Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have received $3.5 million over five years from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a multi-tiered program that will support New Hampshire middle and high schoolers in learning topics related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The program will supply enrichment training to teachers and establish a peer mentoring program for students, focusing largely on English learners, students often underrepresented in the STEM field, said Julie Bryce, a UNH earth sciences professor and director of the initiative.

“Our goal is to find ways to provide students with the assistance they need for communicating and understanding the scientific curriculum in order to gain interest and ultimately succeed in STEM fields,” she said.

The program known as SLATE (STEM Language Arts Teaching/learning Ecosystems) will be implemented by UNH’s Leitzel Center, the NH Literacy Institutes and UNH’s Community Literacy Center, in partnership with the UNH Discovery Lab, in the Manchester school system and then eventually broadened across the state, said Slate.

“We want to help support kids who may have interest in STEM but may be struggling in other ways,” said Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, an associate professor of English, director of the New Hampshire Literacy Institutes and SLATE co-director. “By taking a different avenue, such as handson environmental research, coding and science communication, we hope to reach some of those underserved students in the area of STEM and also aid them in developing their reading and writing skills.”