![]() Interestingly, this momentum was concurrent with the growth of action plans created in response to a paradigm shift in higher education in the late 20th century from service to the public by sharing of knowledge to a model of direct engagement with community members and more of an emphasis on impact than product. Shortly following President Obama’s challenge to the nation, millions in funding flooded in by public and private sectors for teaching, training, grants, research, and school programs- accelerating the STEM education movement. In response to “No Child Left Behind”, mathematics and literacy had become the focus of K-12 education, science was given limited time and even became optional in many elementary schools, and engineering and technology were limited to advanced learning and after-school programs for select groups of children. This call was informed by the 2012 President’s council of advisors on science and technology report, which highlighted a disconnect between our actions and expectations we were teaching students these disciplines in silos yet we were expecting our graduates to know how to integrate and apply the skills and knowledge of these four areas in order to be successful in their jobs. President Obama put out a call at the 2011 State of the Union igniting a movement to “teach 21 st-century skills to be more competitive with other nations in fields of STEM”. In response to the lack of bodies and lack of diversity, “STEM” moved to the forefront of conversations in K-16 education. Learn more about this problem and current diversity and inclusion efforts here. Furthermore, the pool of those that earned STEM degrees was and still is very homogenous white, middle-high socioeconomic status, and majority male. By the 1990s, this revolution had led us to a national crisis where the number of US STEM jobs requiring graduates with STEM degrees was rising while the attrition of college students out of STEM majors was also rising. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are not new disciplines and neither is the integration of them to solve problems, so why has the acronym become so commonly used only in the last 10-15 years? Just as we saw with the focus on fundamentals in response to conservatism after World War II and then the shift to less rote memorization and individualized learning after the launch of Sputnik, the STEM movement is essentially a result of the digital revolution (also referred to as the “tech boom” or the third industrial revolution). ![]() STEM Education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching practices, where students have opportunities to practice the integration of the knowledge and skills of science, engineering, mathematics, and technology and apply that integration to a challenge, problem, or project representing how we address real-world problems. The breadth of STEM and STEM-related careers is extensive, but because all require a quality STEM education provided by the same evidence-based teaching practices, it makes sense for us to define STEM in the context of STEM education. Depending on your role as a parent, teacher, or other community member and your sources of information, your first association with “STEM” is likely related to “STEM workforce and careers” and/or to “a transformation in education that involves STEM fairs, and STEM projects”. ![]()
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