STEM Education

STEM is an umbrella term for teaching grouped around science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, emphasizing critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills across those related technical disciplines. The acronym grew out of several separate educator initiatives in the early 1990s, including a mentoring program Beverly P. Schwartz ran in New York State by November 1991 and a curriculum Jane Silverstein developed at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, New Jersey. The National Science Foundation initially used the term SMET before its director, Rita Colwell, officially adopted STEM in 2001, and one of its first STEM-labeled projects was the STEMTEC teacher education collaborative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, established in 1998. STEM has since become central to education policy debates in the United States over curriculum integration, workforce shortages, immigration policy for skilled workers, and national competitiveness. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/