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Young Engineers Build Their Futures: Project Lead the Way Will Expand to More Schools, Giving Students Hands-on Experience.

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Joyce Tsai, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Jun. 6--They design bridges. They build robots. They invent no-touch light switches. They devise solutions for the traffic problems in their town.

And they haven't yet graduated from high school.

In the last few years, high school students in the Lee's Summit and Grandview school districts have been getting hands-on experience in engineering through Project Lead the Way.

This fall the program will be offered in seven more area school districts: Park Hill, Liberty, North Kansas City, Blue Springs, Raytown, Shawnee Mission and Fort Osage.

The districts will train teachers in July so they can offer the introductory class, Introduction to Engineering Design, in September.

They plan to add classes every year: principles of engineering, digital electronics, computer integrated manufacturing, civil engineering and architecture, and biotechnical and aerospace engineering.

Offered by 2,000 schools nationwide, the program began about 10 years ago as a response to the lack of college and graduate students studying engineering in the United States.

In Lee's Summit, more than 200 students were enrolled in the recently completed school year, and student interest has only grown, said Bob White, director of the Summit Technology Academy."What we are finding is that students enjoy these courses much more than the traditional drafting and physics classes because they are much more hands on," he said.

In their assignments, students use Autodesk Inventor software, which engineering professionals employ to create 3-D models of projects.

In many school districts, about 40 percent to 50 percent of the program's costs are covered through a grant from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education -- except for equipment under $200 and the Inventor software package that costs about $8,000, said Curtis Cain, Park Hill's director of curriculum and professional development.

For example, the Park Hill district plans to spend about $123,200 over three years to implement the program. The state grant will cover about $50,000, he said.

Many state, federal and private-sector grants -- such as the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's more than $1.2 million matching funds and a U.S. Department of Labor grant for $540,000 as part of the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Initiative -- support the program, allowing it to take a step forward in the Kansas City area, said Laura Loyacono.

Loyacono is regional director of Project Lead the Way at the Metropolitan Community College.

At Park Hill High School, the two classes of 25 students each already are filled for next year's introductory course, said John Milholland, industrial technology teacher at the school.

"They are excited, and I think it's definitely going to give them a head start in the field," he said.

Milholland said he hoped the program also would decrease the math and science intimidation factor. Many students often are afraid of the math and science involved in engineering, White said.

"They have a misconception that they must be in the top 1 percent of their class," he said.

"But they can be in the top 2 percent or top 30 percent of the class," Milholland said. "The main thing is they have to be problem-solvers."

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To reach Joyce Tsai, call (816) 234-5914 or send e-mail to jtsai@kcstar.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

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