| Project Lead The Way (PLTW)
is a not-for-profit program dedicated to developing STEM-relevant courses
for middle and high school students nationwide. PLTW courses are
offered through more than 3,400 middle and high schools in all 50 states.
More than half a million students reportedly have taken at least one PLTW
class.
Fluid power has been embedded
into several of the PLTW engineering courses as a result of a successful
partnership between the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) and educators
affiliated with the NSF-funded Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power
(CCEFP), an Engineering Research Center based at the University of Minnesota.
What started as cooperation in reviewing class curricula has evolved into
efforts in which volunteers team up with writers from PLTW to recommend
altogether new course and enrichment material.
Fluid power content is now
included in three of PLTW's foundation courses and two of five specialization
courses for high school. The new Gateway to Technology, PLTW's program
for middle school students, will also include fluid power content when
it is introduced in the fall of 2010.
The CCEFP has engaged PLTW
in other ways, too. Following a successful pilot at one university
in 2008, the Center worked to involve teachers associated with PLTW in
the CCEFP's 2009 Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program at three
universities. The teachers developed course material based on their
experiences in Center labs, sharing them with their students and colleagues
through the Center and PLTW networks. In addition, a hands-on workshop,
including portable lab kits and accompanying curricular material, was recently
developed by CCEFP faculty, with help from a RET/PLTW teacher. The
workshop will be incorporated into the Gateway Academy, a summer camp program
sponsored by PLTW and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. This
far-reaching program, with its 700 camps, is aimed at interesting middle
school children in STEM fields. Further, CCEFP faculty are planning
an instructional video introducing PLTW teachers to fluid power basics.
It will be posted at PLTW's Virtual Academy in the spring of 2010.
All of these efforts are
part of the CCEFP’s effort to find partnerships with highly regarded and
broadly distributed education and outreach networks in order to maximize
the impact of Center programs. |
