A new project with support from the IU School of Education will bring vital STEM education to rural students around southern Indiana.

Project LIFT (Literacy/STEM Improvement for Today’s Students) is designed to advance literacy while enhancing STEM education for K-8 students in the region, according to Adam Scribner, Director of STEM Education Initiatives at the School of Education. The project will combine two research-based educational programs, Readable English and Novel Engineering, to improve student literacy and STEM content knowledge and practices.

LIFT was developed through a partnership between the School of Education and Readable English, a multisensory reading program that is being initiated nationally and throughout Indiana. The project will provide approximately 90 informal and formal educators with professional development and follow-up support which will impact more than 3,600 students in rural southwest central Indiana.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated and deepened existing achievement gaps for our local, underserved rural students. Our project’s innovative and robust programming is aimed to help address this vital need,” Scribner said.

This $690,000 project is funded by a Indiana Department of Education Student Learning Recovery Grant. Grant partners include Bloomfield School District, Eastern Greene Schools, North Lawrence Community Schools, Mitchell Community Schools and Ivy Tech Bloomington, as well as informal learning organizations including the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence County and the Greene County 21st Century Community Learning Center.