- 5:00 first small piece lifts off the coverslip.
- 5:30 about a third of the surface has lifted.
- 6:00 most of the coating is off, one thin patch still attached.
- 6:30 fully separated. Recorded 6:30 as the separation time for this practice run.
What the practice run taught me about how the coating fails: it did not split open all at once. It softened first, then lifted in pieces, so the moment I call 'separated' depends on the definition I use.
Limitation of judging separation by eye: 'fully separated' is a judgement, not a reading off an instrument. My 6:30 could be someone else's 6:00. That is why the operational definition has to be written down before Part II, and why one person should score a whole run.
One more note to myself: I nearly skipped the 2:00 check because nothing was happening. A blank row there would have been unusable, because a reader cannot tell a coating that held from an observer who looked away. 'No change' is data.
| Time | Phase | Observation |
|---|---|---|
| 0:30 | Simulated stomach | Coating smooth and sealed |
| 2:00 | Simulated stomach | Cloudy surface, no cracks |
| 4:00 | Simulated stomach | Intact, pill transferred |
| 5:00 | Simulated intestinal | First piece lifts away |
| 6:30 | Simulated intestinal | Coating fully separated |
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: Completes the Part I practice run: an unbroken 30-second observation record through the simulated stomach phase and the simulated intestinal phase, with the variables labeled and one stated limitation of judging separation by eye.
- Name the variables and include units.
- Enter observations without changing the raw values.
- Check labels, calculations, and patterns before interpreting the data.
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 data table in Schoology before leaving.
A bridge is tested against a load limit, cost limit, and user need before revision.
- Which requirement is a criterion?
- Which limit is a constraint?
- What test result should trigger a redesign?
A design improves when evidence is compared with explicit criteria and constraints.
Biomedical designs also require , ethics, and biological validation beyond a physical test.
- • Bridge requirements map to what the device must do for the body.
- • Load results map to the measurements taken from the .
- • Revision maps to the change those measurements justify.
Part 4 of 4 · Your work▸
Check your work before submitting
- Produce an unbroken thirty-second observation record for both environments.
- State one limitation of judging dissolution by eye.
Before lab work: read the safety rules
- Goggles on before any container is opened, and kept on until the bench is cleared.
- The simulated stomach fluid is acidic. Report any skin contact immediately and rinse.
- Shellac preparations are commonly alcohol based. Keep them away from any heat source and capped when not in use.
- The water bath or hot plate is a burn hazard. Move vessels with forceps, not fingers.
- Read the kit safety data sheet before the first mixing step. It governs, not the general lab rules.
- Dispose of every solution in the designated container. Nothing goes down the sink unless the teacher says so.
- Wash hands after cleanup, gloves or no gloves.
4.1 Turn in your work
DueCheck the Schoology assignment for this day- Hand in
- Completed data table with at least three trial measurements, labeled independent and dependent variables, an average performance calculation, one measurement error source, and one test-setup limitation.
How to submit and name your file
Submit as one PDF 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 12/14 · Wk17 · The Saline Switch-Up, then how blood clots and the ABCs of bleeding(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.
- Error analysis and method · counts doubleName a specific limit of the method and how it moved your result, and compare what you predicted to what happened. "Human error" does not count; say what about the procedure or instrument caused it.
How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: A pill has to survive one organ to reach another, so the coating is solving a transport problem, not a chemistry-class problem. Today: An interval you skipped is data you cannot get back, so the discipline of the interval is what makes the run usable.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about enteric coating lab. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Your coated pill dissolves in the simulated stomach in 90 seconds. Is the coating a failure, and what does that tell you to change?
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Run this before you touch the bench. It is built from the real lab procedure, so the decisions you make here are the ones you will make with the equipment in your hands.
I can name the procedure's purpose and the evidence I will record. I can name today's hazards and the control for each: Shellac preparations are commonly alcohol based. Keep them away from any heat source and capped when not in use. My data table is ready before materials are handled.
Finish the checklist before you handle any material.
- • Goggles on before any container is opened, and kept on until the bench is cleared.
- • The simulated stomach fluid is acidic. Report any skin contact immediately and rinse.
- • Shellac preparations are commonly alcohol based. Keep them away from any heat source and capped when not in use.
- • The water bath or hot plate is a burn hazard. Move vessels with forceps, not fingers.
- • Read the kit safety data sheet before the first mixing step. It governs, not the general lab rules.
- • Dispose of every solution in the designated container. Nothing goes down the sink unless the teacher says so.
- • Wash hands after cleanup, gloves or no gloves.
- 1Before materials are handled, identify the purpose, variables or comparison, controls, measurement units, and stop-work condition.
- 2Put on goggles and confirm the bench is clear and the waste container is open.
- 3Prepare the polymer solutions and coat the pills exactly as the procedure directs.
- 4Place a coated pill in the simulated stomach environment and start the timer.
- 5Record what you observe every thirty seconds. Do not skip an interval and do not round the times.
- 6Move the pill to the simulated intestinal environment and keep the same interval.
- 7Write one sentence on what the practice run taught you about how the coating fails.
- 8Record each result in the prepared table before interpreting it. Mark missing, repeated, or invalid results truthfully.
- 9Complete the named cleanup and waste route, remove PPE safely, wash hands when required, and confirm the station is ready for the next group.
| Which trial or sample this row is | What you changed on purpose | What you measured, with units | What you saw, before you explain it | Anything that could make this reading wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Before the procedure, predict the result and cite the rule behind the prediction.
After the procedure, compare the result with the prediction and name one limitation or source of uncertainty.
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.
Hands-on testing lab: assemble the device or vessel model, run repeated trials against the , and record performance data with controlled variables.
PhET: Interactive SimulationsSubmit as one PDF 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:
PhET: simulations for engineering and physical testingThe optional extra-credit track is open. Complete reserved-unit work from home, including virtual labs, for extra credit. Each item shows its correct submission route.
Open the extra-credit trackSources: 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.
Play the cold open at the start of the unit to set the scene. Each recording is AI-generated and simulated (fictional callers, no real people or student data).
Hand-picked readings and interactives for this lesson, from authoritative open organizations and PLTW's own public course outline.
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