The educational system is one of the most talked-about topics nowadays. It is considered as a backbone to a society’s growth both financially and intellectually. Traditionally, the education system was very much efficient and hardly had any flaws in it. With numerous changes happening around the world, the need to bring about a change in education is also mandatory. Identifying the need, the concept of STEM education came across in the early 2000s in the United States and has been a sensation since then. There are many graduates in the technical field, but they do not seem to have the required technical knowledge essential for working in a technical field. This term primarily addresses the required educational policies and increasing competitiveness in schools in the fields of science and technology. There are three branches of science and this term deals with two of them, first is the natural science and the other is formal science. The aim of STEM is the inculcation of interest among students about the fast-growing science and technology. STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy and develops a new generation of innovators.
Identifying the Need for STEM
By identifying the need of the system, the concept is designed. It makes students familiar with four specific fields namely Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It helps to increase the students’ interests in these fields and also helps to enhance their knowledge about the topics, introduce them with new concepts related to science, technology, and the other two fields. There is another variation in STEM which is STEAM, in which A stands for arts and design. This is also the same but it just adds another field. The motto behind this is finding real-world problems and solving them with practical solutions. Inculcating creativity among the students is an important thing according to this concept.
Revolutionizing the Education System
The education system is taking giant strides as far as the advancements and the changes are concerned. The traditional education system teaches these subjects like science, mathematics, but their practical applications are not taught the way they should be. According to research, only 36% of all high school students were ready to take a college-level science course. STEM is a revolutionary concept in the whole education system. It is developing an interest in students about the technical field from a fairly young age. It is thus a revolution as far as future technical education is concerned. With the quality of education decreasing day by day and the increasing demand for skilled personnel around the global world, technical knowledge becomes an important aspect of a student’s life, especially at an early age. Unfortunately, the industries are lacking highly skilled people and that’s why it gains even more importance. In overall growth and change in the education system, it is expected to play a big role in the future. The basic concepts regarding education are also expected to change by virtue of this concept. Thus it promises to be a revolution in the education system benefiting various universities around the world. By getting students who are already well equipped with good technical knowledge, the universities are giving good results, which are brightening the names of universities in the field. Between 2017 and 2027, STEM jobs are expected to grow by 13%. This shows the increased employment opportunities because of this concept. Also, out of 100 occupations, 93 of the STEM jobs had a salary more than the average national salary showing that financially also, STEM has changed the education system in a good way.
Building Confidence and Resilience
There are many benefits of STEM. It primarily deals with educating students from a very young age. Creativity is the mother of inventions and it is at its peak when a child is at a young age, which gradually decreases as they grow up. STEM catches that creativity and gives it a direction. There is also a huge amount of energy present in a kid. It gives direction to that energy as well. As it is an activity-based learning program, it allows students to experiment with new things, takes out the fear of failure from their minds and builds an ample amount of confidence and resilience among them. Confidence building is one of the main advantages of this whole concept. It also encourages them to take new risks and develop a ‘let’s try attitude.’ Indeed making students much more confident and able to take risks. It also inculcates their habits to work as a team. Teamwork is another important aspect of this concept. It teaches students to work as a team, also teaches them to be a good team member and a good team leader too!
Enriching the Students Technically
Enrichment of students perhaps is the most important feature and advantage of STEM education. Students globally are not much aware of technical education and the amount of technical knowledge they need to possess in order to be successful in the field. STEM education guides students towards new inventions and technology which enriches them technically. In the tech-savvy world, STEM education gives the students an upper hand. It also change the thinking process of the student allowing them to think from a technical perspective with every new concept they learn. STEM inculcates good technical habits in them thus resulting in increasing their knowledge and enriching them technically. Also, stats indicate that STEM occupations grew by 17.0 percent in 2008 to 2018 compared to 9.8 percent growth of non-STEM occupations
STEM Education: A Case Study
Journals representing STEM education have been published by many countries. The journal requires a detailed case study about all the important aspects of STEM. The research goes across various areas such as finance, cost, management, safety, etc. There are various general journals as well as international journals. STEM is a vast topic and also a topic with ample scope for research. Number of journals published on it shows the depth of the subject. Various case studies search for different things and often finish with different conclusions. It gets the users familiar with scientific and reliable research.
It concludes that education is one of the most important aspects of human life. And the quality of education, especially technical education which is sinking on a daily basis needs to be uplifted again. STEM seems to be a very important concept in not only visualizing the change but to make it happen and look much more realistic. Technical education is facing a downfall and eventually, STEM education seems to be its firm support in the future.
