Course Description

Principles of Biomedical Sciences (PBS)

Welcome to Principles of Biomedical Science! This course will help prepare you for a career in medicine or health care and will challenge you to solve real-world problems. You will practice how to think creatively and critically to innovate in science and gain practical experience tackling challenges that biomedical professionals face in the field. You will work through real-world situations, cases, and problems, such as solving a medical mystery case, diagnosing and treating a patient, and responding to a medical outbreak.

Unit 1: Medical Investigation

Students engage in forensic science and medical examination investigations to explore biological and forensic science careers and gain experience in experimental design and data analysis. Through the investigation of a mysterious death, students learn about:

• Biomolecules and their role in determining identity
• Human anatomy and physiology
• Interconnectedness of systems

Students practice synthesizing multiple forms of data to draw conclusions and have opportunities to develop professional communication skills.

Unit 2: Clinical Care

Students assume the role of different medical professionals working through the schedule of patients in a family care clinic. Over the course of the unit, students: 

• Explore medical careers
• Practice professional communication
• Gain experience collecting, recording, and interpreting physiological data
• Learn how to perform routine medical tests and evaluate results

While “meeting” with patients, the interconnectedness between body systems is reinforced, and students explore the various causations and inheritance of disease. Students are exposed to cutting-edge technologies that are revolutionizing health care and will evaluate their impact.

Unit 3: Outbreaks and Emergencies

Working as public health officials and then as emergency responders, students are presented a series of events they must address while exploring careers in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, and emergency medicine. Students have opportunities to develop their professional communication and presentation skills. Key skills highlighted include data analysis, medical decision-making, patient diagnosis, identification of agents of disease, first aid, triage, and strategies involved in disaster preparedness and response.

Unit 4: Innovation, Inc.

Welcome to PLTW Innovation, Inc., an incubator for innovation where some of the best minds in science and engineering endeavor to solve some of the world’s most pressing biomedical challenges. Students tour PLTW Innovation, Inc. labs and engage in experiences designed to build their engineering and experimental design process skills and to create solutions to current and emerging issues both on and off this earth. Students will build their computer science skills by using computer-aided design (CAD) and geographic information system (GIS) and unite these skills with their science and engineering experiences to innovate the future of medicine. This unit demonstrates that solutions to biomedical science problems rely on collaboration between professions.