Kent School, Kent, CT is partnering with Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) of Needham, Massachusetts to develop educational opportunities in the School’s mathematics, science and pre-engineering program as well as with Kent’s FIRST® Robotics team.
Kent is a leader in academic technology among high schools and PTC is the developer of Pro/Engineer Wildfire 5.0 and Mathcad 15, two of the most widely-used engineering programs in the commercial marketplace. PTC will be donating licenses of the software to Kent for use by students and faculty as part of its effort to support the improvement of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the United States.
PTC views Kent as an outstanding partner in this relationship because of its many years of experience and depth of knowledge in the use of technology in education. For more than 15 years, every Kent student and teacher has had a laptop computer. Chris Hartmann, the Education Program Manager for Mathcad, says, "PTC is proud to be collaborating with Kent School’s excellent mathematics, science, and art teachers as well as its state-of-the-art Information Technology department. PTC has outstanding software and Kent is recognized for expertise in teaching and learning using technology. We truly hope that this partnership will be a bi-directional learning experience.”
Dr. Nadire, Mr. Austin, and Mr. Andrews are using Mathcad 15 in their mathematics courses. PTC’s Mr. Hartmann will be supporting their work with Mathcad visiting campus and remotely through the development of tutorials for students and videos on a YouTube channel devoted to Mathcad Education. As the relationship grows, Mathcad may also be used in science classes to help students get more out of their laboratory work and develop research-quality lab reports. There are also opportunities for PTC’s Pro/Engineer in both Kent’s Pre-Engineering program and in the Art Department. The inclusion of the Art Department is exciting because it offers the potential to build on STEM Education in a new way. You might call it, STEAM.
