Northwest Hopes to Lead the Way to Science, Engineering Careers

The Northwest School District has taken a first step towards implementing a rigorous series of engineering and biomedical courses designed to expose students to the scope, rigor and discipline required to thrive in those fields in college and beyond.

The program is called Project Lead The Way and is touted by Northwest Executive Director of Secondary Education Mary Thomasson as a way for high school students to become immersed in science and technology as a preparation for a career.

Click on the slide show that accompanies this article to see the results of Project Lead the Way at the University of Missouri of Science and Technology.

"I'm very much interested in more career education," Thomasson said. "These are not easy courses. The kids have to be really committed to the classes."

The Northwest Board of Education has given Thomasson the green light to apply for the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) program. PLTW is a not-for-profit corporation that was established in 1997 to address the shortage of engineers in the U.S. It's curriculum currently is being used in all 50 states with 4,500 programs and 18,500 teachers trained to teach PLTW courses.

If accepted by PLTW, Northwest would benefit by receiving a fully developed curriculum that includes extensive training for teachers in the various aspects of the PLTW courses.

Thomasson showed some PLTW research that indicates science, technology, engineering and math careers pay an average of 26 percent more than other occupations and grew three times faster in the past decade, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Thomasson also pointed to job growth in the science, technology and engineering fields was at 7.9 percent, with an expectation of 17 percent growth from 2008-2018.

According to Forbes.com, engineering jobs have been the hardest to fill in America over the past four years. Forbes.com pointed out that the U.S. graduates about 74,000 engineers each year, but many are foreign students who return to their home countries after graduation.

The biomedical aspect of the PLTW curriculum also addresses the need in that field, which is expected to be critically short of qualified science and health professionals in the future.

According to a New York Times list published last April, the Top 10 fields "Where the Jobs Are" include:

• Biomedical engineer
• Network systems and data communication analyst
• Home health aide
• Personal and home care aide
• Financial examiner
• Medical scientist
• Physician Assistant
• Skin Care specialist
• Biochemist and biophysicist
• Athletic Trainer

Students at Northwest High School who want to pursue the PLTW science and math-rich curriculum, would work with counselors and develop a personal plan of study. The students would be required to already be enrolled in a college-bound course of study in math and science. PLTW classes would be electives over and above those college prep math and science courses.

The counselors will look at their personal plan of study and will target students who could benefit from the PLTW coursework.

The PLTW course include:

Introduction to Engineering Design: A freshman or sophomore course, students would use 3D modeling design software to help them design solutions to solve proposed problems. Students learn to document their work and communicate solutions to their peers and to members of the professional community. The course introduces engineering-oriented students to the design process, research and analysis, teamwork, communication methods, global and human impacts, engineering standards and technical documentation.

Principles of Engineering: For sophomore and junior students, this course exposes students to the major concepts they will encounter in a college course of study. The apply their knowledge of research and design to create solution to various challenges

Digital Electronics: another sophomore or junior level course, this is the study of electronics circuits that are used to process and control digital signals, which is the foundation of all modern electronic devices such as cell phones, MP3 players, laptop computers, digital cameras and high-definition TVs.

Engineering Design and Development: Designed for senior students, this course is an engineering and research course where students work as a team to research, design, test, and construct a solution to an open-ended engineering problem, using all the skills they have learned in previous PLTW courses.

The biomedical curriculum would include:

Principles of Biomedical Sciences: a freshman level course, students would investigate human body systems and various health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease and infectious diseases. They would determine the factors that lead to the death of a fictional person and investigate lifestyle choices that might have prolonged a person's life. The course is designed to provide an overview of all the courses in the biomedical program and lay the scientific foundation for other biomedical course to come.

Human Body Systems: Students design experiments, investigate the structures and functions of the human body and use date acquisition software to monitor such body functions as muscle movement, reflex and voluntary actions and respiration. Students would build organs and tissues on a skeletal manikin, work through real-world cases and often play the role of biomedical professionals to solve medical mysteries.

Medical Interventions:  Students would investigate a variety of interventions involved in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease as they follow the lives of a fictitious family. The scenarios expose students to a wide range on interventions related to immunology, surgery, genetics, pharmacology, medical devices and diagnostics.

Biomedical Innovation: In this senior-level course, students apply their knowledge and skills to answer questions or solve problems related to the biomedical sciences. They would work on an independent project and may work with a mentor or advisor from a university, hospital, physician's office or industry. Throughout the course, students would present their work to an adult audience.

The wide-ranging PLTW curriculum comes with a set of guidelines to insure the local course offerings meet PTLW standards and practices. Teachers, for example would have to take a two-week training session per course in order to qualify to teach the PLTW curriculum. PLTW also has established guidelines for software, facilities and equipment for the series of course.

All of the framework for the PLTW classes will cost money. Thomasson said it likely would cost at least $100,000 for the materials to start the PLTW program at Northwest High School.

Part of the cost could come in the form of a grant from the Office of College and Careeer Readiness through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). There potentially are matching grants from DESE for the engineering coursework costs, but as yet, there are no similar grants for the biomedical courses, Thomasson said,

Thomasson and others from the Northwest School District have seen the PLTW program in action at some neighboring school districts, including Mehlville, Lindbergh and Affton.

What they discovered were students engaged in the material and dedicated to solving the problems presented in the class.

"We talked to students and learned that they could really 'see' the value in the classes," Thomasson said. "They could 'see' the practical uses of math."

Thomasson hopes the PTLW program can lead to a career education resurgence at Northwest.

"Career education has really been a push at the high school level in the last three to five years," she said. "And this program is a good one."

For now, Thomasson must wait to be approved by PLTW to embark on its intensive engineering and biomedical coursework. Given the nod by PLTW, the next step would be to assess the district's costs for consideration by the school board.