Gateway Academy is a day camp summertime experience designed to inspire students to learn more about science, technology, engineering, and math.

The SME Education Foundation (SME-EF) has offered Science, Technology and Engineering Preview Summer (STEPS) camps to secondary school students since 1997. Now the SME-EF is partnering with Project Lead The Way (PLTW) to offer the Gateway Academy program throughout the United States.

Jump-Starting Learning

In 2008 alone, more than 3,000 middle school–age girls and boys turned on to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning at a day camp–format Gateway Academy, in 170 schools in 26 states. Most campers went on to enroll in those schools’ Gateway To Technology (GTT) program, PLTW’s successful engineering curriculum for seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. The project-based problem-solving activities of GTT in turn deliver the fundamentals of STEM subjects, jump-starting middle schoolers for the academic rigor that lies ahead in high school and beyond.

At each Gateway Academy, instructors certified to teach PLTW courses provide expert instruction in small-group settings. Campers work together using leading-edge technologies to sample such disciplines as robotics, aeronautics, and computer design.

Opening Minds to Engineering

Gateway Academy opens a pathway for students that is based on their curiosity about the way things work. It’s a place for girls and boys from all backgrounds to discover and follow their interests in STEM fields.

Gateway Academy is open to the involvement of families, schools or school districts, businesses, and communities.

For further information on the Gateway Academies, see http://www.pltw.org/Engineering/Curriculum/Gateway-Academy.cfm.

Gateway Academy is a joint venture of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation and Project Lead The Way.