Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a not-for-profit organization that develops and promotes pre-engineering courses for high school and middle school students. A four-year (five-course) curriculum for high schools and a four-unit curriculum for middle schools expose students to the rigor and content of a pre-engineering curriculum.

The program is designed to attract more students to engineering careers as well as promote greater success in collegiate programs at a time when the number of college graduates in math, science and technology is decreasing in the nation.

The Missouri University of Science and Technologyis the state affiliate university site and holds Summer Training Institutes to prepare elementary and secondary teachers to instruct PLTW classes.

Dr. Ralph Flori, interim chair of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Department at Missouri S&T, is the affiliate head for PLTW, Missouri. He can be contacted at reflori@mst.edu.

For more information about Missouri Project Lead The Way, go to http://pltw.mst.edu

For information about national PLTW go to:www.pltw.org