The STEM acronym, coined by Dr. Judith
Ramaley, was introduced in 2001 by scientific administrators at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). STEM introduces students to the four areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics through an interdisciplinary approach that will increase awareness, build knowledge, develop problem solving skills, and potentially awaken an interest in pursuing a career in STEM. |
* STEM explicitly focuses on scientific concepts. "There are four major concepts in science: Facts, Hypotheses, Laws, and Theories"
(Coppinger Live Science, 2017 ). * STEM develops a set of thinking, reasoning, teamwork, investigative and creative skills that students can use in all areas of their lives. *STEM isn't a standalone class-it's a way to intentionally incorporate different subjects across an existing curriculum. |
"STEAM" represents STEM plus The Arts-humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media. Indeed, it adds an extra "creative" dimension to the scientific focus of STEM, but again, we suggest, falls short of holistically enabling students to embrace the ever evolving "worlds" and 21 Century skills associated with Mindfulness, Empathy, Sustainability, Literacy, Kindfulness and iTechnologies.
We will refer to this next level of empowerment, beyond STEM and STEAM as S.T.R.E.A.M.S... |