COM M U N I T Y
BY: ROXANNE AVERY
Project Lead the Way
Innovative Curriculum Enhances Math, Science Learning in Moore, Norman
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or children who like math or science, there is a transformative learning opportunity available to further their education, according to officials at Moore Norman Technology Center. Project Lead the Way is a nonprofit organization that facilitates curriculum in science, technology, engineering and math education at public schools across the country, and it is being used in about 40 schools in the Moore and Norman school districts. Educators are introducing students from elementary school through high school to real-world curriculum in computer science, engineering and biomedical science. The Moore Norman Technology Center was recently recognized as a Project Lead the Way Distinguished School for a pre-engineering program the school has been offering since 2004. Moore-Norman Technology Center STEM Director Cole Atkinson said the award means a lot to their program. “We were one of 64 schools to receive this honor, so that’s a really cool award to win”. Schools are evaluated based on the number of courses they offer students and on student performance. Among its Project Lead the Way programs, the technology center offers computer science and engineering courses to high school freshmen and sophomores in all high schools within Moore and Norman public schools. More than 500 high school students were enrolled in the program last school year. As the original engineering program began to plateau, an expansion program was put into place in 2012, which 22 | December 2019
included students at Norman High School and Norman North High School. In 2015, the program expanded to Moore High School, Atkinson said, and in 2016, it started at Westmoore. In 2018, students at Southmoore could enroll. With three entry points to apply to the engineering program, students can apply as 8th graders to take the “Introduction to Engineering Design” class during their freshman year. Also, they can apply as freshman for the sophomore “Principles of Engineering” class, which is held at Moore Norman Technology Center. If they continue as juniors and seniors, they can take more advanced courses offered at the technology center, which include aerospace engineering, civil engineering, architecture, computer integrated manufacturing, computer science principles and digital electronics, Atkinson said. In addition to that, students can take physics, AP physics and BC calculus. Atkinson said the biggest deal about the program is the partnership between Norman Public Schools, Moore Public Schools, Project Lead the Way and Moore Norman Technology Center. “It was a creative offering as far as how to reach these kids because when they get to their junior or senior year, it’s hard to fit Moore Norman into their schedule,” Atkinson said. “By starting this as a freshman or sophomore, they have more time in their schedule to be introduced into the STEM pipeline.” “This is such a great partnership,” Atkinson said. “If I could have every student take this class, I would because it teaches a lot of life skills, such as how to deal with adversity and how to work through problems.” – 19SM
