Pre-Engineering Program For Our Future Engineers

Lockheed Martin Corporation and Project Lead The Way have partnered together on Lockheed's "Engineers in the Classroom" K-12 education outreach initiative - a program designed to develop the next generation of engineers. Because of the looming shortfall of qualified engineers to fill the country's technical workforce, developing engineers has become a national imperative.

Lockheed Martin employs more than 70,000 engineers, technologists and scientists. Project Lead The Way, Inc., is a national not-for-profit organization that provides standards-based pre-engineering and technology curriculum to over 2,200 high schools and middle schools nationwide. The program offers eight, full-year high school engineering courses and five middle school modules, all of which employ rigorous problem-based learning experience and integrate national math and science learning standards.

In the absence of a national K-12 engineering learning standard, Project Lead The Way has become the de facto national standard. "Project Lead The Way's track record of preparing students for college engineering programs is unparalleled," says Jim Knotts, Lockheed Martin's director of corporate citizenship. "Project Lead The Way students are five times more likely to major in engineering than the national average, their freshman to sophomore retention rate in the degree is over 80%, or double the national average, and their freshman GPA in engineering study is greater than that of their peers."

In communities near Lockheed Martin's major business locations, the corporation is working with schools that have or will implement the Project Lead The Way curriculum. The curriculum provides engineeringfocused academic rigor, and is the basis of the Engineers in the Classroom initiative. In those same schools, Lockheed Martin will supplement the curriculum by supporting hands-on extracurricular activities, which encourage teamwork and supply relevance for the engineering principles learned in the classroom. lockheedmartin.com