Evaluation of Gifted Programs, Alabama State Department of Education (2022-2023)

The Alabama State Department of Education Evaluation of Gifted Programs evaluates the identification processes, alignment between state and national standards, and the impact of gifted programming on yearly student progress and student retention rates.

Deconstructing the Digital Wall: Building Capacity, Removing Barriers, and Enhancing the Current System

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACPSI) was awarded a US Department of Education Alaska Native Educational Program grant in late 2021, this project is intended to build on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) services in the school district through the implementation of an onsite engineering course and uses engineering as a gateway for teaching the Unangam Tunuu (UT) language.

The Bridge to the Future

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) USDE-funded project seeks to enrich local access to quality education through the implementation of remote learning, direct student support services, and student/staff support tools like the learning management system.

Building the House of Knowledge Project

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) USDE-funded project supports the development of 1) a high school (K-8) preparation program for a successful student transition to high school, 2) an Early College and career training and preparation program for a successful student transition from high school to and completion of post-secondary learning and/or workforce opportunities, and 3) a community, culturally appropriate, learning center to provide for social and academic behavioral growth, provide for family and community support, and assist in a successful transition to and completion of post-secondary learning opportunities.

Decoding the Future: Unangam Tunuu

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACPSI) received a US Department of Education Indian Education Demonstration grant in late 2020 that supports a project to preserve and expand Unangam Tunuu (UT) language usage through digitizing the existing curriculum into a learning management system and integrating UT language into a K-12 coding curriculum.

Grant Writing Services

Grant writing services are provided to the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island by Shaffer Evaluation Group.

Tribal Government Internship Improvement

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government with funding from the USDE seeks to improve the delivery and quality of the community-wide summer internship program through coordination of services, active case management, and partnership engagement and support for students in the Pribilof School District (PSD) and young adult learners.

Tribal Resiliency Grant

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) USDE-funded project focuses upon the development of six project-based learning courses that are informed by indigenous means of learning and knowledge acquisition to be used for credit recovery options for Pribilof School District (PSD) students, accredited through Ilisagvik College, and provided access to the community using a learning management system (LMS).

Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government 2023 CTAS Tribal Youth Program Initiative

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACPSI) was awarded a US Department of Justice grant in late 2023 to reduce the rates of truancy and delinquency and to reduce recidivism among youth through the implementation of a multidimensional program designed to provide systems and supports to address issues and empower youth and families.

Art 180

The Art 180 nonprofit organization's existing evaluation practices were reviewed by SEG to make recommendations for improvement, and support evaluation capacity-building.

Project Counterbalance

The Project Counterbalance initiative supports meeting the educational needs of underserved students through success coaching, educational and career advancement advising support, debt forgiveness, need-based scholarships, and emergency funds.

RISE Above

RISE Above is a Title III grant project designed to increase post-secondary access, affordability, completion, and post-enrollment success for underserved students. SEG will be supporting the RISE Above project as a program evaluator. SEG is responsible for developing an evaluation plan, collecting and analyzing data, and providing formative and summative evaluations of the five-year project. SEG will provide will provide annual reports with recommendations for more efficient and effective program implementation, as well as a final report upon grant completion that will include recommendations for project institutionalization.

Rethinking Mathematics through the Integration of Computer Science (REMICS)

The DoDEA-funded project's goal is to increase mathematics student achievement in grades 3-8 through the use of computer science to develop computational thinking.

Pathways to Achieve Student Success (BSC PASS)

The Bismarck State College's USDE Title III-funded project will create an integrated approach that removes the isolation and gaps that contribute to students' failing to complete their education pathway.

Coding as Another Language

The DevTech Research Group received USDE-funding for a collaborative research project with Rhode Island Department of Education and Boston Public Schools to provide a K-2 computer science curriculum and measure student learning outcomes through a randomized controlled trial research design.

Every Student Matters: Eliminating Race and Income as Predictors of Success at BVU

Buena Vista University’s Title III-funded project is scaling proven strategies, transforming current pedagogy and policy, and building structures to measurably improve outcomes for all students.

Back 2 Basics

The DoDEA-funded Burkburnett Independent School District to provide students with digital practice and teachers with the basics of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and Response to Intervention (RtI) models in order to support military-connected students at all campuses in improving their skills in Mathematics and English Language Arts & Reading.

Healthy SySTEMs Initiative

The Burkburnett ISD will implement a health science-focused project-based learning approach across the school system to enhance military-connected students science, technology, engineering, and mathematical skills in this DoDEA-funded project called Healthy SySTEMs.

Soaring with STEM Project

The DoDEA funded Burkburnett Independent School District supported teachers through project-based learning professional development with a focus on STEM-related activities in order to increase military-connected student science achievement and interest in STEM courses.

Strategic Planning Development and Performance Measurement for 5-year Strategic Plan

A strategic planning process for Caroline County Public Schools was facilitated by SEG through its partnership initiative Gaston-Shaffer. A five-year strategic plan was generated.

Stakeholder Survey

SEG designed a series of stakeholder surveys to reflect local needs and context for a rural school system.

Strategic Planning Support and Performance Measurement for 5-year Strategic Plan

A performance measurement plan was developed by SEG in alignment with the school systems's strategic plan that identified clear success benchmarks.

Initiative for Students with Disabilities

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) awarded a grant to Chesapeake Public Schools (CPS) to improve the achievement of military-connected students with disabilities in reading, and SEG served as the project's external evaluator.

Copperas Cove Codes Evaluation

Copperas Cove ISD received a DoDEA grant to provide computer science and coding opportunities in order to improve mathematics achievement of military-connected students.

National Research Trainee Program: Finding Signal in the Noise to Enable Science-based Community Responses to Change in Coastal Regions

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded East Carolina University (ECU) a National Research Trainee (NRT) grant to train current graduate students to take a convergent approach to data science, sensing, and modeling to understand how coastal change is driven by interrelationships between ecosystems and communities.

Achieving Careers for Rural Oregon Student Success (ACROSS)

Eastern Oregon University's USDE-funded project is designed to implement a career pathways-aligned strategies to recruit and retain secondary and postsecondary students from rural eastern Oregon and provide them with internship and career opportunities in high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand industry sectors.

Building Roadmaps in Development of Guided Experiences for Students (BRIDGES)

The project, funded by the US Department of Education through its Title III program, is designed to improve retention and graduation rates, and quality of services for all students by providing strategic supports in academic and student services.

"Commons for Justice" (FIU-CfJ)

The FIU-CfJ project was awarded funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in December 2020 to address racial and ethnic inequities in pre-event disaster exposures and vulnerabilities and in post-event resilience resources and capacities.

DoDEA Project Evaluation

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) grant awarded to Fort Sam Houston to improve mathematics achievement of military-connected student strong, vertical integrated curriculum of math and science in the real world with a focus on the future.

GrapeSEED

A Japanese curriculum company, GrapeSEED, that markets in the US an English language acquisition program for English language learners (ages 4-12) contracted SEG to function as a research consultant.

Early Reading Intervention Implementation

An evaluation of the Early Reading Initiative (ERI) was commissioned by Hampton City Schools in which SEG conducted used an extreme sampling approach (i.e., three high-and three lowest-performance schools) for site visits, interviewed ERI Assistants, and surveyed teachers to report on ERI training and implementation.

Grant Writing Services

A mid-sized, urban school system in southeastern Virginia, Hampton City Schools, contracted Shaffer Evaluation Group to write selected grants to support reform initiatives and supplemental programs.

National Board Certification and Student Achievement

The school district contacted SEG to help determine whether students taught by Hampton City Schools' Board-certified teachers had higher academic achievement than those taught by non-board-certified teachers.

21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) Projects

Six three-year Nita M. Loey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grants, awarded to Harford County Public Schools for 2023–2026. These out-of-school time grants will provide for students from three elementary and three middle schools to receive 12 hours of afterschool support in the areas of reading or math (site dependent) for 25 weeks.

Digital Conversion Initiative

The Harford County Public Schools District received a five-year DoDEA grant in 2016 to convert Reading, English, Language Arts (RELA) classrooms into blended learning environments through increasing students' use of technology at five military-connected schools.

Eagles Soar

The Harford County School District's DoDEA project, the Eagles Soar initiative, supported regular and extended-day interventions in STEM and included professional development to teachers in technology, math and science, and world languages (Arabic).

Lucy Calkins Units of Study

The Harford County school district collected all the data (i.e., DIBELS, Reading Inventory, Walk-through, survey, focus group) across a three-year implementation phased roll-out of the Reading and Phonics Units of Study and was supported by SEG to evaluate the Lucy Calkins Units of Study program.

Two-Way Immersion in Elementary Schools (TIES Program)

The DoDEA-funded Harford County Public Schools grant will implement a two-way Spanish immersion program in an elementary school that will include offering classes taught in Spanish in the middle school in later years when students progress to those grade levels.

Kenaitze's Yusdich' qich'ul (There is Firelight) Project

The Yusdich' qich'ul (There is Firelight) Project, funded by a USDE grant, is intended to foster positive cross-cultural attitudes, connectedness, and engagement among Native youth, their families, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

Strategic Planning Development and Performance Measurement for 5-year Strategic Plan

The King and Queen County Public School district worked with SEG-GEC to revise the county's five year strategic plan.

Pathways to Success Program

The Pathways to Success project addressed the social and emotional needs of students and engage both students and parents in college and career readiness through peer support programs, professional development for all school staff, parent engagement programs, college visits, and a grant project coordinator who served as a community engagement specialist.

Increasing the Math Achievement of Military-Connected Students

Evaluation of LEARN Charter School Network's (LEARN) DoDEA grant projects located in Chicago, IL and Washington, DC (2018-2023). LEARN received two DoDEA MCASP grants to support mathematics improvement in grades K-4.

Connecting Social Emotional Support to College and Career Readiness Project

A fidelity of implementation study was conducted by SEG, as well as a formative and summative evaluation, of the Lackland Independent School District's DoDEA grant project focused on CCR.

Youth Empowerment Service After School Program (YES!)

Love Lived Charity, Inc. in Prince Georges County, Maryland, received two grants to provide its Youth Empowerment Service (YES!) after school program for elementary and middle schools. Love Lived Charity, Inc. has engaged SEG in the final year of the grant to individually evaluate its YES! programs at the elementary and middle school levels.

Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI) Program for Global Students Program

In partnership with the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and university partners, Meridian manages the Study of the US Institutes (SUSI) Program for Global Students.

Needs Assessment and Teacher Workshop Evaluation

The Diplomacy Center Foundation, a 501(c)(3) private non-profit, is the partner to the United States (US) Department of State National Museum of American Diplomacy (NMAD).

Cybersecurity Pathways Initiative

NNPS received a DoDEA MCASP grant to support the development of a pathway for military-connected students in cybersecurity by focusing on computational thinking, problem solving, and digital literacy.

Summer Program for Arts, Recreation, and Knowledge (SPARK)

Newport News Public Schools sought an evaluation study of its Summer Program for Arts, Recreation and Knowledge, also known as SPARK.

Operation Break the Code

SEG is evaluating this project that provides social emotional support to students through a military student transition counselor and peer support programs.

Operation THRIVE

SEG is evaluating this project that provides social emotional support to students through a military student transition counselor and peer support programs.

Grant Evaluation

A US Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education grant was awarded to Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) in October 2020.

Oklahoma State Institute of Technology

OSUIT was awarded their Title III, Part A grant in 2020. Their project focuses on the development of course modules using XR-related content and the development of an endowment fund.

Project Based Learning (PBL) Project

SEG conducted a fidelity of implementation study, as well as a formative and summative evaluation, of the school district's PBL Project being implemented at the middle and high schools.

Reading for All Project

SEG conducted a fidelity of implementation study, as well as a formative and summative evaluation, of the school district's Reading for All initiative.

STEM for All Project

SEG conducted a fidelity of implementation study, as well as a formative and summative evaluation, of the school district's STEM for All project.

Framework Development for Turnaround Arts

SEG was contracted to design an evaluation framework for Turnaround Arts, a national arts integration program that provides technical assistance and funds to schools in improvement status.

Student-Centered Learning to Support Success 1.0 and 2.0

SEG is conducting evaluation studies of two DoDEA-funded projects for this public school district intended to improve elementary and secondary military-dependent students' math, social studies, science, and English achievement through implementation of a tired system of supports, project-based learning, performance-based assessments, and blended (online) learning strategies.

Operation STEP to CCR: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Pathways to College and Career Readiness

This grant provides STEM-related opportunities aimed at adequately preparing students to be successful in postsecondary institutions or in the workplace after completing high school.

Operation Strong Hearts and Minds

This grant aims to address both the context-specific stressors and academic needs of military-connected students by providing social-emotional skills learning through hands-on science activities.

All Systems Go

SEG is evaluating this project that supports math achievement by providing tutoring, increasing access to technology, and implementing structured academic frameworks into pedagogical practices.

Learning Intervention For sTudents (the LIFT project)

SEG is evaluating a project focused on closing student learning gaps through immediate, individualized, and focused intervention in math and the English Language Arts.

Promoting Military-Connected Student Excellence in the Health Sciences

SEG is evaluating this project that supports commitment to Health Science CTE opportunities and interest and participation in physical and mental well-being opportunities.

Project SWIRL

The Virginia Department of Education awarded a Mathematics and Science Partnerships grant to Regent University to support a professional development program that engages teachers in developing high-impact lesson plans that allow students to use language and math skills in the context of solving meaningful problems framed through science content.

School-University Research Network's Visible Teaching, Assessment, Learning and Leading Professional Development Initiative

This professional development initiative promoted distributed leadership capacity in high-needs schools by offering professional development to school administrators and teacher leaders in SURN's 26 school district partnership.

Salem City School Division Climate Assessment and Study

SEG was contracted by Salem City Schools (SCS) to complete a climate assessment of this school district.

Growing Language Opportunities with Biliteracy–Accelerated Learning (GLOBAL) Grant

The DoDEA-funded Santa Rosa County School division is introducing and exposing students to World Languages to advance academic excellence and provide a seamless learning transition from elementary language immersion to expanded course offerings in secondary classrooms, with the ultimate goal of eventual success in postsecondary opportunities.

Guided Pathways for Student Success

The project is intended to support implementation of a guided pathways model designed to provide student support services, academic advising, and a structure for completing a degree.

St. Petersburg Community College, Pre-award

SEG has signed on to act as the external evaluator for a Title III grant with St. Petersburg Community College in Florida.

Region III Advancing Computer Science Education

The Region III Advancing Computer Science Education (ACSE) Consortium aims to promote the advancement of computer science (CS) education for all students and support the high demands of the Commonwealth's workforce.

Build and Broaden: Collaborative Research: Linguistic Production, Perception, and Identity in the Career Mobility of Black Faculty in Linguistics and the Language Sciences

The project examines how Black faculty in language sciences linguistically navigate their professional experience in a mixed methodological study that includes 12 junior and mid-career scholars from Minority Serving and Predominately White Institutions as well as a survey to an additional 100 Black faculty.

Literacy for Life's HEALing the Commonwealth Program

The goal of this evaluation is to understand the program's impact on English language and adult learners through their work with learners and medical professionals.

Literacy for Life Empowering Parents Program

The Empowering Parents program is designed to increase knowledge and confidence of participants with low literacy skills related to reading with their children, interacting with schools, healthcare literacy, and workplace skills.

Noyce Scholars Program Evaluation

SEG collaborated with faculty at the College to secure two back-to-back awards through the National Science Foundation Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program designed to support the recruitment, preparation, and retention of math and science teachers in high needs schools.

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The College of William & Mary in partnership with local school divisions and SEG surveyed their community members (e.g., paraprofessional, stay-at-home parents, career changers, secondary students) to guage their interest in joining a teacher pipeline.

ESL Summer Institute Evaluation

The William and Mary School of Education commissioned SEG to conduct post-institute and 6-month follow-up surveys administered to students enrolled in the School's English Second Language (ESL) Summer Institute over a three-year period.

Evaluation of the College of William & Mary MSP Tidewater Team

The current MSP project led by Longwood University and the College of William and Mary provides multiple graduate courses over the 3-year period to members of a Mathematics Leadership Team that has been formed in each participating school.

Southern Virginia Elementary Mathematics Coalition to Enhance Student Achievement through Teacher Professional Development

SEG evaluated this mathematics professional development initiative coordinated by the College of William & Mary in partnership with the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalition and Longwood University and serving five school districts.

Creating a community-centered framework to address inequities in food-security in Alaskan coastal communities facing a changing climate

Accessing healthy food resources is a significant challenge for rural coastal Alaskan communities, which are predominantly comprised of Indigenous Alaskans who rely on subsistence foods that are nutritionally and culturally important.

Indigenous Meat Production in the 21st Century: Feeding Our People, Feeding the State

The University of Alaska-Fairbanks Northwest Campus received a US Department of Agriculture grant. The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) College of Rural and Community Development (CRCD) branch campus of the Northwest (NWC) in Nome partnered with the UAF Cooperative Extension Service (CES) in Fairbanks to train students in managing small-scale processing plants or mobile processing units serving specialized communities.

Revitalizing Our Approach to Advising, Retention, and Graduation Through Enhanced Student Support Services

This funding program helps eligible institutions of higher education increase their self-sufficiency and expand their capacity to serve low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability of eligible institutions.

Strengthening Institutions Project

UAF CC's Title III project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, aims to increase student enrollment and course completion through the development of improved student services.

Indigenous Pedagogies Project

The Indigenous Pedagogies project seeks to develop Alaska Native language, art and culture courses and faculty in rural Alaskan communities.

The Creating Scholastic Inclusiveness: Scholars-to-Learners

The Creating Scholastic Inclusiveness: Scholars-to-Learners project seeks to increase student enrollment and persistence in higher education.

AK UNiTE (Alaska UNdergraduaTe research Experience)

The AK UNiTE (Alaska UNdergraduaTe research Experience) project supported by the National Science Foundation through its Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education program is identifying identified community partnerships with local research projects, providing workshops on Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) development and place-based education for collaborators, developing a network informational hub within the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) website, and evaluating the network.

AK UNiTE (Alaska UNdergraduaTe research Experience) Evaluation

By providing researchers with mentorship training, this project, funded jointly funded by NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education, aims to enhance the interest of Alaskan students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, in participating in biological research in academic and other sectors in Alaska.

Developing Identities in STEM to Cultivate Opportunities that Validate, Empower, and Retain Teachers

This project aims to serve the national need for preparing high quality, effective secondary STEM teachers who will teach in high-need school districts.

Needs Assessment Apprenticeship Survey

The University of Mary Washington in partnership with local school divisions surveyed their community members (e.g., paraprofessional, stay-at-home parents, career changers, secondary students) to gauge their interest in joining a teacher pipeline.

National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for the Minority Participation Bridges to Baccalaureate

SEG was contracted by Valencia College (FL) as their pre-award evaluator for their application to the Louis Stokes Alliance for the Minority Participation Bridges to Baccalaureate (NSF LSAMP B2B) program.

The Art of Tomorrow Scholars

SEG conducted an evaluation study of The Art of Tomorrow Scholars (AoTS), a dual credit initiative that is coordinated by Valencia College in partnership with Orange County Public Schools and Universal Orlando; the evaluation was funded through a grant from the Universal Orlando Foundation.

Department of Defense Strategic Foreign Languages Expansion Program (S-FLEP)

The primary objective of the Virginia Beach City Public Schools' Department of Defense Strategic Foreign Languages Expansion Program (S-FLEP) project was to expand the success of the STARTALK Elementary Summer Chinese Program into a completely articulated Mandarin Chinese program.

Operation GRIT

SEG is evaluating this project that provides social emotional support and opportunities for STEM integration for students.

Operation MCASP 2012 Initiative

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) awarded a grant to VBCPS to improve the social emotional well-being and mathematics achievement of military-connected students.

Operation PRIDE Initiative

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) awarded a grant to VBCPS to improve the social emotional well-being and mathematics achievement of military-connected students.

Strategic Planning Support for 5-year Strategic Plan

SEG was contracted by the school district's Research and Accountability Office to facilitate 19 focus group discussions with internal and external stakeholders to collect feedback on the district's new strategic framework.

Learning from Digital Game Design for Teachers

SEG developed an evaluation strategy for implementation in future grant-funded activities for Learning from Digital Game Design.

State Americorps Evaluation Training and Technical Assistance

SEG worked with the OVCS program staff to plan, prepare, and conduct training and technical assistance for AmeriCorps grantees across the state of Virginia.

Needs Assessment for Teacher Programs

VIMS commissioned SEG to prepare survey instruments to be deployed by VIMS to its contact lists of regional teachers and school administrators as part of a larger needs assessment supporting its educational programs.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) Project

The Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC), Quinton, VA (2023-2026) was awarded a five-year US Department of Education (USDE) through the Native American Career and Technical Education Program (NACTEP) to prepare all Native American participants to meet academic and technical standards for high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand industries and occupations.

Pathways to Student Success: Strengthening Transfer and Building Equity

The project focused on increasing student retention, completion and ability to transfer through strengthening transfer pathways and support, fostering a culture of equity, and providing infrastructure support for transfer and equity. SEG designed the evaluation plan, conducted cost-efficient virtual site visits in odd numbered project years and on-site visits in even-numbered years, analyzed data and annually reported.

Career & Technical Education Study

SEG conducted a study to assess the current operations, future plans, demands, and needs of career and technical education and workforce development (CTE) programs being offered in regional community colleges and high schools in Virginia's Roanoke Valley and Alleghany Highlands.

Pathmaker Project

SEG is conducting an evaluation of the MLSC grant-funded Pathmaker project at WPI BETC. WPI’s efforts will focus on: building and deploying a comprehensive marketing and outreach plan driven by community and employer input, implementing a DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) recruitment framework, and forging alliances and partnerships with industry leadership and workforce stakeholders. SEG will work with the project team to develop a system to expand student-level data collection at intake and to follow up with trainees to track their long-term employability in the biomanufacturing sector.

Faculty Development in Evaluation Design

Faculty Development in Evaluation Design, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA (2023). SEG participated in a NSF CAREER Bootcamp for early career faculty at this institution and offered individualized coaching on request for 4 to 6 early career faculty on evaluation plan development.

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Balanced Literacy Initiative

Balanced Literacy is rooted in the theory of a gradual release of responsibility from teacher directed to student led learning.

Project-Based Environmental Literacy Initiative

PBEL provided ongoing professional development, coaching, and support for cohorts of teachers to learn the skills needed to design and implement project-based MWEE lessons that incorporate scientific inquiry. The evaluation design included a single group, pre-post design to respond to the key research questions, with the primary sources of data being student achievement data collected through the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessments; a student survey with scales from the NOAA B-WET Evaluation System Student Item Bank on science outcomes, watershed literacy, and environmental stewardship; and a teacher survey to gather data on teacher pedagogical beliefs (Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs, STEBI) and development of inquiry teaching pedagogy (POSIT). Key findings included a statistically significant increase in scientific inquiry, environmental stewardship knowledge of actions and locus of control for students enrolled in the classrooms of participating teachers during the 3-year project period.

Transformative Learning Initiative

York County School Division Transformative Learning was awarded a DoDEA MCASP grant for a transformative learning initiative that sought to improve student interest in STEM and reading.