PLTW

About Project lead the way

Project Lead the Way is a national curriculum that offers a Teacher-Empowered Curriculum for a STEM Driven World for elementary, middle, and high school students. PLTW describes its curriculum as activity-project and problem-based (APB) instruction which helps students understand how the knowledge and skills they develop in the classroom may be applied in everyday life. Through their classes, students are exposed to areas of study like engineering and biomedical sciences which provide them with a strong foundation to enter the STEM Field, whether it be college, workforce, or other training program.

PLTW in the St. Louis Area

Notes: Data includes public and private schools. An active program indicates a contracted school with a current PLTW teacher and full access to the curriculum. Program counts for each county are based on the location of the school in which the program is located. All programs associated with schools in the St. Louis Public School District are counted under St. Louis City.

Kick Off Event - November 8, 2024

We will kick off the year with our 2nd annual kick-off event which will take place at Washington University – St. Louis. During this event, students will have an opportunity to network with volunteers and other PLTW students, receive feedback from experts on their projects, and participate in a breakout session focused on best practices for applying for summer internships.

Senior Showcase - April 25, 2025

This annual event takes place during the last week of April each year to celebrate graduating PLTW students. It is an opportunity for students to present their capstone project from their Engineering Design and Development and Biomedical Innovation courses for their peers, friends, family, educators, business and community members. This event includes a presentation of the scholarship awards for the online scholarship competition.

The 2025 PLTW Senior Showcase will take place at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Come back here for more details as April gets closer.

Scholarship Competitions for the 2024-2025 School Year

St. Louis Metropolitan PLTW seniors enrolled in the Biomedical Innovation or Engineering Design and Development class are eligible to submit their capstone project in our scholarship competition via Zfairs. The last day to submit an entry is April 13th, 2024. Scholarship Categories, requirements, and rubric below.

Support our PLTW Efforts

STEMSTL connects volunteers from the Engineering and Biomedical community with PTLW Students. Our volunteers can sign up to be on the contact list for when teachers are looking for guest speakers, and be mentor for a senior (or team) as they work on their capstone project. Volunteers can also serve as judges for the scholarship competition. We encourage our industry volunteers to attend the in-person showcase to give feedback on students’ projects and poster presentations. If you are interested in being a volunteer, please sign up HERE.