Project Lead the Way Inc. is a New York-based nonprofit that provides curriculum, training and support to member schools. PR-B unveiled a new computer lab and a remodeled room this fall with the help of a Kern Family Foundation grant.

PR-B Schools started PLTW classes in September after teachers Steve Bergerson and Duane Anderson attended specialized training in the program.

This year grades 6-8 are participating in the PLTW program, eventually they plan on incorporating the high school portions of PLTW.

Sixth graders are getting a taste of PLTW with a trimester's-worth of the class with units in design and modeling; electronics; and automation and robotics.

Students are working with "Autodesk Inventor" - software that turns 2-dimension drawings into 3-dimensions. The company Autodesk also created AutoCAD (computer-aided design) for drafting. Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies use Autodesk software in projects such as creating the Airbus A380.

On Oct. 17, sixth-graders were working on a pegboard design on the computer. They needed to create a 5.75-by-3-inch pegboard on their computer screens with 1-inch diameter circle and 1-inch square holes. They also had to figure out how to center the peg holes vertically and space them equal-distance from each other and the sides, horizontally.

Students are finding that it's way easier to create designs on the computer than by hand, Bergerson said. Bergerson is teaching the sixth-graders for a trimester; Anderson is teaching the seventh- and eighth-graders for a quarter.

Students are working with technical processes like extrapolation and seeing the connections that math and science have with design. "The kids are learning an entire new vocabulary," Bergerson added. "It's opened a lot of our kids' lives up to what's out there."

A total of 69 sixth-graders are getting exposure to using the computers to aid in design. Bergerson tells students: "if you like this, you can have a career in it."

Seventh-graders in Anderson's PLTW class were flying air racers in the hallway on Oct. 17. The students initially used the Autodesk software to design their air racers before competing with their classmates for the longest flight.

The software enables the students to design the individual parts of the racer separately, before assembling them on the computer screen and viewing the total compilation, Anderson said.

They can rotate the object on the screen to see if from all angles. "The program makes it really easy," Anderson said. Students can more easily correct mistakes on the computer then they can in the wood or machine shop.

Anderson's eighth-grade students spent their day reviewing their model car designs.

Students used the Autodesk software to design a model racing car's body as well as its wheels and axels. Once their designs are completed, they'll make their cars in the woodshop and race them.

Eighth-grader Jade Krueger was redesigning her car on the computer. "It's probably my favorite class and it's fun," Krueger said of PLTW.

"Most of the students really like it," Anderson said of his experience teaching PLTW.