Chalmette High students who are aspiring engineers will have a head start in their studies thanks to a new pre-engineering program debuting this year at the school. The school has enrolled in Project Lead the Way!, a nationally-recognized engineering preparation program endorsed by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education. The program is used in over 3,500 schools nation-wide.
The program consists of 4-5 courses that students will take in their junior and senior years of high school. The first two, Introduction to Engineering Design and Principles of Engineering, are being offered this school year. In the first course, students learn to apply design processes in order to problem solve and improve existing products or invent new ones. In the second course, students will use activities, projects, and problems to explore the connection between engineering and technology.
"These courses will explore careers and concepts in engineering in relation to academic content in geometry, algebra, measurement, statistics, trigonometry, and physics," said Kelli Watson, who along with Amy Hasse teaches the engineering courses. "For example, one of the first projects for our students had to do with exploring the engineering design of an existing product of choice and determining the advantages of that product being engineered in its particular fashion."
As time progresses, students will also have the opportunity to take Digital Electronics, a Capstone course where students problem-solve with their own prototypes, and a specialty course in Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Biotechnical Engineering or Computer Integrated Engineering. "These courses will correlate to college courses, and our students will be able to realize college credit for their work in high school," Watson said.
The new course of studies is funded through a grant to the school district by Exxon-Mobil Foundation. That grant provided project start-up costs and training for Watson and Haase this past summer in delivery of the engineering courses. Both teachers are mathematics majors.
"We hope that as more students learn about the impact these courses could have on their future studies that they will become a part of the program. We definitely would recommend these courses of study to any student who intends to major in engineering in college," said Haase.
| 
