PLTW Teacher

Greetings! This is the page of your friendly neighborhood Project Lead the Way teacher, Laurel Hawkins. This is my 29th year teaching, and my 10th year specifically teaching PLTW. I am a graduate of UNC-Charlotte for my undergrad and for my masters in Instructional Technology. Before taking on the role as PLTW teacher, I taught grades 6-8 mathematics as well as science. While I love teaching Project Lead the Way courses, in my spare time I love reading and gardening to unwind.

Courses in PLTW I Teach 2026-27 School Year:

- Design and Modeling - This is an exploratory engineering course where students experience the engineering design process. Students do this through breaking down a problem, creating various solutions to that problem, testing the solutions, and determining the best solution for the design challenge. (6th Grade)

- Automation and Robotics - We explore uses of robots and how they are changing the job market. Then we look at the practical side- building and stringing together different gear structures before automating those gear with motors and sensors using coding. (7th Grade)

- Automation and Robotics 2.0 - We are still exploring various uses of robots this year, but we are also more focused on the automation aspects. We will be building and automating early on this semester as well as exploring various sensors (function and how to program) as we build. (8th Grade)

Contact Information:

If you would like to contact me the best way is usually email. My email address is laurel.hawkins@bcsemail.org and I try my hardest to respond within 24 hours.

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