All of the Winning Teams Announced by Governor Strickland Are PLTW Schools as Students Use Their STEM Education Class Skills to Win Statewide Competition Clifton Park, NY -- Project Lead The Way announced today that the winners in Ohio’s “Real World Design Challenge” were all teams comprised of PLTW students. PLTW’s hands-on, project based curriculum prepares students for college and career success in STEM fields, and its students are already using their classroom skills to excel at high school competitions around the country. "PLTW educators spend every day in the classroom encouraging students to be curious about how things work and to embrace the challenge of solving real-world problems," said John Lock, CEO of Project Lead The Way. "All of their hard work in the classroom is really paying off. We are excited about the enthusiasm that all Ohio students are showing for innovation and congratulate the PLTW schools that performed so well in the statewide competition. We hope that Ohioans will attend the STEM conference next week to see first-hand the incredible work our students did in this competition." The Ohio Real World Design Challenge is a national competition that provides high school students an opportunity to work on real world engineering challenges. First place went to the Kettering Fairmont High School’s PLTW team, which will compete in the national Real World Design Challenge in March. PLTW Teams from Metro Early College High School and Thomas Worthington High School were also recognized as top scorers. The student’s projects will be showcased at Ohio’s STEM conference at COSI in Columbus on March 2. Additional information on the competition is available at http://www.realworlddesignchallenge.org/ About Project Lead The Way (PLTW) PLTW is a national, non-profit organization that provides rigorous and innovative science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for middle schools and high schools. The PLTW comprehensive curriculum, which is collaboratively developed by PLTW teachers, university educators, engineering and biomedical professionals, and school administrators, emphasizes critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and real-world problem solving. The hands-on, project-based program engages students on multiple levels, exposes them to areas of study that they typically do not pursue, and provides them with a foundation and proven path to college and career success in STEM-related fields. PLTW began in 1998 in 12 high schools in upstate New York as a program designed to address the shortage of engineering students at the college level and has grown to a network of almost 3,400 middle and high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 300,000 students are enrolled in PLTW courses. For more information, visit www.pltw.org. ##