Nation’s Leading STEM Education Program Expands from 3,500 Schools to 4,000; Hundreds of Teachers Prepare Their Classrooms For a New School Year of Igniting the Imagination and Innovation in Students Through STEM Education

Clifton Park, New York -- In the coming weeks, Project Lead The Way (PLTW) will welcome back nearly 350,000 students to PLTW classrooms, including 500 new programs that brings the total number to approximately 4,000 schools throughout the country.  PLTW teachers are gearing up for another exciting year of engaging middle school and high school students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.  During the summer, approximately 2,800 teachers participated in an intense two-week training course, which every PLTW teacher must complete in order to lead a PLTW classroom.  In addition, thousands of students attended more than 200 of PLTW’s Gateway Academy summer program designed to help students begin to develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they are going to need to compete for the jobs of the 21st century. 

“It is with great excitement that we welcome PLTW students and their parents back to school,” said John Lock, CEO of Project Lead The Way.  “Each year we witness new and inspiring accomplishments by our students, from new inventions and national awards to completing patents for their innovations and winning national engineering contests.  We’ve expanded the number of programs so that more students have access to PLTW and we are all eager to see the next generation of innovators return to the classroom where they will develop their skills and their own creative solutions to our worlds’ greatest challenges.”

PLTW’s curriculum engages middle-school and high-school students through hands-on activities while providing a proven path to academic and professional success in STEM fields. Students can apply what they learn in math and science classes to real-world problems, showing them the relevancy of what they are learning.  The organization’s project-based learning program emphasizes critical thinking, creativity and innovative reasoning, while fostering a love of learning. Studies have shown that PLTW students are more engaged in learning than their peers and more likely to attend college and major in STEM-related fields than non-PLTW students.   

Members of the media are welcome to visit with PLTW teachers, students and partners at a PLTW school in their community.  To set up a visit, please contact Lisa Cohen at lcohen@pltw.org.

 
About Project Lead The Way

Project Lead The Way, Inc., is a national, non-profit organization that is the leading provider of rigorous and innovative STEM education curricular programs used in K-12 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. 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 approximately 4,000 middle and high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 350,000 students are expected to take a PLTW course during the coming school year. For more information, visit www.pltw.org.

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