PLTW Launch (K-5)
Amazing Discoveries Start Here
Inspiring. Engaging. Empowering.
Your K-5 students already have the qualities of great designers and innovators. What PLTW Launch does is tap into their exploratory nature, engage them in learning that feels like play, and encourage them to keep discovering – now and for years to come.
PLTW Launch’s 24 interdisciplinary modules bring learning to life. The program empowers students to adopt a design-thinking mindset through compelling activities, projects, and problems that build upon each other and relate to the world around them. And as students engage in hands-on activities in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science, they become creative, collaborative problem solvers ready to take on any challenge.
Building a Strong Foundation for Middle School, High School, and Beyond
Each PLTW Launch module engages students in cross-disciplinary activities that spark a lifelong love of learning and build knowledge and skills in areas including computer science, engineering, and biomedical science. In addition, each module empowers students to develop essential skills such as problem solving, critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and perseverance.
Aligned to Kindergarten Standards
Structure and Function: Exploring Design
Students discover the design process, identify products around them designed by engineers, and use what they’ve learned to design their own paintbrushes.
Pushes and Pulls
Students investigate different pushes and pulls and apply what they know to a swing set-installation project.
Structure and Function: Human Body
Students explore the relationship between structure and function in the human body and design a cast.
Animals and Algorithms
Students explore the ways people control and use technology, as well as program their own digital animations.
Aligned to First Grade Standards
Light and Sound
Students investigate light and sound and design a tool to communicate over a distance.
Light: Observing the Sun, Moon, and Stars
Students build upon their knowledge of light and design a playground structure that protects students from UV radiation.
Animal Adaptions
Students learn about animal adaptations and apply what they’ve learned to design a shoe made for desert exploration.
Animated Storytelling
Students build computational-thinking skills by creating animations based on their own short stories.
Aligned to Second Grade Standards
Materials Science: Properties of Matter
Students explore materials science and devise a way to keep popsicles cold – without a cooler.
Materials Science: Form and Function
Students research the variety of ways animals disperse seeds and pollinate plants and use what they know to design a gardening device.
The Changing Earth
Students explore how the surface of the Earth is always changing and design solutions for a fictional community threatened by a landslide.
Grids and Game
Students learn about the sequence and structure required in computer programs and work in teams to build tablet games.
Aligned to Third Grade Standards
Stability and Motion: Science of Flight
Students learn about the forces involved in flight and design a solution to deliver aid supplies via an aircraft.
Stability and Motion: Forces and Interactions
Students explore simple machines such as wheel and axles, levers, the inclined plane, and more and then use what they know to rescue a trapped zoo animal.
Variation of Trails
Students investigate the differences between inherited genetic traits and traits that are learned or influenced by the environment and then model how the gene for a plant’s stem color is passed on.
Programming Patterns
Students discover the power of modularity and abstraction and then use what they know to create a video game for a tablet.
Aligned to Fourth Grade Standards
Energy: Collisions
Students investigate how mechanisms change energy by transferring direction, speed, type of movement, and force and then use what they know to design a car safety belt.
Energy: Conversion
Students learn how energy can be converted to meet a human need or want and then develop solutions to move donated food from a truck to a food pantry.
Input/Output: Computer Systems
Students explore how computers work and create a reaction-time computer program to assess a baseline before a concussion occurs.
Input/Output: Human Brain
Students learn about stimuli and responses and then use what they know to create a video to teach children about concussions.
Aligned to Fifth Grade Standards
Robotics and Automation
Students explore the ways robots are used in today’s world and then design a mobile robot that can remove hazardous materials from a disaster site.
Robotics and Automation: Challenge
Students explore mechanical design and computer programming and design an automatic-guided vehicle to deliver supplies in a hospital.
Infection: Detection
Students explore the transmission of infection and run an experiment to help find ways to prevent the spread of illness.
Infection: Modeling and Simulation
Students investigate models and simulations and apply their knowledge to program a model that simulates the spread of infections.
A Transformative Professional Development Experience Centered on Student and Teacher Success
PLTW Launch professional development is a dynamic learning experience for teachers focused on robust and flexible instructional support, on-demand resources, and a close-knit community of collaboration with fellow educators.
We use a train-the-trainer model for PLTW Launch professional development. Each PLTW Launch program has at least one PLTW Launch Lead Teacher who attends Core Training taught by experts in PLTW Launch module content and activity-, project-, problem-based pedagogy. The Lead Teacher collaborates with administration to design the Launch implementation that fits the needs of their students and school and conducts on-site training for all classroom teachers who plan to teach PLTW Launch modules. PLTW Launch teachers then complete grade-level specific training online to further prepare them for classroom instruction.
Throughout the school year, all PLTW Launch teachers engage in our online Ongoing Training, which empowers teachers to deepen understanding through continuing education.
Student-Centered, Balanced Assessment
Our assessment experts apply industry best practices and methods to design, test, and implement assessments for our network of schools. A summative assessment is available within each PLTW Launch module. This check for understanding targets specific knowledge and skills gained throughout the module.