TIPS AND TECHNIQUES FOR

PROMOTING YOUR BIOMEDICAL

SCIENCE PROGRAMBobby Hughes

Human Body System Teacher

Hazelwood West High School

bhughes@hazelwoodschool.org

PLTW AT MY SCHOOL We started out with 2 classes of 10

students in 07-08 Currently we have 6 sections of

Principles of Biomedical Science, 2 sections of Human Body Systems, and 1 section each of Medical Interventions and Biomedical Innovations

PLTW STATISTICS IN THE HAZELWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT

School Year

Pathway To Engineering

BioMedical Sciences

Gateway To Technology

Gateway Academies

Total

03-04 75 75 04-05 104 104 05-06 150 150 06-07 249 249 07-08 310 132 1700 46 2188 08-09 320 335 1633 77 2365 09-10 321 393 1533 53 2300 10-11 297 361 1460 73 2191 11-12 321 424 1417 70 2232 12-13 315 372 1415 0 2102

BASIC TECHNIQUES FOR PROMOTING PLTW AT YOUR SCHOOL

Promoting your program within your building

Promoting your program to middle schools

Promoting your program with parents and the community

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM WITHIN YOUR BUILDING Student word of mouth is a great way to

promote the program Students who had a positive experience

will convince other enroll in the program Class T-shirts and/or lab coats are way

to promote a community and advertise the program

CLASS T-SHIRTS

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM WITHIN YOUR BUILDING Field trips and other partnership with

organizations help draw interest Field trips serves as an alternative to the

career journal assignmentsGuess speakers to assist in activities

Stress the opportunity to earn college creditRemember, students who already

completed a class can go back and enroll for credit

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM WITHIN YOUR BUILDING Display cases, bulletin boards with

student work help make your classes more visible

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM TO MIDDLE SCHOOLS Having an incoming freshman night at

the school allows you to show off the program to middle school students Get brochures from PLTW to hand outHave opportunities for hands on

demonstrations Hazelwood hosted a STEM extravaganza

to expose district student to STEM careers and programs

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM TO MIDDLE SCHOOLS Communicate with science teachers and

counselors at the middle school to connect with students who may be interested in taking the biomedical science coursesWork ethic is keyHave teachers recommend students (make

it an honor) Make sure middle school teachers have

brochures of the program to hand out during registration

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM WITH PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY Back to school nights and registration

are great places to introduce the program to parents Stress rigor of curriculum, credit optionShow of sample activities and projects

Have classroom displays up during open house and parent teacher conferenceThis expose the program to parents of your

other classes

PROMOTING YOUR PROGRAM WITH PARENTS AND THE COMMUNITY Form partnerships with businesses,

colleges and university in your areaSharing of resources and creating a pipeline

to post-secondary education