Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of education policy or curriculum choices in schools. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns (as a shortage of STEM-educated citizens can reduce effectiveness in this area), and immigration policy, with regard to admitting foreign students and tech workers.[1]
"STEM" redirects here. For other uses, see Stem (disambiguation).There is no universal agreement on which disciplines are included in STEM; in particular, whether or not the science in STEM includes social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, economics, and political science. In the United States, these are typically included by organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF),[1] the Department of Labor's O*Net online database for job seekers,[2] and the Department of Homeland Security.[3] In the United Kingdom, the social sciences are categorized separately and are instead grouped with humanities and arts to form another counterpart acronym HASS (humanities, arts, and social sciences), rebranded in 2020 as SHAPE (social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy).[4][5] Some sources also use HEAL (health, education, administration, and literacy) as the counterpart of STEM.[6]
Terminology[edit]
History[edit]
Previously referred to as SMET by the NSF,[7] in the early 1990s the acronym STEM was used by a variety of educators, including Charles E. Vela, the founder and director of the Center for the Advancement of Hispanics in Science and Engineering Education (CAHSEE).[8][9][10] Moreover, the CAHSEE started a summer program for talented under-represented students in the Washington, D.C., area called the STEM Institute. Based on the program's recognized success and his expertise in STEM education,[11] Charles Vela was asked to serve on numerous NSF and Congressional panels in science, mathematics, and engineering education;[12] it is through this manner that NSF was first introduced to the acronym STEM. One of the first NSF projects to use the acronym was STEMTEC, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Teacher Education Collaborative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which was founded in 1998.[13] In 2001, at the urging of Dr. Peter Faletra, the Director of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists at the Office of Science, the acronym was adopted by Rita Colwell and other science administrators in the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Office of Science was also an early adopter of the STEM acronym.[14]
Criticism[edit]
The focus on increasing participation in STEM fields has attracted criticism. In the 2014 article "The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage" in The Atlantic, demographer Michael S. Teitelbaum criticized the efforts of the U.S. government to increase the number of STEM graduates, saying that, among studies on the subject, "No one has been able to find any evidence indicating current widespread labor market shortages or hiring difficulties in science and engineering occupations that require bachelor's degrees or higher", and that "Most studies report that real wages in many—but not all—science and engineering occupations have been flat or slow-growing, and unemployment as high or higher than in many comparably-skilled occupations." Teitelbaum also wrote that the then-current national fixation on increasing STEM participation paralleled previous U.S. government efforts since World War II to increase the number of scientists and engineers, all of which he stated ultimately ended up in "mass layoffs, hiring freezes, and funding cuts"; including one driven by the Space Race of the late 1950s and 1960s, which he wrote led to "a bust of serious magnitude in the 1970s."[131]
IEEE Spectrum contributing editor Robert N. Charette echoed these sentiments in the 2013 article "The STEM Crisis Is a Myth", also noting that there was a "mismatch between earning a STEM degree and having a STEM job" in the United States, with only around 1⁄4 of STEM graduates working in STEM fields, while less than half of workers in STEM fields have a STEM degree.[132]
Economics writer Ben Casselman, in a 2014 study of post-graduation earnings in the United States for FiveThirtyEight, wrote that, based on the data, science should not be grouped with the other three STEM categories, because, while the other three generally result in high-paying jobs, "many sciences, particularly the life sciences, pay below the overall median for recent college graduates."[133]
