My name is Christa Parlacoski and I am a Project Lead The Way lead teacher at Keystone. Bristol Township has been a PLTW school district since the early 2000’s. Truman High School offers various tracks for students to specialize their courses in order to become better candidates for STEM focused majors in college. The work of Project Lead The Way through the Verizon Foundation grants at both our middle schools, which have provided iPads, science resources and materials, teacher training, and most recently the creation of Makerspaces. Project Lead The Way is an organization committed to bringing science and engineering focused curriculum to schools K-12. Through PLTW, the district has been able to secure grants that provide funds to pay for resources, materials, training, and access for students and teachers.

At the elementary level, students participate in a series of modules that provide problem-based project learning opportunities. Students are engaged in meaningful lessons that show them how science, math, and engineering principles work together to find a solution to a problem. Through problem-based project learning, students learn how to work cooperatively, think creatively, and understand that failure can often be a good thing which leads to great accomplishments. Each module has a series of lessons that start with teacher assistance and move toward a student led project which showcases their understanding of engineering concepts and principles. We are committed to increasing access to STEM curriculum at Keystone and are working to gradually increase resources to ensure access for every student to science education.

Ms. Waldron, Ms. Burgess, Ms. Wilhelm and their classes are all participating in PTLW. The children see themselves as engineers and scientists. This is an important outcome for our students. It is empowering!