Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a 501(c)(3),is one of the nation’s leading providers of K-12 STEM programs. Their world-class curriculum and high-quality teacher professional development model, combined with an engaged network of educators and corporate and community partners, help students develop the skills necessary to succeed in our global economy. 

We were very excited to be the first school in Cobb County, and one of the first in the state, to implement the Project Lead The Way "Launch" curriculum for elementary schools. While our students will complete STEAM lessons in their homerooms, they also look forward to this project-based learning in the Tritt Science Lab. Below are the main themes and standards that each grade level will be tackling!

Kindergarten Projects

Semester 1 - Structure & Function, Exploring Design: Students discover the design process and how engineers influence their lives. (SKP1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate information to describe objects in terms of the materials they are made of & their physical attributes.)

Quarter 3 - Pushes & Pulls: Students investigate pushes and pulls on the motion of an object and develop knowledge and skills related to forces of differing strengths and directions. (SKP2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare and describe different types of motion.)

Quarter 4 - Living and Nonliving Things: Students explore characteristics of living and nonliving things, examining habitats to develop an understanding of what living things need in order to survive. (SKL1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how organisms (alive & not alive) and non-living objects are grouped.)

First Grade Projects

Quarter 1 - Sunlight and Weather: Students learn how to describe the weather to make observations and collect data, and use this data to describe patterns over time, which helps predict the weather. (S1E1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate weather data to identify weather patterns.)

Quarter 2 - Light & Sound: Students use the design process to create a device that uses only the materials in their backpacks to communicate over a distance by using light and/or sound. (S1P1. Obtain, evaluate, & investigate light and sound.)

Quarter 3 - Designs Inspired by Nature: Students learn how plants and animals have external parts that help them meet their needs and with this understanding follow the design process to build a model of an outdoor shelter that is inspired by plant and animal external parts. (S1L1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate information about the basic needs of plants & animals.)

Quarter 4 - Diversity of Life: Students learn about the diversity of life in habitats, or biodiversity, observe different habitats and the living things that grow in them, and learn the importance of having many different organisms in a habitat. (S1L1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate information about the basic needs of plants & animals.)

Second Grade Projects

Quarter 1 - Properties of Matter: Students investigate and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties and are challenged to create a cooler to keep ice pops cold during a soccer game. (S2P1. Obtain, evaluate & communicate information about the properties of matter & changes that occur in objects.)

Quarter 2 - Forces of Flight: Students learn about the forces involved in flight to design, build, and test an experimental model glider to find out how air and other forces affect its flight. (S2P2. Obtain, evaluate & communicate information to explain the effect of a force in the movement of an object.)

Quarter 3 - Observing Space: After observing the sun, moon, and stars, students identify and describe patterns in their recorded data to create a playground structure designed to protect students from ultraviolet radiation. (S2E2. Obtain, evaluate & communicate information regarding the sun and moon and the sun’s effect on Earth.)

Quarter 4 - Life Cycles and Survival: Students learn about the similarities and differences of animal life cycles, explore animals that live in groups and animals that live solitary lives, and learn that honeybees have an important relationship with flowering plants and that both life cycles are connected. (S2L1. Obtain, evaluate & communicate information about life cycles of different living organisms.)

Third Grade Projects

Semester 1 - The Changing Earth: Students investigate the different forces that shape the surface of the Earth and design solutions to limit the impact of erosion on this fictional community, which is located at the bottom of a hill that was recently destabilized by a fire. (S3E1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the physical attributes of rocks and soils.)

Semester 2 - Adaptations and the Environment: Students explore different habitats and how they support life, examine what fossils reveal about how organisms and habitats adapt and change over time, and then take a deeper look at specific examples of environmental changes in their own habitat. (S3L1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate information about the similarities & differences between plants, animals, & habitats found within geographic regions of Georgia.)

Fourth Grade Projects

Quarter 1 - Patterns of the Stars and Sun: After building an understanding of Earth’s patterns and place in the universe, students follow the design process to research, design, and evaluate an exhibit that teaches and engages an audience on a topic of space science. (S4E2. Obtain, evaluate & communicate information to model the effects of the position & motion of the Earth & the moon in relation to the sun as observed from the Earth.)

Quarter 2 - Ecosystems, Flow of Matter and Energy: Students learn how energy flows through an ecosystem and explore a simulation about how an ecosystem can become unbalanced. (S4L1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate information about the roles of organisms & the flow of energy within an ecosystem.)

Quarter 3 - Waves and Properties of Light: Students use the design process to design a game that incorporates their knowledge and skills about light, gained throughout the module. (S4P1. Obtain, evaluate, & communicate information about the nature of light & sound and how they interact with objects.)

Quarter 4 - Simple Machines: Students explore simple machines such as wheel and axles, levers, the inclined plane, and investigate the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object to devise a way to rescue a heavy zoo animal. (S4P3.  Obtain, evaluate & communicate information about the relationship between balanced & unbalanced forces.)

Fifth Grade Projects

Quarter 1 - Earth; Past, Present and Future: Students take a look at the origins of landforms as they learn about tectonic plates and plate boundaries and examine how landforms have changed over time due to weathering and erosion. (S5E1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to identify surface features on the Earth caused by constructive &/or destructive processes.)

Quarter 2 - Variation of Traits: Students investigate inherited traits and learned behaviors, and design the offspring of two fictional parent animals that are able to survive in a specific environment, using data to support the inherited traits passed from the parents to the offspring. (S5L2. Obtain, evaluate and communicate information showing that some characteristics of organisms are inherited & other characteristics are acquired.)

Quarter 3 - Infection Detection: Students tackle the design problem by examining evidence to deduce the agent of infection, the likely source of the outbreak, and the path of transmission through a school. (S5L4. Obtain, evaluate and communicate information about how microorganisms benefit or harm larger organisms.)

Quarter 4 - Matter, Properties & Reactions: Students learn about the three states of matter, investigate mixtures of different materials that lead to new substances and conserve mass, and design a test that demonstrates that an item has specific mechanical properties.(S5P1. Obtain, evaluate, and, communicate information to explain the differences between a physical change & a chemical change.)