October 18 Illinois PLTW Counselors, Teachers, Administrators Conference Features National Speakers

The University of Illinois hosted its third Illinois Project Lead the Way Counselors Conference on October 18, 2007 at the Peoria Holiday Inn City Centre. More than 180 attendees representing 75 schools from around the state included high school counselors, administrators, and teachers; university and career center faculty; and representatives from business, industry, and Illinois state government agencies.

Featured keynote presenters included Celeste Baine, award-winning educator consultant with Engineering Education Service Center, who spoke on “Engineering Makes the World Go Around” and “Motivating and Advising Students to Pursue Engineering and Engineering Technology Careers”.  Special guest Charlotte Sanders, national PLTW Senior Associate Director of Curriculum and Technology, also made two presentations—“A PLTW Curriculum Overview” and “PLTW BioTechnical Engineering and Biomedical Sciences Curriculum Opportunities”.  Sanders was joined in the latter session by PLTW Biotech teacher Brian Zimmerman from Hononegah High School.  PLTW Gateway to Technology middle school curriculum implementation ideas were shared by teachers Jane Bach-Brummitt and Angela Poole of East Peoria Junior High School.  During lunch, Illinois PLTW State Leader Steve Parrott (Illinois State Board of Education) and University of Illinois PLTW Affiliate Director Brenda Pacey presented “Illinois PLTW—The Numbers Tell (Part of) the Story”, featuring enrollment and demographic highlights of the 61 Illinois schools currently participating in the third year of Illinois PLTW program implementation.
Twelve students and several staff from Pekin High School, Oswego East High School, Thornton Township High School, and Peoria Woodruff High School were special guest presenters at the conference, demonstrating classroom projects and discussing their experiences with attendees.


During the day, more than 50 of the state’s 135 trained PLTW teachers attended networking and curriculum update sessions facilitated by Illinois Central College instructor Bob Bloompott and University of Illinois Chicago and Urbana-Champaign engineering and math/science faculty. 

Administrators, counselors, and community partners benefited from insights about counseling students and involving community partners in local and regional PTLW programs.  Speakers included Tom Frazier (Bloomington Area Vocational Center), John Meek (Felmley-Dickerson Company), Tracey Gathers (Caterpillar), Terri Dunn (Peoria Woodruff High School), John Barr (Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity), Karen Wilken (Kern Family Foundation).

The Conference included displays of student work and exhibits providing information about statewide PLTW participation, teacher resources, and engineering higher education programs offered by PLTW Affiliate University of Illinois (Chicago and Urbana-Champaign) and PLTW Associate Bradley University.

For further information about this or other Illinois professional development activities, contact University of Illinois PLTW Affiliate Director Brenda Pacey .