What is STEM?

The original version of this open education resource text had a strong focus on all of the STEM fields. The edited version for use in EDI 631 Teaching Science PK-6 is focused on teaching science and engineering concepts, which are included in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Michigan Science Standards. As math and technology are addressed in separate courses, those subjects receive less attention in this text. However, as cross-disciplinary units and integrated STEM lessons are often seen in elementary school instruction, we want to start with a definition of the domains of STEM and what we mean by integrated STEM education. A 2018 brief focused on NSF-funded early STEM projects provides a concise definition of each domain.

Science is the study of the natural world, seen and unseen. Science includes what scientists and children who are doing science learn (concepts and crosscutting ideas) and how they go about learning it (the practices of science). Science is connected to math, technology, and engineering in many ways.

Technology involves the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as to improve productivity, make things, or provide services. It includes all human-made objects—basic and advanced, non-digital and digital— that support us in work and in our daily lives. Again, it is inextricably linked with the other STEM domains, like how we create technology using engineering.

Engineering is the process of designing to meet human needs and wants under various constraints such as time, money, available materials, and the laws of nature. Engineering has strong connections to many other disciplines, particularly mathematics, science, and technology.

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, shape, and change. It provides a foundation for many aspects of daily life, including for much of science, technology, and engineering. Math is used in science, technology, and engineering. The mathematical sciences include more than numbers and arithmetic—they also deal with such topics as geometrical figures and structures, measurement, and logical argumentation. Mathematicians and children doing math use the practices of mathematics to identify crosscutting patterns and structures and to understand and explain phenomena.

(Adapted from Sarama et al., 2018)

As in the 2018 report noted above, we use STEM to refer to each of the individual domains as well as the ways in which the domains can be linked to one another when we teach and learn. The science and engineering practices described below are a good illustration of the overlap between the four disciplines. STEM is an acronym because of the special ways that these subjects can be – and are – linked.