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What Is STEM Education and How Does It Fit Your Classroom?
Lindsey Menichetti
July 21, 2025
Students, especially our youngest students, enter the classroom curious about the world around them. They want to learn how things work, why they happen, and have so many other questions that we couldn’t even dream up as adults. These wonderings make them primed for STEM education.
The concept of STEM education isn’t new, but if you’ve yet to deliberately incorporate it into your lessons, you may wonder: “What is STEM education, and why should I use it?”
Today, we’ll look at what the STEM acronym stands for, why STEM education is important for students of all ages, and how you can better integrate it into your classroom.
STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. These disciplines overlap in skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving. They’re also typically intertwined in many career fields, such as architecture or medicine.
Discover more about what each letter in the acronym means for classroom learning:
Science
Science, as part of the STEM acronym, is about building knowledge and learning to understand the world. Observation, experimentation, and critical thinking are three hallmarks of a good science curriculum.
Many science lessons, like making crystals or observing apple oxidation, are hands-on ways to explore scientific principles and create opportunities for students to ask why and how things happen.
Technology in STEM encompasses more than just the use of digital tools, such as cell phones, tablets, or computers. It explores the creation and use of any product created to meet a human want or need. For example, can openers, hammers, or wheelchair ramps are all examples of non-digital technology created to meet a need or solve a problem.
This body of knowledge and skills involves studying the techniques and processes used to create products and services, and then looks at how those items impact everyday lives. With these lessons, students learn to analyze how technology works and discover how to use it responsibly.
Activities such as coding projects, creating stop-motion videos, or taking a digital citizenship class all fall under this category.
Engineering focuses on the design process used to solve problems. It’s key to helping students apply the knowledge they learn in science, math, and technology lessons to the real world. Engineering teaches students that making mistakes is common and that they can learn from these challenges and try again to develop better solutions.
In engineering lessons, students design, build, and optimize processes, structures, or products. They also focus on defining problems, conducting research, developing ideas, creating prototypes, and testing theories.
Projects such as building mini catapults, creating robot mazes, or designing Rube Goldberg machines are all examples of engineering lessons and activities.
Math teaches students precise calculations and logical reasoning. It helps give deeper meaning to science and engineering concepts that may seem abstract. With math lessons, students learn to apply structured thinking for analysis, evaluating design solutions, and making informed decisions.
Number games and activities such as measuring objects in the classroom, personal finance projects, or learning how the stock market works can help students see the relevance of math in their lives.
STEM education helps students prepare for experiences and challenges outside the classroom. The skills they build for working and collecting knowledge in these disciplines can have a significant impact on their lives. Here are some of the ways STEM education can benefit students:
Job preparation: STEM careers are fast-growing and in demand. Learning STEM skills in school can help students meet the demand for qualified, skilled workers in these disciplines.
Developing 21st-century skills: STEM education nurtures the Four C’s—critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Learning these skills helps students master problem-solving and work more effectively together to reach common goals.
Improving innovation: STEM encourages students to think creatively and innovate solutions that tackle real-world problems.
[The core philosophy of STEM education](id-core)
STEM is integrated by nature. This core philosophy helped form the pillars of STEM education, which include:
Moving away from teaching in isolation
Instead of teaching science, technology, engineering, and math separately, STEM emphasizes how these disciplines work together to solve complex problems. Teaching these subjects and skills together can boost students’ interests across all four. Plus, when they’re taught together, students can understand how different skills and principles connect, making learning more relevant.
A cornerstone of integrated STEM education is hands-on and project-based learning. These teaching strategies enable students to experiment and explore new concepts rather than simply listening to lectures or reading information from a textbook.
Students often work on projects that mimic real-world problem-solving processes, such as creating a safety suit to wear during a community nature cleanup day. These types of projects enable them to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting.
Aside from the real-world applications of projects and experiments, STEM education focuses on the real social, economic, and environmental problems that impact our students.
Even when reading, watching videos, or researching, students are immersed in how these concepts relate to them, their towns, and everyday life. This can help them stay more engaged in their lessons and even be eager to explore some topics on their own.
Taking inquiry-based and student-centered approaches
STEM education encourages students to ask questions and discover answers through investigation and experimentation. Teachers act as facilitators and guides when necessary, but ultimately, STEM allows students to explore independently or in small groups with their peers.
This approach encourages student agency, allowing them to tap into their natural curiosity and develop a passion for learning.
Still have questions about what STEM education is or how to apply it? We’ve got answers!
Which students benefit most from STEM education?
Students of all ages and ability levels benefit from STEM education. Let’s look at the positive impact it can have on certain student groups:
Pre-K and early elementary students: Introducing STEM to young students fosters curiosity, basic understanding, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Learning through exploration and play can have a profoundly positive impact on these students.
Gifted students: STEM allows gifted students to engage with appropriately challenging problems, try new things, and build skills outside of the traditional memorization and studying models. By encouraging these students to practice STEM, you can help them become more well-rounded learners.
English language learners (ELLs), struggling students, and special education students: For ELLs or students who may struggle with certain aspects of traditional learning, STEM provides opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge in various ways. Its project-based and experimental nature can eliminate some barriers that may come up in traditional learning.
Heterogeneous peer groups: STEM enables students with diverse strengths to collaborate and achieve a common goal, allowing all participants to contribute. For example, a book-smart student, a physically strong student, a logical thinker, and a student who loves to talk can all come together and create something or solve a problem, and all feel pride in their work.
What’s the difference between STEM and STEAM?
Some schools may adopt a STEAM model instead of STEM, adding an extra letter, “A” for art. Aside from the obvious additional letter and discipline, this curriculum includes visual arts, graphic design, music, drama, and other media in STEM lessons.
Schools may adopt this model to demonstrate that art is inextricably linked to traditional STEM disciplines. For example, mathematical principles are applied in art and design to achieve specific goals. Color mixing and creating pigmentations require scientific knowledge. Engineers and inventors often create products that are functional and aesthetically pleasing.
STEAM encourages students to approach challenges from multiple perspectives. It highlights soft skills alongside academic knowledge for a more well-rounded lesson.
I’m not a science or math teacher, so why should I care about STEM?
STEM education isn’t just for science and math teachers. It’s a cross-curricular discipline, and you can teach STEM skills and principles in any classroom. Yes, even in ELA, music, PE, and beyond.
STEM education challenges you as a teacher to offer hands-on, collaborative, and open-ended experiences for your students. To incorporate STEM into other subjects, try:
Asking students to create a solution that solves a problem of the main character in your in-class novel.
Experiment with how acoustics can change in different rooms or by using different instruments.
Have students build an obstacle course for another group to complete.
These and many other lessons and activities can incorporate STEM learning into your classroom without deviating from your regular lesson plans.
What are some challenges associated with STEM education?
Despite its numerous benefits, STEM education still presents challenges in the classroom. Discover some of these pitfalls and how to fix them:
Minimal teacher training
Many teachers, especially those outside of science and math classrooms, may not feel equipped with the knowledge or training to run STEM programs.
Joining PD sessions, connecting with a STEM teacher mentor, taking independent courses, or asking your school or district to hold a STEM workshop are all ways you can learn more about teaching STEM and feel more prepared and equipped to use targeted lessons in any classroom.
Resource restrictions
Effective STEM programs require significant resources like materials and technology. What you plan to use may not be expensive, but buying supplies for an entire class or school can add up. If your school has a limited budget, this could become a challenge.
To help get the supplies you need, grants are available for STEM education. Well-known companies, such as LEGO, your state education department, or other businesses or foundations, offer funding assistance to help you bring effective STEM education to your school.
Aside from tangible resources, classroom time may be limited. You may feel like you don’t have room to squeeze in a STEM lesson if it doesn’t already fit with your plans and schedule. To save time, you can incorporate STEM lessons into any existing classroom plan. Taking a professional learning course or working with a STEM teacher mentor can help you figure out how.
Lack of diversity
When teaching the background knowledge or informational side of STEM, there’s often a lack of diversity in the famous figures we highlight across disciplines. Women, Black Americans, and Hispanic people are often the most underrepresented groups in STEM occupations, especially in engineering and computer science fields.
Seeing less diversity in the curriculum may make students feel like STEM isn’t “for them,” even though that’s not true. To help add diversity to your STEM classroom, you can:
Spotlight diverse role models: Share stories from diverse STEM leaders and entrepreneurs when building background knowledge. This can help all students see themselves in the material.
Practice inclusivity: Give all students the chance to try projects and skills that interest them. Avoid promoting any unconscious biases and gently correct any students who may show them in their work or peer interactions.
Highlight support programs: Scholarships and community programs to support diversity in STEM exist. Share these with your students to help them understand that if they have dreams of pursuing higher education or working in STEM fields, there are resources available to help them achieve their goals.
How can I encourage students to pursue STEM outside the classroom?
STEM education isn’t just a collection of school subjects. It’s all around us! There are plenty of other places students can visit to learn STEM lessons and access resources to continue their education. You might recommend:
Everyday learning: Taking nature walks, baking or cooking with family members, or cleaning up at home can all teach mini STEM lessons. Discuss with parents and caregivers how they can support and encourage this type of STEM learning at home.
Community resources: Global libraries, museums, and groups may offer STEM programs for students after school, in the summer, or throughout the year. Many of these events are free or low-cost.
Clubs and camps: Community organizations or related businesses may offer programs like robotics clubs or coding camps, especially during the summer when students are out of school.
Volunteer opportunities: For older students trying to decide if they want to pursue STEM careers, volunteering to work at STEM clubs, camps, after-school programs, or community-run events can help them decide if this career path may be right for them.
STEM education: A pathway to cross-curricular learning
STEM is more than just an acronym. It’s a dynamic approach to learning that builds on students’ natural curiosity about the world. This cross-curricular discipline encourages students to think critically, innovate solutions, and become well-rounded, engaged learners prepared for the challenges and opportunities they’ll encounter in the classroom and beyond.
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