is a joint initiative between Northwest Iowa Community College and several area high schools. Utilizing grant funds from Iowa Economic Development and the KERN Family Foundation, we began offering courses in 2009. Each year we will continue to build the programs by adding new students and new courses. This curriculum prepares students for demanding two-year and four-year college engineering programs.
- Sibley-Ocheyedan
- MOC-Floyd Valley
- Sioux Center
- Unity
- Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn
- South O’Brien
- NCC
PLTW's curriculum makes math and science relevant for students. By engaging in hands-on, real-world projects, students understand how the skills they are learning in the classroom can be applied in everyday life. This approach is called activities-based learning, project-based learning and problem-based learning or APPB-learning.
Research shows that schools practicing APPB-learning experience an increase in student motivation, an increase in cooperative learning skills and higher-order thinking and an improvement in student achievement.
All PLTW high school courses have several underlying content areas in common. As students progress through the sequence they will become proficient in:
- working as a contributing member of a team
- leading a team
- using appropriate written and/or visual mediums to communicate with a wide variety of audiences
- public speaking
- listening to the needs and ideas of others
- understanding the potential impact their ideas and products may have on society
- thinking
- problem solving
- managing time, resources and projects
- researching
- going beyond the classroom for answers
- data collection and analysis
- preparing for two and four-year college programs
High School: Pathway To Engineering
The structured yet flexible high school program offers students in-depth, hands-on knowledge of engineering and technology-based careers. The three-tiered approach to learning flows from foundation courses to specialization courses to a capstone course.
Pathway to Engineering™'s three tiers:
Foundation Courses:
- Introduction to Engineering Design™
- Principles of Engineering™
- Digital Electronics™
Specialization Courses:
- Aerospace Engineering™
- Biotechnical Engineering™
- Civil Engineering and Architecture™
- Computer Integrated Manufacturing™
Capstone Course:
- Engineering Design and Development™
To read more about this curriculum, click on this link to the National PLTW website or click on the arrow in this video clip.
If you have questions about PLTW and NCC, please:
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