Parents Invited to Learn About Project Lead The Way at Open House

Parents are invited to experience a Project Lead The Way class lesson with their children on Monday, March 7 at Saline Middle School.  Classes will be open to observation from 8am to 9am or 1:40 pm to 2:40 pm.  There will also be a showcase of projects and demonstrations that same evening from 6:30-8:30 p.m., also at the middles school.

Project Lead the Way is a rigorous, hands-on, project-oriented program sweeping the nation’s middle schools. The program is in over 4,000 schools in all fifty states, educating more than 350,000 students. With PLTW, classrooms are call “Innovation Zones” and curiosity rules the day, according to Steve Laatsch, assistant superintendent of instructional services for Saline Area Schools.

In the PLTW Gateway to Technology Program, students learn six, nine week units that are design and modeling, automation and robotics, energy and the environment, flight and space, science and rechnology, and the magic of electrons. 

The programs are free, but the software and equipment are pricey.

"The program does require significant hands-on materials and computer laptops to effectively implement the program,” Laatsch said. 

According to statistics, there are benefits to this type of of program. The PLTW website reports that PLTW alumni enter colleges and universities to study engineering and technology at a rate up to ten times the average of all students.  Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are at the core of PLTW "Innovation Zones," and the teachers undergo strict training to teach the curriculum. 

Leigh Ann Roehm teaches PLTW at the middle school. Her students will showcase design models and mechanisms using the same software as major technological companies. One program the kids use is called Inventor.

“This program is similar to Autocad and allows students to make three-dimensional models of their designs,” Roehm said. “Students sketch their drawings/solutions to real world problems and then create three-dimensional models of these designs.” 

Students then physically build their designs and test them. Demonstrations of bottle rockets, skimmers and pegboard toys will occur at the open house.

Other projects on display will be from a program called Robopro. This program communicates with an interface, connected to Fischertechniks mechanisms.

“Students built mechanisms and then programmed them with their laptops to run the mechanism in a way that would solve the challenge,” Roehm said. 

Parents will get to see the kids’ designs on the computers and witness their hands-on learning.

The funds for PLTW were initially jump started through a Pepsi Grant. The Foundation For Saline Area Schools has stepped up to try and raise more funds.  The Foundation For Saline Area Schools is a non-profit organization that provides private funding to support academic projects, enrichment programs, and other activities aimed at enhancing the quality of education in the Saline School District.

Karen Delhey is a Trustee for the FSAS and serves as Chairperson for the Strategic Grant Committee. 

“The District came to us and asked the (foundation) for a $65,000 Grant so that the seventh graders could continue the program into the eighth grade,” Delhey said. “So far we are two-thirds of the way to our goal.” 

The foundation has raised money through fundraisers like School of Rock and the Winterfest Preglow, and will have another event in the Spring.

To donate to the foundations's initiative to promote, grow and fund PLTW, visit the FSAS website. All donations will go directly to support PLTW in the Saline Area Schools. 

In addition, there will be a Silent Auction during the Open House on Monday, with an opportunity to win a Samsung Laptop and Video Camera Package.

For questions regarding the Open House, please contact Steve Laatsch, 429-8002 or laatschs@saline.k12.mi.us.