The president and CEO of Project Lead the Way (PLTW), David Dimmett, and Chief Product Officer and contributing author of the Biomedical Sciences curriculum, Joel Kupperstein, visited Walnut High School on Wednesday, March 4 to explore how PLTW classes work and the success behind them.
Dimmett and Kupperstein went to three PLTW classes during third and fourth period: Human Body Systems, Medical Interventions and Principles of Biomedical Science. Through social media platforms, Dimmett was intrigued by Walnut’s PLTW program, especially since Walnut has been recognized for having one of the strongest Biomedical Sciences programs in the country after students successfully passed an end of the year course exam.
“To have [Dimmett] say that we were popping up on their end as a good school was good confirmation that all the teachers’ hard work is paying off,” science and Medical Interventions teacher Ellie Blanchard said. “We have amazing students and I think they make our program shine. If it weren’t for the students working hard, we wouldn’t get the recognition that we get.” Students having high results on the exam contributed to the recognition. This nationwide online exam is developed by PLTW and is taken in May. At Walnut, sophomores, juniors and seniors took the exam which evaluates students on their content knowledge, what they learned and ethical questions about the biomedical field.
“I was really impressed with what I saw, in terms of test scores and then looking online at the story that programs are telling in social media and on the website and that was all very impressive. I just thought it would be really important to come see it firsthand,” Dimmet said.
During the visit, Dimmett interviewed sophomore Danika Pe, junior Dymond Dolberry and senior Canise Lee for his new podcast called “Learning Together.” This podcast will cover students’ experience in school with the goal of helping people have a chance to hear from them directly. Dimmett hopes that this is a tool for people who make decisions about a school to listen to students when they aren’t available to visit and interact with them physically. The students of Walnut High School will be featured in the first episode on April 3.
“I was really thankful. I thought it was a really amazing experience. He was a great person to be interviewed by and the two other girls that I was interviewed with were incredible,” sophomore Danika Pe said. “The podcast itself benefited me in Biomed and in my professional career in learning how to collaborate and listen.”
Dimmett and Kupperstein interacted with students, getting to know their perspective on the program, why they joined and their future plans in the medical field. The students also showcased their current projects they were working on in class which Dimmet and Kupperstein observed. Medical Interventions students were creating an innovation on either nanotechnology or immunotherapy to treat cancer, whereas in Principles of Biomedical Science, students made presentations on their designs for a new sleep tracker app.
“I think I feel pretty good about [showing my work] because all in all, this is practice for something greater that we’re going to be doing later on. I believe that being able to actually talk to the people that are directors of the PLTW program and them visiting us goes to show how this program could eventually become something that all students should be taking, especially in STEM [and] preparing us for what lies in the future,” senior Brendon Lu said. “So all in all, I think being able to meet them was a good opportunity to express not only our concerns, but our plans for the future.”
The visit left a positive impact on the PLTW program. Being recognized as one of the strongest programs in the country has brought pride and encouragement to students and staff.
“I’d like my students to learn and understand from this visit the impact that they have when they succeed in their end of course exam and how they work together as a cohort,” science and Human Body Systems teacher Ileana Quintana said. “They should learn the importance of feeling recognized and valued for their hard work!”
Overall, by visiting Walnut’s PLTW program, Dimmett hopes that students and teachers know their work is important. The visit was to show support and make sure the work can be as easy, useful, satisfying and successful as possible.
“Hopefully that’s one of the takeaways, is that people are paying attention to the work that’s happening in Walnut and from my perspective, it’s really good,” Dimmett said. “I’m really proud that we get to be part of supporting students and teachers at Walnut High School.”
