Curriculum

The PLTW® Biomedical Sciences™ program offers high school students a dynamic curriculum that uses real world experience and hands on learning. Students with interest in exploring the variety that medicine offers will find PLTW’s Biomedical Sciences™ program a fantastic doorway to the future of the industry.

The Applied Knowledge of Biomedical Sciences™

Project Lead the Way’s Biomedical Sciences™ program is a four year series of courses, designed to bring students closer to the possibilities of a medical based field. The courses are integrated into the students’ core curriculum and designed to expand upon the college preparatory math and science programs.

The Biomedical Sciences™ program uses a combination of activity-based, project-based and problem-based (APPB) learning styles to engage students. APPB learning doesn’t just create and exciting environment where the possibilities of a medical field come to life, but it also teaches students to:

• Solve problems
• Participate as part of a team
• Lead teams
• Conduct research
• Understand real-world problems
• Analyze data
• Learn outside the classroom

Biomedical Sciences™ Courses

Four Sequential Courses:

Principles of the Biomedical Sciences™ (1 Carnegie Unit) - Student work involves the study of human medicine, research processes and an introduction to bioinformatics. Students investigate the human body systems and various health conditions including heart disease, diabetes, sickle-cell disease, hypercholesterolemia, and infectious diseases. A theme through the course is to determine the factors that led to the death of a fictional person. After determining the factors responsible for the death, the students investigate lifestyle choices and medical treatments that might have prolonged the person’s life. Key biological concepts including: homeostasis, metabolism, inheritance of traits, feedback systems, and defense against disease are embedded in the curriculum. Engineering principles including: the design process, feedback loops, fluid dynamics, and the relationship of structure to function are incorporated in the curriculum where appropriate. The course is designed to provide an overview of all the courses in the Biomedical Sciences program and to lay the scientific foundation necessary for student success in the subsequent courses.

Human Body Systems™ (1 Carnegie Unit) - Students engage in the study of the processes, structures, and interactions of the human body systems. Important concepts in the course include: communication, transport of substances, locomotion, metabolic processes, defense, and protection. The central theme is how the body systems work together to maintain homeostasis and good health. The systems are studied as “parts of a whole,” working together to keep the amazing human machine functioning at an optimal level. Students design experiments, investigate the structures and functions of body systems, and use data acquisition software to monitor body functions such as muscle movement, reflex and voluntary actions, and respiratory operation. Students work through interesting real world cases and often play the role of biomedical professionals to solve medical mysteries.

Medical Interventions™ (1 Carnegie Unit) - Students investigate the variety of interventions involved in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease as they follow the lives of a fictitious family. The course is a “How-To” manual for maintaining overall health and homeostasis in the body as students explore how to prevent and fight infection, how to screen and evaluate the code in human DNA, how to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, and how to prevail when the organs of the body begin to fail. Through these scenarios, students are exposed to the wide range of interventions related to immunology, surgery, genetics, pharmacology, medical devices, and diagnostics. Each family case scenario introduces multiple types of interventions and reinforces concepts learned in the previous two courses, as well as presenting new content. Interventions may range from simple diagnostic tests to treatment of complex diseases and disorders. These interventions are showcased across the generations of the family and provide a look at the past, present and future of biomedical science. Lifestyle choices and preventive measures are emphasized throughout the course as well as the important roles scientific thinking and engineering design play in the development of interventions of the future.

Biomedical Innovation™ (1 Carnegie Unit) - In this capstone course students design and conduct experiments related to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease or illness. They apply their knowledge and skills to answer questions or to solve problems related to the biomedical sciences. They may work with a mentor or advisor from a university, hospital, physician’s office, or industry as they complete their work. Students are expected to present the results of their work to an adult audience, which may include representatives from the local healthcare or business community or the school’s PLTW® partnership team.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites to the Principles of the Biomedical Sciences course.

For all other courses, the prerequisites are the courses earlier in the series.

Students may double up and take more than one PLTW Biomedical Sciences™ course in order to complete the program. If a student starts the program in 10th grade it is recommended that they take one course per year until their senior year when they take both Medical Interventions and Science Research.

Requisite Courses

Students enrolled in the PLTW Biomedical Sciences courses must also be enrolled in college-preparatory mathematics and science courses. The Biomedical Sciences are not designed to replace the traditional science courses; they are designed to enhance them and to focus on the concepts directly related to Biomedical Science.

All students interested in pursuing a career in biological sciences, emergency services, healthcare or medicine. As with the PLTW® Pathway to Engineering™ program… This approach addresses the learning styles and needs of the majority of students. The courses are hands-on and allow students to apply the concepts they learn in other mathematics and science courses.