Perkiomen Valley Wins Best Design (from left to right - Andrew Lohr, Bert Spangler - PV PLTW teacher, Alex Dachille, Brian Munz, Nick Fisher, Taryn Monteleone, Linda Spangler)
Lakeland Wins Best Presentation First Year School! (from left to right - Tyler Piatt, Tyler Stracham, JJ Rojenches, Kyle Cosgrove, Matt Clum, - Missing from the picture, Lakeland PLTW Teacher William Freeman)
	Forest City Wins Best Teamwork First Year School! (from left to right - Mitch Goben, Matthew Terry, Jeffrey Earle - Forest City PLTW teacher, Hope Hoanzl, Sonja Campbell)
Honorable Mention - Parkland High School Team Members - Alisha Rege, Marcus Spiegle, Allen Johnson, Tommy Shubert, Chris Jeffrey

By Tom Weiss - Affiliate Director PLTW, Penn State Berks

The Third Annual Pennsylvania PLTW Design Challenge celebrated Engineer's Week on February 17, 2010. Participating high schools were:

(Click on the school to see their team)

Brandywine Heights Area High School, Mertztown, PA
Delaware Valley High School, Milford, PA
Forest City Regional High School, Forest City, PA
Hamburg High School, Hamburg, PA
Hempfield High School, Landisville, PA
James Buchanan High School, Mercersburg, PA
Lakeland Senior High School, Jermyn, PA
McCaskey East High School, Lancaster, PA
Montour High School, McKees Rocks, PA
Norristown High School, Norristown, PA
Parkland High School, Allentown, PA
Perkiomen Valley High School, Collegeville, PA
Reading High School, Reading, PA
Twin Valley High School, Elverson, PA
Wilson High School, West Lawn, PA
York Suburban High School, York, PA

More Pictures

Wind turbines! In downtown Reading, Pennsylvania? You're kidding, right? No, they were there all right. In all sizes, shapes, and capacities. Read on!

Teams of five PLTW students from 16 Pennsylvania high schools arrived at Goggleworks Center for The Arts in downtown Reading with no idea what they were going to design, build, and demonstrate to an outside panel of judges from Cartech in Reading. At 8:30 am, all teams received a box of identical construction materials and a Design Challenge Brief. The Challenge this year - design and build functioning wind turbines using only the materials given. Construction materials consisted of items such as a small DC motor, gears and a gear box, rubber bands, wooden dowels, paper clips, glue sticks, and other similar items. All teams had just 2 1/2 hours to complete the project and prepare a short presentation and demonstration. Students used skills learned in the first two PLTW Foundation Courses, Introduction To Engineering Design and Principles of Engineering, to complete their task.

The "wind" supplied for testing consisted of box fans located in "windy corner".

If their design did not perform as intended, students also provided a redesign statement indicating what they might do differently given the time. Four categories of awards were available.

Other Stories Covering the PA PLTW Design Challenge

The Reading Eagle

WFMZ-TV

About Project Lead The Way

PLTW has developed a four-year sequence of courses called Pathway To Engineering. When combined with college preparatory mathematics and science courses in high school, Pathway introduces students to the scope, rigor and discipline of engineering and engineering technology prior to entering college. Introduction at this level will attract more students to engineering and engineering technology, and will allow students, while still in high school, to determine if engineering is the career they desire. Students participating in PLTW courses are better prepared for college engineering programs and more likely to be successful, reducing the attrition rate in these college programs, which currently exceeds 50% nationally.

In addition, PLTW has developed an exciting Middle School Technology Curriculum. Gateway To Technology, designed for grades 6 - 8, shows students how technology and engineering solves everyday problems.

For more information about Project Lead The Way in Pennsylvania, please contact:

Tom Weiss, Affiliate Director - Penn State Berks Telephone:  610-396-6313  610-396-6313 Email