Priyanka Shreedar
Project Lead the Way is the nation’s leading science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program in
over 5,000 schools across the U.S.
The program is focused on helping schools produce students who will help the STEM industry.
“[The courses] are meant and designed to get kids to go into manufacturing, technology, medical, engineering
& architectural fields. All of these are things that industries have asked schools to produce,” said Katie Salo,
Assistant Principal at MC.
In response to this message from PLTW, MC is now offering an Introduction to Engineering Design 1-2
course which will begin in the second trimester of this year.
This course is unique in the sense that it is the only Engineering course offered in the PUSD other than
Poway High, where it has been taught for about three years.
Introduction to Engineering Design 1-2 will be taught by Kris Peters, who is currently teaching both Auto
Shop and Cabinet Making. The period and how many classes he will teach is, at the moment, undetermined.
Peters has been teaching at MC for 18 years and is excited to be teaching MC’s new engineering course.
Over the summer, Peters attended an intensive two week training program for the course at SDSU. The initial
idea for both the course and attending the training program was conveyed to Salo by Peters.
“With the amount of students wanting to pursue Engineering as a career, I wanted them to have more
experience in high school than just math and science classes,” Peters said.
The course has a mainly hands on curriculum that counts in the A-G Requirements. It has no offical
prerequisites for this class, though Salo recommends students complete and pass Algebra 1-2 before taking
the class.
“The course will be covering a lot of 3-D building on the computer and lots of really fun project. […] We will
have a 3-D printer in class, and students will be able to transfer the projects from the computer to a physical
object,” Peters said.
Peters has been working on the curriculum and finding all the supplies for the class projects over the summer.
“Any donations that can be made would greatly benefit the class,” Peters said. Students can contact Salo for
more information on donations.
To transfer into the course, students will have to speak to their counselors and to those looking to the future,
MC will be offering a Principles of Engineering 1-2 course next year.
Both Salo and Peters are hoping to have a gender-balanced class and are encouraging students to try
something new and enroll in the class.
