By Tanner Kent
NORTH MANKATO — About a dozen students crowded around a makeshift cardboard maze constructed on the floor of Heritage Hall at South Central College recently.
Competing to see whose robot could navigate the zig-zagging route the quickest, teams of two students had worked day and night for the past 48 hours to build, program and troubleshoot their creations in preparation for this moment.
Almost every robot was able to navigate the course and cross the finish line. Some robots relied on light receptors to guide them; others used antennae-like sensors on the front of the robot to feel along the walls.
Most groups were able to get through the maze in under two minutes. But as the final robot crossed the finish line in 60 seconds flat, the winning team members high-fived and celebrated while fellow students congratulated with back slaps.
But these weren’t typical students.
Instead, these were high school engineering instructors from across the state of Minnesota, gathering in North Mankato for a weeklong professional development course.
“There’s a lot to get done,” said Tim Kasprowicz, an Eden Prairie teacher who helped construct the winning robot.
Project Lead the Way is a national engineering curriculum for middle and high school students that was created in response to a massive shortage of engineering professionals by 2015. And every summer, Lead the Way officials organize a handful of one- and two-week Summer Training Institutes to show teachers how to deliver the complex curriculum and to apprise them of new developments and technology.
During the summer institutes — this year, held in Minneapolis, St. Cloud and Mankato — teachers stay in hotels for up to two weeks, immersing themselves in the program.
Dave Stahl teaches Lead the Way at Mankato East, where Stahl says the program has been churning out three to four engineering-bound graduates per year. Stahl has attended three such summer institutes and has now — after an extensive review process — earned the rank of master teacher.
As a master teacher, Stahl will be teaching other engineering instructors at the summer institute next week in St. Cloud. He will also be a part of Lead the Way’s national team of master teachers, engineers and professors who meet annually to review and revise the program.
“It’s been quite a process,” said Stahl of his master teacher designation. “But it’s really driven me to understand the curriculum better.”
Lead the Way state coordinator Jim Mecklenburg said the program is in a constant state of evolution as it reacts and changes with new advances in the engineering industry. The summer training sessions, he said, are crucial in helping teachers stay up-to-date.
“This is actual professional development,” Mecklenburg said. “These teachers are learning and engaged.”
Project Lead the Way is offered at both Mankato high schools as well as several high schools throughout the region. Statewide, more than 200 schools participate.
Mankato is also among a growing number of school districts that offer Lead the Way’s middle-school program, which is called Gateway to Technology and includes introductory courses on such topics as design modeling, robotics and flight.
