Our DD12 will be going to the regional high school next year.

One of the options is a 'biomed' vocational offering using curriculum from PLTW a 503c group. Being an enormous skeptic with new fanged headyoumakayshun programs I thought I' would solicit feedback on this forum - DD12 is keen on this and I dearly want to be wrong and find out that it is a sterling program.

Not to sound arrogant but I wonder how rigorous the program will be and whether it is intended to churn out lab techs or future researchers and doctors. I know that lack of challenge is fatal to DD12's ability to hold focus.

There is an option for 'internships' in physician's practices but as she is whole grade skipped I am concerned that it may only apply to 18 year olds - she will end her senior year at 17 provided remains on her current track...

All answers appreciated :-)

My experience with PLTW is fairly specific to a vocational high school setting, within an engineering curriculum. The feedback I have heard from faculty and students generally has been quite positive. I don't know exactly how it would work with a child with this particular profile, but I do know that we have had a couple of extremely bright students experience success in it. In our building, all students have the option to do internships (co-ops) in late 11th and all of 12th grades, and the health/medical/dental shops all do closely supervised externships beginning in 11th grade. I have yet to see a difficulty with any student being too young. In most states, you can get a work permit at age 15. When on internship, work hours count as instructional time, which I think moderates the typical hours/wk limits placed on young members of the workforce.

I'm assuming you've already looked at their website:
https://www.pltw.org/our-programs/pltw-biomedical-science

The only experience I have with PLTW is that my son (HG+), who was in 9th grade at the time, took a PLTW computer science course. It was beyond easy.

This is not related to biomed, but my DD did the PLTW Introduction to Engineering Design course last year as a 13 year old Freshman. It involved numerous projects plus it used Inventor software that helped the students design, build, and integrate parts. It was a "real world" technical course that led the student from initial concept through final design. For her, the projects were time intensive, but the class was meaningful and reflected a real world engineering environment. At my DD's school, the end of course exam qualified for college credit for scores 7+.

Thanks!

Part of my concern is the pace so any further experiences shared will help to shed light here.

Our DD loves the CTY experience so I wonder if they will spend a year doing what a CTY Intensive studies class will cover in just 3 weeks.

It appears that this program will just be a few additional classes when others have a study hall - which lazy old me sees as less time to get homework done during school hours *PLUS* additional homework from these extra classes.

DD wants to do the class but because it is an 'academy' I wonder how we will be able to extract her if my fears turn out to be well founded.

Many (most?) of the middle and high schools in our district has some PLTW curriculum ( biomed, engineering or technology). As far as I can tell, the curriculum is fine. DS and DD used it in middle school and will have at least one PLTW class in high school. The internships are usually for high school students ( sophomore through senior) and with the help of local universities and companies hosting. Only a small number of those kids are over 17 when they start so age shouldn't be an issue.

DW and I attended the sales event and while I didn't take to the guidance counselor for the program (reminded me of a car salesman) all of the programs (Environmental Science, Computer Science and Biomedical Science) looked intriguing.

DD wants to do the Biomedical one and based on what we saw, we will let her submit an application for it. My concerns were:-

1. Is this going to be too rinky-dink? The lady who will teach the program had done post doc cancer research and seemed genuinely interested in both the subject and in passing on that enthusiasm ✅

2. Will there be to be too much (busywork) homework. The lady was adamant that all work will be completed during the class ✅

3. If interest wanes as DD gets older will there be any negative consequences with dropping the program. No. ✅

Only downside is that she will need to use up one elective to do the program but it looks like a pretty cool elective itself so not a show stopper.