For the last two years, the project has brought together teams of educators from the same school districts who teach grades 2 through 8 - and are participating in the Readable English literacy program - to explore STEM and literacy connections and introduce them to Novel Engineering. Novel Engineering is a research-based approach to STEM education that aims to improve student understanding of engineering (e.g., who engineers are and what engineers do). Novel Engineering leverages literature to provide rich contexts for learning which creates bi-directional benefits - simultaneously improving literacy and STEM education. In Novel Engineering, students identify problems faced by characters in popular novels or non-fiction books and then design, build, and improve solutions for them. Novel Engineering was developed by the Center for Engineering Education Outreach (CEEO) at Tufts University.

Project LIFT is an Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) Learning Recovery grant program.