Positive Contributions of STEM

STEM is an interdisciplinary approach to education, which includes Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It is removing any boundaries between the subjects and aims to teach them as one (Roberts, 2012). STEM education has lots of positive contributions for students, teachers and even societies.

 When we consider STEM Education on the child level, we see that children benefit from it to a great extent. Firstly, children are introduced to some new disciplines and get a chance to learn about various professionals. Therefore, we can say that it is offering children a rich learning environment. In daily life, it is not possible for children to meet these various professionals easily. Yet, with STEM education, children get a chance to get familiar with these different disciplines and even pretend to work as one of them for their projects when needed. This is significant because children get to experience science, math, engineering and technology fields as an hands-on experience and enjoy it. This way, these disciplines become something to enjoy and explore rather than abstract course subjects.

Children learn better when they are exposed to integrated subjects in a meaningful context like STEM education. That’s why, what children learn through STEM education is more likely to be effective in the long term. In addition to this, STEM education encourages children to think, explore and work on an idea as a group. Therefore, its structure also provides many contributions to childen’s development. As Bybee (2013) mentions in his article, too, five important skills of our century, which can be named as adaptability, complex communications, nonroutine problem solving, self-management and systems thinking, can be supported by STEM education. These are really important skills because they are needed in any area of life. Likewise, children improve their development not only in these skills,but also in many areas. For instance, cognitive development of children is improved overall because they get to use language to express their ideas, predict what will happen and see the relation between causes and consequences.

On the other hand, children’s socioemotional skills develop with the help of STEM, too. They experience how to work as a group, take responsibilities and learn how to solve conflicts in group. They also get a chance to do presentations in fair weeks and gain self confidence as they test and present their products.

Just like its positive contributions to children, STEM Education offers many positive contributions for teachers too. In STEM education, children can identify the problem, make a brainstorm to find a solution, plan their projects, apply it and test their products in the end. In this regard, teachers play the role of a guide who asks appropriate questions and prepares best learning opportunities. As a result of this, they become facilitators of the learning process rather than being instructors to give orders, just like how Roberts (2012) claims in his article, too. It is very important because it offers a way of having children as active participants in classroom and it is providing a chance for teachers to enjoy class and learn new things. Also, some teachers can feel insecure about teaching science. However, in STEM education, teachers don’t teach anything directly, but provide sources for children to learn new things. Children and teachers can explore concepts of science, mathematics, engineering and technology together. Likewise, since STEM education has scheduled plans for each week, teachers can control process better. 

Finally, STEM education provides lots of positive contributions for society. In his article, Bybee (2013) summarize these as “addressing global challenges that citizens must understand, changing perceptions of environmental and associated problems, recognizing 21st-century workforce skills and continuing issues of national security”. I also agree with this idea. However, I think there are more than these headlines. STEM education lets children see how to find creative solutions to problems. When people are encouraged to think in novel ways since childhood, they can be able to discover better ideas and create useful products for the world. It can help to have citizens with high self esteem and confidence. It can make people interested in working in or even creating new disciplines, which actually supports societies and all citizens. In his article, Roberts (2012) claims that STEM education can benefit the economy by enticing more students into the study of STEM fields following secondary education. China and India are given as an example of this case. Although it can be true, I think this shouldn’t be the main purpose of giving STEM education to children. Rather than directing children into these fields, STEM education should be used for children’s benefit such as improving social and cognitive development and giving children an opportunity to enjoy these disciplines.

To sum up, STEM education provides numerious positive contributions to children, teachers and societies. I personally believe that positive contributions of STEM education for children are more significant than other areas and this the reason why I really liked the idea of STEM. 

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References:

Bybee, R. W. (2013). The case for STEM education: Challenges and opportunities. Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association Press. 
Roberts, A. (2012). A justification for STEM education. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 72(8), 1–5.