The Naples High School engineering program was recently awarded both Project Lead The Way (PLTW) and NAF recognitions as a distinguished academy. Naples High is the only engineering academy in the country to achieve distinguished status from both PLTW and NAF programs this year.
The Naples engineering academy was recognized as a PLTW distinguished school for providing broad access to transformative learning opportunities for students through PLTW engineering and computer science.
Only 133 other schools in the country, and six others in the state, were recognized as a PLTW distinguished academy.
The engineering academy was also awarded distinguished NAF status. NAF status is the highest possible status an engineering program can receive, and Naples was one of only 69 schools in the country to receive this honor.
“I received a great introduction into the sorts of classes I take now at Duke,” former NHS engineering student Chris Davis said. “It prepared me well for college labs as the 3D modeling serves as a necessary base for design classes, digital electronic principles are used consistently across every engineering major, and the beginning programming is useful for all of the Matlab and other software necessary for projects.”
The PLTW and NAF recognitions were substantial awards for the program and will get Naples High School on the map as an engineering academy.
“While at Naples High it was easily some of the most interesting material that I could look forward to each day,” Davis stated.
The NHS engineering academy offers four different classes ranging from introduction to engineering to civil engineering and architecture. Industry skills learned throughout the program vary from using Autodesk Inventor, using CNC machines, and building robots.