Envirotech is a new program created by University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign engineers and Women in Engineering. It is based on the idea that student’s poor literacy skills create a lack of interest in STEM concepts.

“Proper understanding of scientific concepts frequently requires handling new vocabulary and written information. This presents a barrier to children with poor reading and language skills. As a result of these deficiencies, many students develop low self-confidence for information-intense subjects, and shy away from science and math despite strong interest in the underlying topics. International comparisons show U.S. students score lowest in language-intensive areas of science, e.g., biology.”

Envirotech creators make reading fun through environmental science. While students in the program are behind their peers in science, math and reading; they are very engaged in the the program. Envirotech allows students to make hands on connections to what they read, which keeps it interesting. The group also takes field trips, works with scientfic equitment, and talks to real environmental engineers.

You can read more about it in the article; You’re a fish…where would you rather live? posted in Engineering at Illinois News.