Project Lead the Way, commonly referred to as PLTW, is a national program in which STEM principles are produced in high school friendly curriculum. STEM is the common acronym associated with majors in college such as engineering, the sciences, the medical field, architecture, etc.
As such the PLTW program has three main tracks: Engineering, Biomedical, and Computer Science. Each of these realms of PLTW have four year programs at Saint Joe. Saint Joe offers all of the computer science and Biomedical courses throughout the four years.
However, for PLTW engineering, Saint Joe only offers the first two preliminary courses, one speciality course, and the capstone course. This is because there are a large variety of speciality courses for engineering: such as civil and aerospace.
Both the engineering and computer science tracks switch out their speciality course and capstone course each year in order to increase the class size to a sustainable amount. This means that juniors and seniors in the program are grouped together.
Computer science courses have 2 possible years of AP credit in AP-PLTW Computer Science principles and Computer Science A. PLTW Engineering has dual credit opportunities at Ivy tech for the first 3 years of the program. Some college’s, like Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute, accept PLTW engineering courses for college credit.
These courses are extremely useful for those wanting to go into a STEM major in college or trade school. The courses have hands-on projects that truly immerse students into what a profession and schooling in the field may look like.
