2017 PLTW Launch Kits

If you are a K-4 science teacher, this applies to you:

Grades K-4 will be fully rolling out PLTW Launch curriculum this school year after a year of piloting and a year of some exposure at kindergarten and third grade.  These lessons align to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and also to the new Iowa computer science standards.  They also align to many math and english/language arts standards.  You may download a copy of them at this link.

All of the Launch kits needed for the upcoming school year are in.

The former music room at Bailey Park is being used as a staging area for the classroom kits.  For now, the classroom kits can stay there.  Let me know if you want any of these delivered to your classroom.

Some of kits include consumable items.  I delivered the refill kits to the computer lab in your building.  Please pick them up sometime at your convenience.  This link has a complete list of what was ordered.

Any of the lesson kits may be modified to improve on the lessons.  Some of you may have added items already.  Let me know if you need additional space or if you need another container for the kit.
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Congratulations to Brenda Price, Jeni Roadcap, and Christie Hughes for recently completing the intense 3-day Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Launch Lead Teacher training at Southeast Polk.

Read more about the Lead Teacher training at this link.

Our instructional coaches, April Gosselink, Staci Harms, and Lisa York completed this training last summer.

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Our District has received 3 different grants supporting training and teaching materials for this big project:
          -Bemis Grant
          -Governor's STEM Advisory Council Scale-Up Grant
          -Grinnell-Newburg School Foundation mini-grant
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TEACHERS:  Please log into your my.pltw.org account and make sure that your classes appear.

IF you have completed the PLTW Readiness Training then you have access to all of the course materials.  If you do not know what this is, please email me.  I will help you get started.  All K-4 science teachers will need to complete this training before getting access to the curriculum.  It is entirely online and does not take very long to complete.  For returning teachers, if you log into your account, you should see some additional support materials for this school year.


You will need to get the iPad apps for your classes downloaded to your teacher iPad.  All of the applications needed by students are available in Self-Service to download.  Please let me know if any need to be pushed out to your devices.  Self-Service is fixed now and is running great.

Please let me know if you have any questions, especially if I missed out on anything essential with this post.

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For our current Lead Teachers:

All Launch Lead Teachers credentialed before June 1, 2017, are required to take part in an online update training. This training experience provides all the tools and support needed to deliver PLTW Launch Classroom Teacher Training for teachers at their schools.

This online update training will be available on June 5 and comprises 6-8 hours of instruction. Once a Launch Lead Teacher completes this training, he or she will have access to the new PLTW Launch Classroom Teacher Training resources and be ready to lead the new training experience at their building.

The new PLTW Classroom Teacher Training is the in-depth, collaborative experience PLTW Launch Lead Teachers will deliver as they facilitate training in their school. This new experience replaces the current PLTW Building Level Readiness Training. Building Level Readiness training resources will be available until June 15, 2017.

How to access to the Launch Lead Teacher Update Training:

1. Log in to my.pltw.org
2. Select Professional Development from the Welcome menu
3. Select Catalog at the top of the page.
4. Navigate to PLTW Launch by scrolling through the displayed list, by using the search function at the top right of the page, or by using the filter tool on the left side of the page.
5. Locate Launch Lead Teacher Update Training and select View Track.
6. Select Start Track on the right side of the page.