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Session 2559

K-12 Programs Plug into Technology with Project Lead The Way Curriculum

Gerard N. Foster Purdue University, School of Technology, Kokomo, Indiana

Abstract

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is a national program that offers a pre-engineering curriculum for high schools and middle schools. The high school curriculum consists of five courses covering solid modeling with a CAD package, digital electronics, principles of engineering, computer integrated manufacturing, and implementation of a design project. Teachers learn the technical, project-based course material in an intensive, two- week summer training session at the PLTW Summer Training Center at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) or at one of the six National Training Affiliates. Nearly 300 high schools and middle schools across the country are affiliated with PLTW.

This report discusses the Project Lead The Way program nationally as well as its implementation in Indiana. This paper gives a brief description of the five courses in the high school curriculum and the gateway course in the middle school curriculum. These courses emphasize hands-on, project-oriented learning. This paper also tells how PLTW, the Indiana Department of Education, Purdue University, RIT, and affiliate schools in the state have come together to implement this program in Indiana.

Introduction

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is a not-for-profit organization that partners with middle schools and high schools, organizations in the private sector, and institutes of higher education to provide students with a technology-based, project-oriented curriculum targeted to increase the quality and number of engineering and engineering technology professionals in this country. Conceptualized by Richard Blais in the early 1980’s, this program, with the help of the Charitable Venture Foundation, started with 13 schools in 1997. Currently, 221 high schools and 57 middle schools in 27 states are affiliated with PLTW with a projection of 600 schools by the end of 2003. Approximately 80,000 students have been exposed to the PLTW program. In this program, teachers learn this technical, project-based curriculum in an intensive, two-week summer training session at a National Affiliate Training Center (NATC).

Recognized as an innovative approach in education [4], Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is distinguished for its comprehensive and intensive approach. That PLTW tries to cover all bases is illustrated by the following bullet list of program highlights taken directly from the PLTW web site at www.pltw.org:

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Foster, G. (2002, June), K 12 Programs Plug Into Technology With Project Lead The Way Curriculum Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10232