Catholic Memorial Testing New Computer Science, Software Engineering Curriculum

the nation’s leading non-profit provider of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum and professional development to middle and high schools, announced on Nov. 7 that Catholic Memorial High School has been selected to pilot a new PLTW course in the 2013-2014 school year. 

The new course is called computer science and software engineering and will be part of the high school’s Pathway To Engineering program from PLTW. The course addresses an ever-growing need for students across all career paths to explore the new questions and tools opened up by massive data collection and processing.

The course also exposes students to the high-demand career paths within computer science and information technology.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 50 percent of the 2.8 million job openings in STEM through 2018 will be for computer specialists (PCAST Report to The President: Engage to Excel, 2012.)

Rose Hoffmann, the instructor selected to pilot the course at Catholic Memorial High School, is among approximately 50 teachers nationwide participating in the pilot program. These 50 teachers will help instruct the professional development for the teachers who wish to implement the Computer Science and Software Engineering course when it becomes available for the full PLTW network in the 2014-15 school year.

There are more than 5,200 PLTW programs in more than 4,700 schools across the United States. 

• See Related: Waukesha North’s recognized for its PLTW program.

Catholic Memorial High School is in their fourth year of teaching Project Lead the Way. Courses offered include Principles of Engineering, Introduction to Engineering Design, Digital Electronics, and Engineering Design and Development. The Computer Science curriculum includes both standard and high level IB Computer Science, which is equivalent to two semesters of computer science in college. This course is taught using Java, an object-oriented programming language.

For questions about the Project Lead The Way program at Catholic Memorial High School, please contact Kevin Heaney at 262-542-7101 or kheaney@catholicmemorial.net. To find out more about Catholic Memorial High School, visit www.catholicmemorial.net.

Editor's Note: The above information was provided to Waukesha Patch via a news release from Catholic Memorial High School.