Leading students to opportunities

By Allen Witt

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Eight years ago a group of educators, led by Lisa Digman, brought Project Lead The Way to Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids.

“Exposing students to true-life experiences and then encouraging them to work out solutions - this is what modern teaching is all about,” Digman said.

“When they use a Project Lead The Way experience, they receive personal satisfaction, as it's not about just textbook learning; it's about applying critical thinking to subjects you are working on. So Project Lead The Way is doing wonderful work, at the same time giving students college credit while still in high school ... ”

Rockwell Collins and Kirkwood Community College have been proponents for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. Rockwell Collins funds the required PLTW teacher training, a part-time coordinator to help high schools implement that academy and scholarships that allow students to continue at Kirkwood in an engineering or engineering-related program. Kirkwood, which serves seven counties in Eastern Iowa, has aggressively partnered with PLTW high schools, which has resulted in an 87 percent increase in Kirkwood's STEM enrollment and a 74 percent increase in its STEM graduates.

How did PLTW begin?

In 1986, Richard Blais, chairman of the technology department in the Shenendehowa Central School District in upstate New York, began offering pre-engineering and digital electronics classes to encourage students to study engineering. He developed a rigorous curriculum and an interactive learning environment. Based on the success of his classes, Blais partnered with Richard Liebich, whose family founded the Charitable Leadership Foundation (CLF), to create Project Lead The Way.

It took root in response to the expected shortage of 15 million engineers and technical workers (according to federal estimates) in the United States by 2015. PLTW helps students apply academic engineering and technology concepts in compelling, real-world ways.

PLTW is the largest non-profit provider of innovative and rigorous STEM education programs. More than 350,000 students at nearly 4,000 schools have taken part in PLTW classes. The program hopes to reach more than 1 million students each year by growing to 10,000 school implementations by the 2015-16 school year.

PLTW has cultivated partnerships with more than 100 institutions, including the Board of Regents in Iowa, to create additional opportunities for our students and teachers.

“Kirkwood has found that since 2006, 25 of our area's 33 school districts have implemented the PLTW program,” said Todd Prusha, dean for secondary programs.

“With input from local high school educators and financial support from a National Science Foundation STEP grant and Rockwell Collins, engineering career academies were established at two Cedar Rapids high schools in 2003. Within several years, the PLTW curriculum was adopted. The popularity of this successful program has been contagious and today there are 1,056 students taking classes at 18 sites.”

The results of this program:

l PLTW alumni study engineering and technology at five to 10 times the rate of non-PLTW students.

l PLTW students have a higher retention rate in college engineering, science and related programs than non-PLTW students.

l 80 percent of PLTW seniors say they will study engineering, technology or computer science in college, whereas the national average is 32 percent.

PLTW prepares students to be the most innovative and productive leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to make meaningful, pioneering contributions to our world. In addition, its project-based learning is a shift from our factory-based learning system.

Please go to www.PLTW.org and www.iowastem.org/roadmap.html to find out more on how you can support students in their pursuit of STEM education opportunities.

Allen Witt, a principal of Hall & Hall Engineers Inc., of Hiawatha, is chair of the Project Lead the Way Community Partnership Team-Cedar Rapids, member of the University of Iowa Civil & Environmental Engineering Advisory Board, past chair of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and on the Center for Youth Innovation Committee. Comments: allen@halleng.com