ROGERS -- More than 100 Rogers Heritage High School students are learning about engineering through a program that's new to the school and becoming increasingly popular in Northwest Arkansas.
Project Lead the Way offers courses in engineering, biomedical science and computer science for high schools. The curriculum for all three paths emphasizes hands-on, collaborative learning.
"I'm not telling them, 'This is what works best.' They're doing it on their own," said Jay Gilstrap, who teaches five sections of Project Lead the Way's introduction to engineering design course at Heritage High. "It's been a really good fit. I think the students really enjoy it."
Earlier this month, for example, Gilstrap's students were challenged to design and build a bridge connecting two desks using only a single piece of letter-size paper. The goal was to come up with the longest bridge. Students were not allowed to fasten either end of their bridges to the desks or support their bridges with anything besides the paper. The winning design turned out to be nearly 44 inches long, Gilstrap said.
"It's not answering textbook questions all the time or watching PowerPoint presentations," said Seth Madewell, 15, a Heritage High sophomore in one of Gilstrap's classes.
Matt Cochran, a 15-year-old sophomore, said he took a drafting and design class last year. It was replaced by the introduction to engineering design course.
"I was skeptical, but I like this a lot more," Cochran said.
The Rogers School District received a grant of $90,264 from the state Department of Career Education to help cover equipment, materials, supplies and teacher training for introduction to engineering and the follow-up course, principles of engineering, which will be implemented next year. Students who make it through those two courses may take additional engineering courses that are more specialized, according to Dawn Stewart, the district's director of career and technical education.
Both of the district's high schools were approved for Project Lead the Way, but the grant was only enough to cover the program at one school. The district will submit another grant request this year to implement the program at Rogers High School, Stewart said.
Project Lead the Way originated in 1986 when a high school teacher in upstate New York began offering pre-engineering and digital electronics classes to encourage his students to study engineering. More than 8,000 schools across the country have adopted the program, according to its website.
At least a dozen Northwest Arkansas schools have implemented Project Lead the Way. Among them is Prairie Grove High School, which Principal Ron Bond said is in its fourth year with the program.
Prairie Grove chose to pursue it when then-Gov. Mike Beebe announced his STEM Works initiative -- an effort to strengthen science, technology, engineering and math education in high schools and universities.
The school offers Project Lead the Way's entire engineering pathway of courses and enrolls about 25 students per grade in those classes. Bond hopes to add the computer science pathway starting next year.
"We are really sold on the program," he said.
Kelly Parker is a Project Lead the Way teacher at Bentonville High School, which also offers the full slate of the program's engineering courses. Parker, like Gilstrap in Rogers, teaches the introduction to engineering design class.
"They are really popular classes. We have more students sign up than we can take," Parker said. "What draws them is it's a project-based class, and they're actually doing something."
One lesson in the class involves taking apart a toy car and analyzing its function, structure and visual aspects.
"Why is the axle positioned the way it is? Why does the wheel have tread? It may seem elementary, but it's the same thought process that would go into designing a real car," Parker said.
Another lesson involves students from different sections of the same course working together on a project. That's meant to simulate the real-world complications of working with other engineers who live in another time zone, perhaps on the other side of the world.
"The emphasis is on communication," Parker said.
The program also will be offered at Bentonville's West High School when it opens next year, she said.
The majority of students enrolling in Project Lead the Way classes are boys. Both Gilstrap and Parker said about 10 percent of their students are girls.
Madison Hamil, 17, is a senior at Heritage High School taking the introduction to engineering design course. She previously took drafting and design as well as architectural computer-aided design. Hamil said her mother prodded her toward a career in architecture because she noticed Hamil had an eye for detail.
"I don't know why girls don't have an interest in this," Hamil said. "It's so intriguing to me. I love these classes, and I always have."
Parker, who has a master's degree in environmental science, said there's a push to get girls at the fifth- and sixth-grade levels interested in the STEM-related fields of study.
"By the time you're in junior high, you've figured out math and science aren't your thing," Parker said.
Metro on 09/14/2015