Forest City Middle School (from left to right - Michael Kitchura, Neal Albright, Quintin Sloan, Cullen Flood, Alexander O'Neill |
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Abington Heights High School (from left to right - : Matt Gronsky, Jeff Roba, Jason Bamford, Brian Vietz, and Josie LaCoe |
Hamburg High School (from left to right - Josh Buchalter,
Kurt Kissinger,
Joey Parent, |
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Parkland High School (from left to right - Seth Bartynski, Becca Walton, Egor Ivanov, |
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By Tom Weiss - Affiliate Director PLTW, Penn State Berks
The Fourth Annual Eastern Pennsylvania PLTW Design Challenge in celebration of Engineer's Week occurred on February 23, 2011 at Gogglework in Reading, PA. This year, PLTW PA, also held a Western Pennsylvania PLTW Design Challenge. For the first time, the Eastern Challenge included a middle schools division. Participating schools were:
| Radnor Middle School, Radnor, PA |
| Donegal Middle School, Donegal, PA |
| Forest City Middle School, Forest City, PA |
| Abington Heights High School, Clarks Summit, PA |
| Hamburg Area High School, Hamburg, PA |
| Wilson High School, West Lawn, PA |
| Radnor High School, Radnor, PA |
| Delaware Valley High School, Milford, PA |
| Twin Valley High School, Elverson, PA |
| Parkland High School, Allentown, PA |
| Reading High School, Reading, PA |
| Manheim Twp High School, Lancaster, PA |
| Hempfield High School, Landisville, PA |
| Brandywine Heights High School, Mertztown, PA |
| Forest City High School, Forest City, PA |
| Donegal High School, Donegal, PA |
| Norristown High School, Norristown, PA |
| Lakeland High School, Jermyn, PA |
| Susquehanna High School, Susquehanna, PA |
Mag-Lev. The stuff of science fiction stories? A recent phenomenon? No, actually the concept of magnetic levitation has been studied since 1906 when an attempt was made to build a mag lev train in Paris. For students of Pennsylvania PLTW middle and high schools however, this may have been the first time they met with the experience.
Teams of five PLTW students from 3 Pennsylvania PLTW middles schools and 15 PLTW 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 a functioning mag-lev hybrid vehicle. Construction materials consisted of items such as a small DC motor, permanent magnets, 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. Middle school students used skils learned in the first two units of Gateway to Technology while high school students used skills learned in the first two PLTW Foundation Courses, Introduction To Engineering Design and Principles of Engineering, to complete their task. 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.
To see videos of the winning teams efforts, click on the appropriate links above.
Other Links
Download the 2011 Design Challenge
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