Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is an umbrella term used to group together the related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It represents a broad and interconnected set of fields that are crucial for innovation and technological advancement. These disciplines are often grouped together because they share a common emphasis on critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills. The term is typically used in the context of education policy or curriculum choices in schools. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns, and immigration policy, with regard to admitting foreign students and tech workers.
There is no universal agreement on which disciplines are included in STEM; in particular, whether or not the science in STEM includes social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, economics, and political science. In the United States, these are typically included by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Labor's O*Net online database for job seekers, and the Department of Homeland Security. In the United Kingdom, the social sciences are categorized separately and are instead grouped with humanities and arts to form another counterpart acronym HASS, rebranded in 2020 as SHAPE. Some sources also use HEAL as the counterpart of STEM.
Terminology
History
In the early 1990s the acronym STEM was used by a variety of educators. Beverly P. Schwartz developed a STEM mentoring program in the Capital District of New York State, and was using the acronym as early as November, 1991. Charles E. Vela was the founder and director of the Center for the Advancement of Hispanics in Science and Engineering Education and started a summer program for talented under-represented students in the Washington, D.C. area called the STEM Institute. Based on the program's recognized success and his expertise in STEM education, Charles Vela was asked to serve on numerous NSF and Congressional panels in science, mathematics, and engineering education. Previously referred to as SMET by the NSF, it is through this manner that NSF was first introduced to the acronym STEM. One of the first NSF projects to use the acronym was STEMTEC, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Teacher Education Collaborative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which was founded in 1998.In 2001, at the urging of Dr. Peter Faletra, the Director of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists at the Office of Science, the acronym was adopted by Rita Colwell and other science administrators in the National Science Foundation. The Office of Science was also an early adopter of the STEM acronym.
Other variations
- eSTEM
- GEMS ; used for programs to encourage women to enter these fields.
- MINT
- SHTEAM
- SMET ; previous name
- STEAM
- *STEAM ; add agriculture
- *STEAM ; has more focus on applied mathematics
- STEEM ; adds economics as a field
- STEMIE ; adds inventing and entrepreneurship as a means to apply STEM to real-world problem-solving and markets.
- STEMM
- STM
- STREAM ; adds robotics and arts as fields
- *STREAM ; adds reading and arts
- *STREAM ; adds recreation and arts
Geographic distribution
| Rank | Country | Number of STEM grads | Percent of total grads |
| 1 | 3,570,000 | 41% | |
| 2 | 2,550,000 | 30% | |
| 3 | 820,000 | 20% | |
| 4 | 520,000 | 37% | |
| 5 | 300,000 | 20% | |
| 6 | 238,000 | 17% | |
| 7 | 221,000 | 26% | |
| 8 | 220,000 | 26% | |
| 9 | 216,000 | 36% | |
| 10 | 211,000 | 33% | |
| 11 | 192,000 | 19% |
By the mid-2000s, China surpassed the United States in the number of PhDs awarded and is expected to produce 77,000 PhDs in 2025, compared to 40,000 in the US.
By country
Australia
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority 2015 report entitled, National STEM School Education Strategy, stated that "A renewed national focus on STEM in school education is critical to ensuring that all young Australians are equipped with the necessary STEM skills and knowledge that they must need to succeed." Its goals were to:- "Ensure all students finish school with strong foundational knowledge in STEM and related skills"
- "Ensure that students are inspired to take on more challenging STEM subjects"
Canada
Canada ranks 12th out of 16 peer countries in the percentage of its graduates who studied in STEM programs, with 21.2%, a number higher than the United States, but lower than France, Germany, and Austria. The peer country with the greatest proportion of STEM graduates, Finland, has over 30% of its university graduates coming from science, mathematics, computer science, and engineering programs.SHAD is an annual Canadian summer enrichment program for high-achieving high school students in July. The program focuses on academic learning, particularly in STEAM fields.
Scouts Canada has taken similar measures to their American counterpart to promote STEM fields to youth. Their STEM program began in 2015.
In 2011 Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Seymour Schulich established the Schulich Leader Scholarships, $100 million in $60,000 scholarships for students beginning their university education in a STEM program at 20 institutions across Canada. Each year 40 Canadian students would be selected to receive the award, two at each institution, with the goal of attracting gifted youth into the STEM fields. The program also supplies STEM scholarships to five participating universities in Israel.
China
To promote STEM in China, the Chinese government issued a guideline in 2016 on national innovation-driven development strategy, "instructing that by 2020, China should become an innovative country; by 2030, it should be at the forefront of innovative countries; and by 2050, it should become a technology innovation power.""n May 2018, the launching ceremony and press conference for the 2029 Action Plan for China's STEM Education was held in Beijing, China. This plan aims to allow as many students to benefit from STEM education as possible and equip all students with scientific thinking and the ability to innovate." "In response to encouraging policies by the government, schools in both public and private sectors around the country have begun to carry out STEM education programs."
"However, to effectively implement STEM curricula, full-time teachers specializing in STEM education and relevant content to be taught are needed." Currently, "China lacks qualified STEM teachers and a training system is yet to be established."
Several Chinese cities have made programming a mandatory subject for elementary and middle school students. This is the case of the city of Chongqing. However, most students from small and medium-sized cities have not been exposed to the concept of STEM until they enter college.
Europe
Several European projects have promoted STEM education and careers in Europe. For instance, Scientix is a European cooperation of STEM teachers, education scientists, and policymakers. The SciChallenge project used a social media contest and student-generated content to increase the motivation of pre-university students for STEM education and careers. The Erasmus programme project AutoSTEM used automata to introduce STEM subjects to very young children.Finland
The LUMA Center is the leading advocate for STEM-oriented education. Its aim is to promote the instruction and research of natural sciences, mathematics, computer science, and technology across all educational levels in the country. In the native tongue luma stands for "luonnontieteellis-matemaattinen". The short is more or less a direct translation of STEM, with engineering fields included by association. However, unlike STEM, the term is also a portmanteau from lu and ma. To address the decline in interest in learning the areas of science, the Finnish National Board of Education launched the LUMA scientific education development program. The project's main goal was to raise the level of Finnish education and to enhance students' competencies, improve educational practices, and foster interest in science. The initiative led to the establishment of 13 LUMA centers at universities across Finland supervised by LUMA Center.France
The name of STEM in France is industrial engineering sciences. The STEM organization in France is the association UPSTI.Hong Kong
STEM education has not been promoted among the local schools in Hong Kong until recent years. In November 2015, the Education Bureau of Hong Kong released a document titled Promotion of STEM Education, which proposes strategies and recommendations for promoting STEM education.India
India is next only to China with STEM graduates per population of 1 to 52. The total number of fresh STEM graduates was 2.6 million in 2016. STEM graduates have been contributing to the Indian economy with well-paid salaries locally and abroad for the past two decades. The turnaround of the Indian economy with comfortable foreign exchange reserves is mainly attributed to the skills of its STEM graduates. In India, women make up an impressive 43% of STEM graduates, the highest percentage worldwide. However, they hold only 14% of STEM-related jobs. Additionally, among the 280,000 scientists and engineers working in research and development institutes in the country, women represent a mere 14%In India, OMOTEC is providing an innovative curriculum based on STEM, and their students are also performing and developing products to solve the new age problems. Two students also won the Microsoft Imagine Cup for developing a non-invasive method to screen for skin cancer using artificial intelligence.