Project Lead the Way

In this course, students use 3D solid modeling design software to help them create solutions to solve proposed problems.  Students will learn how to document their work and communicate solutions to peers and members of the professional community.  The major focus of the IED course is to expose students to the design process, research and analysis, teamwork, communication methods, global and human impacts, engineering standards, and technical documentation.

This survey course of engineering exposes students to major concepts they’ll encounter in a post-secondary engineering course of study.  Students employ engineering and scientific concepts in the solution of engineering design problems.  They develop problem-solving skills and apply their knowledge of research and design to create solutions to various challenges, documenting their work and communicating solutions to peers and members of the professional community.  

Design and build logic circuits and robots.  Digital electronics is the foundation of all modern electronic devices such as cellular phones, laptop computers, digital cameras and high-definition televisions. The major focus of the DE course is to expose students to the process of combinational and sequential logic design, teamwork, communication methods, engineering standards and technical documentation. Students will design the logic and physically build a series of projects including message displays for digital scoreboards, a toll booth gate that opens and closes, and a device that detects jams in copy machines.  Students will also construct and program small robots to move in particular ways.

In this capstone course, students work in teams to design and develop an original solution to a valid open-ended technical problem by applying the engineering design process. Students perform research to choose, validate, and justify a technical problem. After carefully defining the problem, teams design, build, and test their solutions while working closely with industry professionals who provide mentoring opportunities. Finally, student teams present and defend their original solution to an outside panel. This course is appropriate for 12th grade students and is not an official Project Lead the Way course.