Gateway - Personalized Learning Guidelines

The PLTW Gateway program features a problem-based curriculum designed to challenge and engage the natural curiosity and imagination of middle school students. They envision, design and test their ideas with the same advanced modeling software used by companies like Lockheed Martin, Intel and Sprint. They study mechanical and computer control systems; think robotics and animation. Students also explore the importance of energy, including innovative ways to reduce, conserve and produce it using solar, thermal and wind power. The knowledge that students gain and the skills they build from Gateway create a strong foundation for further STEM learning in high school and beyond.

 

Students will first go through the introduction to Gateway and Personalized Learning (PL). Then they will choose one of numerous Major Problems (real world problems) to start. They will need to answer Essential Questions and learn or enhance skills as they progress through the various parts of the problem. If they do not know the answer for the Essential Question then they will need to find the answer in one of multiple different ways – activities (that are designed to help them understand), their own exploration/research, or any other way they come up with to answer the questions. There are also challenges that they must complete to move through to reach the final problem. This is to get them to fully understand the topics/requirements needed to solve the major problem successfully.