SPRINGFIELD – Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) has been awarded a $1.1 million grant by the National Science Foundation for a program to strengthen STEM education in middle school.

STCC physics and engineering professor Beth McGinnis-Cavanaugh explained that middle school is the time at which students are “lost” to the sciences and engineering, especially girls.

Congressman Richard Neal explained that with 6.8 million jobs left vacant nationally, that training students for the future “ought to be one of our most important priorities.” In Massachusetts there are 18,000 positions in precision manufacturing that are seeking workers, he added.

McGinnis-Cavanaugh has been the lead researcher developing a new curriculum along with Smith College engineering professor Glenn Ellis. Smith College also received a $1.4 million grant for research. The Springfield Public Schools is also participating in the program with about 900 students each year.

“This presents a wonderful educational opportunity for Springfield Public Schools to significantly enhance our STEM programming, and we very are excited to be a part of this initiative alongside STCC and Smith College,” said Springfield Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick in a written statement.

McGinnis-Cavanaugh explained at a press event the new program would be the first to use two new types of learning that encourage students to develop their own “STEM identity.”

She explained, “We will use the narrative to capture the imaginations of students … we want to be the Harry Potter of STEM education.”

The new teaching technique is called “Imaginative Education” or  “transmedia storytelling,” which applies different elements of a narrative across a variety of formats such as books, websites, articles and other media.

McGinnis-Cavanaugh explained with this technique students can “build their own knowledge.”

The new project builds on a previous joint initiative between STCC and Smith College to promote engineering among middle school students. In 2012, Smith and STCC received a $3 million, five-year National Science Foundation award to distribute an initiative called “Talk to Me” to after-school programs and other supplemental programs nationwide.

After a four-year trial, the program will be released nationally for other districts to try.