STEM Engineering Courses and Descriptions
Year 1: PLTW Engineering Foundations
This course is the entry-level course of the Project Lead the Way™ Pathway to Engineering curriculum. The major focus of IED is the design process and its application. Through hands-on projects, students apply engineering standards and document their work. Students use industry standard 3D modeling software to help them design solutions to solve proposed problems, document their work using an engineer’s notebook, and communicate solutions to peers and members of the professional community.
Year 2: PLTW Engineering Foundations 2
This course is a continuation of the Project Lead the Way™ Pathway to Engineering curriculum. This survey course exposes students to major concepts they’ll encounter in a post-secondary engineering course of study. Topics include mechanisms, energy, statics, materials, and kinematics. They develop problem-solving skills and apply their knowledge of research and design to create solutions to various challenges, document their work and communicate solutions.
Year 3: PLTW Aerospace Engineering
This course is offered to students who have completed all content standards in the Engineering Foundations program of study. This course explores the evolution of flight, navigation and control, flight fundamentals, aerospace materials, propulsion, space travel, and orbital mechanics. In addition, this course presents alternative applications for aerospace engineering concepts. Students analyze, design, and build aerospace systems. They apply knowledge gained throughout the course in a final presentation about the future of the industry and their professional goals.
Year 3: PLTW Environmental Engineering
This course is offered to students who have completed all content standards in the Engineering Foundations program of study. In this course students investigate and design solutions in response to real-world challenges related to clean and abundant drinking water, food supply issues, and renewable energy. Applying knowledge of engineering, biology, and ecology through hands-on activities and simulations, students research and design potential solutions to these true-to-life challenges.
Year 4: Engineering Design and Development
This course is the capstone course of the Project Lead the Way Pathway to Engineering curriculum. In this capstone course, students work in teams to design and develop an original solution to a valid open-ended technical problem by applying the engineering design process. Students perform research to choose, validate, and justify a technical problem. After carefully defining the problem, teams design, build, and test their solutions while working closely with industry professionals who provide mentoring opportunities. Finally, student teams present and defend their original solution to an outside panel. Upon successful completion of this program, students will be prepared for entry into an Engineering program at the college level.