STUDENTS GET COLLEGE LEG UP.Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer LANCASTER -- Highland and Lancaster high schools' pre-engineering programs have been certified by a national program whose aim is to increase the number of engineers coming out of America's schools. Highland and Lancaster are now two of only four schools in California that have been certified by Project Lead the Way, which developed the curriculum used in the schools' programs. Certification means students are eligible to receive scholarships and college credit for courses taken in high school. ``They have an excellent program out there. They really made a commitment to training engineers locally in the area and the teachers are incredibly good, and the administration is behind it,'' said Duane Crum, Project Lead the Way's California director and San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU), founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area (generally the City and County of San Diego), and is part of the California State University system. adjunct professor. ``I was impressed with the local business people and parents and how they decided to get together and support this effort.'' Project Lead the Way developed a four-year sequence of courses that, when combined with traditional high school math and science classes, introduces students to the scope, rigor rigor /rig·or/ (rig´er) [L.] chill; rigidity. rigor mor´tis the stiffening of a dead body accompanying depletion of adenosine triphosphate in the muscle fibers. and discipline of engineering before entering college. Lancaster started its engineering program in 2003 and Highland followed a year later. A program has begun this year at Knight High School. Overall, more than 240 students are enrolled in the three programs. The courses offered include Introduction to Engineering Design, Digital Electronics and Principles of Engineering. ``Teachers go through very intense training to be able to teach the courses, and students seem to enjoy them. They are hands-on and students are able to put what they are learning to use right away,'' said Diane Walker, Antelope Valley Union High School District The Antelope Valley Union High School District (A.V.U.H.S.D.) is located in the Antelope Valley area of California, in northern Los Angeles County. The district includes eight public high schools, one trade school, and two continuation high schools in the cities of Palmdale program specialist. Students build circuit boards and design ``mousetrap cars A mousetrap car is a miniature vehicle powered by the spring device of a mousetrap. Building mousetrap cars is used as a project in many middle school and high school science classes. ,'' which use a mouse trap This article is about the video game. For the board game, see Mouse Trap (board game). For other uses, see Mousetrap (disambiguation). Mouse Trap is a 1981 arcade game released by Exidy similar to Pac-Man It was ported to three home systems by Coleco; as the power source. The cars are tested to see which ones can go the fastest, pull the most weight and travel exactly 12 feet. ``They are all very good engineering programs. It's fairly rigorous but at the same time students do enjoy it,'' said Robert Fenbers, project team leader at Lancaster High. ``They do enjoy the challenge.'' If students choose, they can take the program's final exams Noun 1. final exam - an examination administered at the end of an academic term final examination, final exam, examination, test - a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge; "when the test was stolen the professor had to make a new set of for the courses and apply for college credit. In addition, San Diego State University offers scholarships to program students. There are about 50 Project Lead the Way schools in the state. The other two schools that have been certified are Martin Luther King High School Martin Luther King High School can refer to many different schools.
In April, Lancaster High's program was one of two in the district that was recognized as role models for other California schools to emulate by a philanthropic foundation Noun 1. philanthropic foundation - a foundation that provides funds for science or art or education or religion or relief from disease etc. charity - a foundation created to promote the public good (not for assistance to any particular individuals) trying to combat the state's high dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human rate. The other program was Palmdale High School's medical-careers program. Crum said it's difficult for schools to be certified by Project Lead the Way. ``It's not an easy process. They have to put together a team that includes local business people, parents and faculty. You need to get equipment and hardware you need to teach the courses correctly,'' Crum said. One of the partners in helping to bring the project to local schools is Bob Johnstone, director of Lancaster's Aerospace Office, who worked as as flight test engineer at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. for 18 years. ``We looked around at what was available and was impressed with the curriculum they had. It's an outstanding program,'' Johnstone said. Crum credits the schools for offering the pre-engineering courses at a time when so much emphasis has been placed on testing and assessment. ``It's difficult in California's climate to put in a rigorous curriculum like this. The state and federal government are so focused on achievement tests for reading and math,'' Crum said. ``You need life skills to be successful. Schools here recognize this need and are making a commitment to give quality technical education to their students.'' karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com (661) 267-5744 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion