The best part of teaching a Project Lead the Way class?

The students who take the challenging engineering and biomedical courses are self-motivated.

“The kids that take these classes are high flyers,” said Nancy Berg, East Ridge High School science department chair. “They’re not just here for a credit.”

Officials from the Minnesota Department of Education, Project Lead the Way and professionals in the field of science were at Woodbury and East Ridge high schools this week as the schools sought Project Lead the Way certification: Woodbury for engineering and East Ridge for engineering and biomedical sciences.

East Ridge was fully certified for both, Principal Aaron Harper reported this morning. It is now the first school in Minnesota to cement its status as a Project Lead the Way (PLTW) biomedical sciences school.

Woodbury was given provisional certification for its engineering program. That was primarily due to it being a year younger than the East Ridge programs, Woodbury Principal Linda Plante said.

Meanwhile, the PLTW rules have changed, Plante said, and Woodbury will be able to offer three of the program's courses next year; the school initially assumed it would be a few years before it would be able to add the new classes.

"It gives us a chance to get us moving at a much faster pace," she said.

The certification group toured East Ridge on Tuesday, checking out the facilities, talking with students, teachers and counselors, and ensuring the PLTW curriculum is being taught correctly.

“They basically do an audit,” Harper said. “They look at the students’ work, our facilities, technology, how we’re teaching, even students’ portfolios and notebooks.”

Project Lead the Way is an advanced set of courses aimed at preparing high school students for college-level classes. There is also the opportunity to earn college credits through the program.

Jim Mecklenburg, PLTW program director, said the two-day sessions at Woodbury and East Ridge were “quality-control visits.” The program and its curriculum are meant to address a labor shortage in the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields, he said, and also spur students to take an interest in those subjects.  

Judging by the responses of students in Berg’s classroom Tuesday, the initiative is working.

“It’s really interesting,” said Kristin Kamrath, a 16-year-old student at East Ridge. “You definitely learn a lot.”

Kamrath, who wants to pursue a career in nursing, said she enjoys the hands-on aspects of her PLTW classes. “That helps me learn better,” she said.

At a nearby table, fellow East Ridge student Ali Gaildon, a 15-year-old Woodbury resident, was learning about genes and proteins. He said he appreciates the wide variety of course offerings as he prepares for a future job in science.

“This is helping me choose (a career) because we go through everything in the biomedical field,” Gaildon said.

It was similar at Woodbury High School this week, Plante said, and the certification group was impressed by "how excited the kids were." One student told PLTW officials that he looks forward to his engineering class all day, Plante said.

Jane Foote, executive director of HealthForce Minnesota, was among the group looking at how East Ridge has implemented PLTW on Tuesday. “Verify, qualify and amplify,” she said of the group’s task.

“And everything looks great so far,” she said.

Foote, a nurse, said the health sciences field is expected to grow by 30 percent over the next few years and keeping kids interested in science will help them secure a job when they enter the workforce.

“You can’t outsource health care,” she said.

Foote is a supporter of Project Lead the Way.

“I think it holds great potential for transforming how we educate this age group,” she said.

In class on Tuesday, Berg said students were learning about amino acids, “designer proteins” and the DNA code. It was part of a lesson on how scientists are fighting multiple sclerosis.

“These are sophomore college-level concepts,” said Berg, the first PLTW biomedical science teacher certified under the program.

Teachers have to go through a two-week “boot camp” to be able to teach PLTW courses, she said.

“For us, it’s fabulous,” Berg said. “I could never develop a curriculum like this. The biggest value is it makes kids think. It’s not garbage in, garbage out.”

There is more hands-on work and less lecture time in PLTW classes, Berg said, and that helps students develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

“This makes them responsible for their own education,” she said.

Plante said Woodbury have at least two, and possibly three, teachers go through PLTW certification courses this summer. She also said that the group would return next year as Woodbury seeks full PLTW certification.

Woodbury has a strong tradition of students pursuing engineering in college, Plante said, and the classes help because many colleges report that engineering has one of the highest rates of students changing majors. The PLTW classes gives students a better sense of what they'll face when they hit post-secondary education.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for a hands-on experience," Plante said.