Northwestern State University, the Louisiana affiliate for Project Lead the Way, hosted a Gateway to Technology workshop for middle school teachers who are implementing PLTW in their classrooms this fall. Nine middle school teachers from Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio and New York participated in the intense two-week PLTW Boot Camp that includes classroom instruction, projects and team activities June 5-18.

Teachers learned to use a three-dimensional (3D) modeling tool, Autodesk Inventor, to create conceptual sketches of objects. This is the same software used by industry for designing products and laying out manufacturing facilities. The sketches were then used to create fully developed 3D models.

Finally, the 3D models were reduced to two-dimensional orthographic drawings suitable for use by builders to construct the object. Middle school students will use the Inventor application to develop projects that they will later build in a laboratory.

During one session, participants divided into teams to build a production line simulation. Using the ROBO-Pro program, each team built one station of a production line, working together to create a whole unit that began with a raw material and ended with a boxed product ready for shipment.

The teachers will present this project and others like it in Gateway to Technology classes with their PLTW students.

"This is the culminating activity of automation robotics," said Phil Brown, NSU's PLTW affiliate professor. "They are constructing small production units, operated with an interface. They build the unit from kits and program it to do the operations they want to do. There is no set design and the solution is not given to them. They have to invent the solution. The units must communicate and all work together to get the line completed. It's a total simulation of a manufacturing process."

Project Lead the Way is a non-profit program that integrates math, science, language arts and technology in projects that encourage middle school and high school students to become aware of careers in the areas of science, technology, mathematics and engineering.

Administrators hope the program will help today's youngsters be productive in domestic and global workforce markets and attract high tech industry to Louisiana.

Ricky Latiolais, a teacher at N.P. Moss Middle School in Lafayette, will be teaching Gateway to Technology for the first time this fall. Latiolais is a former electrical engineer turned science teacher. "I think the more hands-on type of projects will pique my students' interest," he said.

PLTW master teacher David Reeve of Idaho led the workshop. Reeve conducts two to three of the more than 30 summer workshops PLTW presents across the country.

Reeve's background is in education technology and science and he has taught the program at schools in California and Idaho with positive results.

"I'm a big believer in offering the course to as broad a spectrum of students as possible," Reeve said. "This gives students the opportunity to apply math and science to solve real world problems and gives them a reason to get involved in math and science courses in high school."

Before the workshop was over, the middle school teachers were set to tackle projects related to energy and the environment. Equipment included photocells, fuel cells for generating hydrogen, and windmills to expose students to different potential sources of electrical power generation.

NSU will host two more training workshops for high school teachers in July and August.