STEM

STEM
has been an active topic in education since 2001. It stands for Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. This program was founded by Judith A.
Ramaley, the former director of the National Science Foundation’s education and
human resources division. The idea of STEM is to “revolutionize” the teaching
of math and science by incorporating technology and engineering into a regular
curriculum. The idea that these four topics have been taught separately is
where STEM Education would step in. Instead of them being separate from each
other, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics would all play a part
in the teaching of the whole. This curriculum would be enforced by problem-
solving, discovery, exploratory learning, and require students to engage in a
situation and find a solution.

There
are a few benefits to the STEM program. Because much of the education system
has been steered toward female learning on verbal concepts, STEM would teach
independent ways for students to explore all subjects deeper by using the
skills they learn. These are the skills that will benefit our students in the
workforce. Many of the requirements today when looking for a job are that a
person is able to work independently and actively as part of a team, and that a
person can use their critical thinking skills. With these set of skills, our
students today can close the performance gap of American students to students
being produced in other countries.

There
is a great push for more students to enter into science and technology fields.
Students are feeling less prepared after high school in these areas and as a
result are choosing majors in college that are much easier. Due to this, there
has been a decline in the number of college students that enter science and
technology fields. Research shows that because of this decline in students
taking an interest in engineering and science fields due to the lack of
preparation, there will be a huge problem just over the next decade because
there will be no one qualified in these areas. The problem with this is that
over three quarters of the jobs that will be created in the next decade will
require math and science skills. The integrated of STEM Education into our
curriculum will help students feel more prepared and increase the amount of
people who decided to go into these fields in college. If the students feels
more confident in these areas when graduate high school, they are more likely
to go into a science or math field feeling prepared. This will also increase
job force in the future.

It is
important for people to know that STEM is not just about integrating science,
technology, engineering, and Mathematics, it is about teaching the student as a
whole. This includes involving traditional classes and the Arts. The idea is to make our students better-rounded,
but strengthening the STEM areas so we can increase and push more students to
enter these fields. My personal opinion
of STEM is that is a great idea. I am a strong supporter in the fact that our
students need to be well-rounded, that we cannot just focus on educating our
students in one particular way or area; we need to educate the “whole” student.
I do feel that if we incorporate STEM Education into the curriculum, then
students will feel more confident and will be better prepared to go into these
particular fields.