Blue Mountain Joins Hendrick Hudson High School, Earning PLTW Recognition
For the eighth straight year, Hendrick Hudson High School was recognized as a Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Distinguished School — the only high school in New York State to receive this distinction eight consecutive years. However, this year, HHHS was not the only Hendrick Hudson School granted the PLTW distinction.
Blue Mountain Middle School was also honored, receiving its first PLTW Distinguished Gateway School award. According to PLTW, the honor is only given to a select number of middle schools across the country for providing broad access to transformative learning experiences through PLTW Gateway, a STEM curriculum for grades 6-8.
To be eligible for this designation, Blue Mountain had to meet a variety of criteria, such as: a minimum percentage of students participating in PLTW and participating in more than one PLTW unit; a certain number of PLTW units offered; and an established effort to ensure access to PLTW courses.
Blue Mountain offers Project Lead the Way courses in Art & Design (taught by Paul Gioacchini and Logan Krause) and Tech for Communications (Christine Froman).
"To support all students, we utilize the visual aids and vocabulary support provided by PLTW," Ms. Krause said. "Multilingual learners benefit from the bilingual resources accessible on the student side of the platform. Additionally, we break down the complex tasks of the PLTW projects into smaller, manageable steps through Boot Camps. Boot Camps are structured, skill-building activities. Students then apply the skills developed in Boot Camps to their unit projects. Teachers provide support and guidance at each stage, helping students gradually develop independence and mastery of concepts."
In celebration of the accomplishment, both Blue Mountain and Hendrick Hudson High School will receive a banner identifying it as a Distinguished School.
HHHS was one of just a few hundred high schools across the U.S. to receive this year’s honor, which is given annually to schools that provide broad access to transformative learning experiences for students through PLTW programs. The PLTW offerings include Engineering (taught by Thomas Confrey and Alan Zollner); Biomedical Science (Dr. Jeanine Hall and Stephanie Geiger); and Computer Science (Thomas Yee).
“This recognition is a testament to our commitment to providing students with rigorous, real-world learning opportunities through Project Lead the Way,” HHHS Principal Lauren Scollins said. “This recognition celebrates not only our success in offering high-quality pathways in engineering, biomedical science and computer science, but also our vision for preparing students to be problem solvers, critical thinkers and innovators.”