The District 225 Glenbrook High School Board is expected to approve a digital course later this month for application of a new engineering and architecture lab/workshop.
The lab opened in November at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, where students apply knowledge in design and development of home and commercial properties and structures.
The spacious workshop emphasizes involving teenagers in hands-on projects and problem-based learning.
It houses a table and band saw, hand tools, a 3D printer, computers, flatscreen monitors, a laser engraver and other building equipment.
School board members heard a presentation Monday night on the new class, and they are expected to approve it at their Jan. 25 board meeting.
The yearlong honors course for juniors and seniors is named PLTW Digital for Project Lead The Way.
More than 200 corporations and universities are sponsoring the national PLTW program.
Its purpose is promoting courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, in middle and high schools in the United States.
Educators maintain a STEM education meets the demands of a high-tech world in a global economy.
“Students here in the lab take a national exam like in (Advanced Placement) courses and get college credits for passing it,” said Michael Sinde, a GBS engineering teacher, when the lab was completed in fall 2014.
“Last year we had to cut wood in the wood shop for making something in the lab. Now we cut it here,” he added, pointing to the band saw in the lab, also known as the makerspace lab.
In the new course students also will study circuit design tools for industrial use, including logic gates, integrated circuits and programmable logic devices.
Rosanne Williamson, district assistant superintendent of educational services, said installing a lab for Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook is under consideration.
“Student at Glenbrook South have shown success in enrolling in the PLTW program,” she said.
Sinde said the national dropout rate for college engineering students is 50 percent, yet the Milwaukee College of Engineering’s retention rate is 90 percent, due to students in Project Lead the Way, for instance.
“Before Project Lead the Way, our students were not following a path in technical classes, but just randomly choosing classes, like in the sciences,” said Dawn Hall, GBS instructional supervisor for careers and technical education.
Two GBS courses in the lab are civil engineering and architecture, and engineering design and development.
For freshmen through seniors, students also can take the foundational courses of introduction to engineering design and principals of engineering.
Prospective classes are aerospace engineering, biotechnical engineering, computer integrated manufacturing and digital electronics.
