See Jane Engineer: Summer Engineering Program Exposes Middle School Girls to Engineering Activities, Careers

Watch out Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison—the future faces of engineering are changing, thanks to summer programs like the 2010 Gateway Academy in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District (FCUSD). The 2010 Gateway Academy was held at Mitchell Middle School in Rancho Cordova June 7-10, 2010.

Sponsored by LEED-Linking Education and Economic Development, Intel, and The Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation (SME-EF), 30 FCUSD middle school girls spent the week learning the fundamentals of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and were encouraged to continue their experiences in Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Gate Way to Technology (GTT) course work at the middle and high school levels.

“Working with such a motivated and enthusiastic group of students and teachers has been the best experience of my teaching career,” said Dale Waldo, PLTW teacher at Mitchell Middle School. “We completed many projects successfully and the students and teachers gained many valuable insights into the amazing amounts of creativity that our young people possess. I am confident that many of these young women will move onto engineering and other careers with a high degree of success!”

Students were required to submit an application essay outlining their reasons for wanting to participate in the Gateway Academy. Some excerpts from the essays include:
“I will develop creative and scientific skills at Gateway Academy that will carry with me through my whole life. “ (Morgan Andrus, Mills Middle School)

“My dad makes machines at his job, so I would like to know more about what he does.” (Madeline Cariveau, Mitchell Middle School)

“My uncle is an engineer and says that I am smart enough to be one too.” (Alexis Pinkney, Mitchell Middle School)

Certified PLTW instructors—Debbie Krikourian (Sutter Middle School), Dale Waldo (Mitchell Middle School) and Stephanie Bird (Mills Middle School)–headed up this free summer activity, and provided expert instruction in small group settings. Students worked together in a fun, exciting environment using leading-edge technologies to sample such disciplines as: design and modeling, science of technology, automation and robotics, aeronautics, rockets, energy and the environment, and electronics. “Our future looks amazing with so many bright, innovative young ladies to lead us,” said Debbie Krikourian, Sutter Middle School PLTW teacher.
Project Lead the Way is a program that provides standards-based pre-engineering, technology, clean energy technology and biomedical sciences curriculum to more than 3,000 high schools and middle schools nationwide. LEED-Linking Education and Economic Development manages the Sacramento PLTW Network as the lead agency working to increase the number of school districts administering PLTW programs and create more partnerships between schools and employers in the Sacramento region.

The Sacramento region boasts 26 of 139 total PLTW programs in the state of California, including three Master Teachers for national training, and the 2009 PLTW Teacher of the Year (Debra Crane, Galt High School). For more information about PLTW, please visit www.pltw.org. For more information about the Sacramento Project Lead the Way Network, please contact Linda Christopher, LEED Director Education Innovation at (916) (916) 321-9116.