A&M-Commerce Awarded Grant To Assist Area Schools

Commerce, Texas — Texas A&M University-Commerce is partnering with Northeast Texas middle schools next summer to bring students’ gaming skills to the next level thanks to a $992,663 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Distributed during the next three years, the grant will fund Maximizing Motivation, Targeting Technology (M2T2), an innovative program that will utilize gaming, 3-D visualizations and other gaming strategies to relate abstract math and science concepts to real world phenomenon.

Sample projects may include measuring the velocity of a toy car through physics, and then learning how to replicate that movement realistically on a computer screen.

“Our goal is to foster an interest in science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) now while the students are in middle school, so they are more likely to pursue it in college and beyond,” said Dr. Gil Naizer, program director and interim assistant dean of the College of Education and Human Services.

A minimum of 108 students and 18 teachers from selected middle schools will participate in the intensive two-week summer camp, followed by year-round programming.

The program will be similar to the X-TEEMS portion of Project STEEM, another math and science-based program at A&M-Commerce.

Non-participating teachers and students at the selected schools also stand to benefit from their interactions with M2T2 participants.

“Our goal is for students and teachers to leave here with a contagious enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, and math that will have an indelible impact on their schools and communities.”

For more information about the program, contact Dr. Gil Naizer at [email protected].