By Heather Lusk
The Project Lead the Way curriculum, offered to seventh and eighth graders for the past several years, has been approved for high school and fifth and sixth grade students for the 2016-17 school year.
“I think that it’s a really sound curriculum,” Zionsville Middle School principal Sean Conner said. “It’s project oriented and allows kids to learn to solve problems in a project-oriented way, understanding what the design process is all about.”
Conner and other school officials say they feel this will fill the gap between the materials students are learning in the elementary schools and the PLTW curriculum in place in seventh grade. The school board, at their January meeting, approved the course addition for all middle school students.
The program will not replace science classes but will enhance them with a focus on coding, programming and problem solving. This will be one of four, nine-week courses including art, health and physical education.
Two teachers, one at each middle school, will be added to teach the course throughout the year.
Conner expressed appreciation to those who supported the referendum, through which funding is available for the two teachers.
“We’re very pleased that we’re able to support our kids the way that we’d like to,” he said.
Budget cuts had made it necessary for media specialists to fill the gap of a nine-week program in years past. They will now be able to focus primarily on assisting students with research for their language arts, social studies and science classes.
“We think kids will be really energized about this learning,” Conner said.
