Engineering Leading the Way

Project Lead the Way does some good

In this article, some Midwest schools are getting help from Project Lead the Way (PLTW). Lead the Way is a non-profit that seeks to implement science, technology, and engineering programs in high schools and middle schools across the country in order to fill the huge shortages in qualified engineers that are graduating from college. The hope for these programs is to implement engineering and other courses to educate students in various fields such as civil, biomedical, and aeronautics engineering. In Milwaukee, at some high schools last year, PLTW was implemented and throughout various studies conducted found it to help. They saw an increase in attendance by keeping students' attention and getting them involved in the learning process. This "new" way of educating students is not entirely original. Projects have always been around, but the way we are doing them now has evolved to include so much student input that they tend to learn more by themselves in groups than when a teacher is in front of them lecturing. PLTW offers many courses that provide hands-on activities throughout the class that encourage students to engage themselves, understand the design process, and be creative at an entirely new level. Millions of dollars in grants are available to institute this type of learning. As I have seen in many instances, the new STEM education and ideas such as PLTW are extremely helpful in bringing students back into the classroom. They are so distracted these days, that we are constantly forced to find new things to do with them in order to maintain some control. In my class, I have been able to put in several projects that I have developed or modified from other teachers and the students have generally taken to them very well. For the most part, they have been engaged 80 to 90% of class time and have acted out of line only a few times. This is great compared to how it was when I started last year and was trying to take control of an out of wack classroom midway through the year. But, as I see the students we have move further away from the traditional education most of us experienced, it becomes increasingly more important to evolve teaching styles and classroom environments. I have learned very quickly that if you do not set expectations initially, the classroom will fall apart. However, with this new career-oriented material, expectations are placed on the students to be engaged and learn through doing, not by listening. This is such a great benefit and it makes it easier for the teacher to be a facilitator and not the instructor 100% of the time. As a technology teacher, I am all for programs that make strong connections between disciplines and academia, but it must become a standard across the country. One state, or even a few states, cannot be on board and leave the rest behind. In the time of individualism and selfworth being the most important aspect of our society, we must realize that doing education on your own hurts. When we have 50 states collaborating on the nation's educational system and offering input from significant minds and knowledge, we can move forward. As studies show now, we are behind in the supply of engineers and high on demand. Students can be very successful by being exceptional problem solvers and that is what engineers essentially offer companies and industries.