Sometimes when I’m bored in class, I scroll through the Skipper Log. The vast number of classes our school offers is overwhelming and fascinating. Classes like astronomy, sociology, biblical literature, and others fly under most students’ radars, but those are small general niche classes—and that makes sense. What makes less sense to me is the obscurity of Minnetonka High School’s Project Lead the Way.

Project Lead the Way—or PLTW for short—is not one, but three college level courses taught within MHS. They operate with the goal of providing career-applicable college-level STEM education to students. MHS offers only a few of these courses, each a semester long: Civil Engineering and Architecture, Introduction to Engineering Design, and Principles of

Engineering. The classes are offered through a national organization of the same name, similar to CollegeBoard or International Baccalaureate. Does the program offer the same college credit? PLTW student Mark Turcotte, ‘26, says “the short answer is yes,” though it is more complicated than that. He described a network of colleges that do recognize the classes as being similar to college-level introductory engineering courses. However, that network is limited, and PLTW classes do not hold the same weight and reliability as those administered by AP and IB.

Students find great enjoyment in the classes. Isabella Castro, ‘27, complimented the steady stream of “new projects” and the way students are pushed to “find interesting ways to solve them.” She described engineering prompts like a filament spool holder—a small tool for 3D printers, of which PLTW’s designated classroom contains multiple—and a bike-mounted computer bag. Both Turcotte and Castro agreed the classes are worth taking regardless of the red tape involved with college credit, as the classes are not only interesting and satisfying, but they also cultivate a student’s interest and skill in engineering.