STEM Essays

STEM Science Integration in the Classroom

Academic fields like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are grouped together under the umbrella title ‘STEM.’ This word is usually applied to a school’s education policy or curricular selections. Introducing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum and educational programs is designed to better prepare students in these areas of study and create practical applications for how these lessons relate to the real world. This focus will aid future generations in dealing with the world’s most pressing issues.

STEM education equips students with skills that make them more employable and prepared to fulfill current labor demands. It includes a wide range of experiences and abilities. Each STEM component contributes to a well-rounded education in its own way. Science provides students with a thorough awareness of the world around them. It assists them in improving their research and critical thinking skills. Technology educates young people to work in a world where high-tech advancements are commonplace. When it comes to building solutions, mathematics allows people to assess data, eliminate errors, and make conscious decisions. Several historical events led to the development of STEM education. The Morrill was the most notable, a law passed in 1862. This Act paved the way for the establishment of land-grant universities in the United States. Initially, the focus was mostly on agricultural training, but engineering-based training programs were quickly added. The Ohio State University, for example, was founded in 1870 but was formerly known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. As the number of land grant universities grew, so did the number of STEM students. Education training was eventually taught, and it was gradually absorbed into the workforce. World War II and the launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite were two such events that aided STEM education.

There have been a variety of approaches to STEM science integration in the classroom. Frequently, the fundamental reason for the disparity between these approaches is that each is based on a different set of assumptions. Each program has a distinct learning goal (s). According to Bloom’s taxonomy Learning objectives can be classified. The cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor domains are the three sorts of domains. The cognitive domain consists of mentally based knowledge, procedures, and skills performed. Within the cognitive domain, another common learning purpose of STEM education is to help students build skills that span beyond a specific topic. In keeping with this viewpoint, a variety of STEM integration programs have used learning objectives that place students in the context of a complex scenario and require them to apply knowledge from several disciplines (e.g., Moore et al., 2014). In this method, each discipline’s importance is regarded equally (as a means of better understanding the circumstance), and the amount of information required for each discipline is determined by the nature of the learning challenge or situation.

Strong STEM programs are seen as crucial in creating students with 21st-century competencies (knowledge, skills, and values) in education. Creativity, problem-solving, and entrepreneurial skills are required for students to pursue additional education in STEM fields, as well as associated occupations and endeavors into entrepreneurship and inventions. STEM classrooms, in this light, necessitate teachers with knowledge and pedagogies linked with various STEM subjects, as well as the ability to develop new identities within their nation and school contexts.

The Progress Report on the Implementation of the Federal STEM Education Strategic Plan was released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in December 2020. This progress report details ongoing efforts and implementation practices across the federal government as it strives to meet the Strategic Plan’s goals and objectives. This report also includes budget data from all federal agencies that made STEM education investments in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. In developing countries, rising economies, and long-established economies like Europe and the United States, improving STEM education teaching and learning has become an economic factor. Qualified researchers and technicians are in high demand in today’s markets. Ingenious, a joint initiative of European School, the European network consisting of 30 Ministries of Education, and the European Roundtable of Industrialists, is one European initiative declaring STEM education as a major thematic domain. STEM education has grown into a meta-discipline, an integrated effort that focuses on creativity and the practical process of developing answers to complicated contextual problems, rather than the conventional barriers between different areas. Using current techniques and technologies, there are issues. Getting students to participate in high-quality activities in STEM education necessitates a rigorous curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Integrate technology and engineering into science and assessment mathematics curriculum, as well as scientific inquiry and engineering process of design. All kids must be included in the STEM vision, and all teachers must be given the necessary professional development to help them guide all of their students toward STEM literacy. Educators from higher education and K-12 schools can collaborate to establish pedagogical models that deliver challenging, well-rounded education and great STEM instruction by concentrating on student involvement.

In STEM education, active learning has the potential to be more effective than traditional teacher-centered instruction in terms of improving student learning and retention. Active learning has the potential to meet student’s educational needs while also encouraging critical thinking.