Science as part of STEM in the school curriculum
A topic in teaching science
STEM is an acronym standing for 'science, technology, engineering and mathematics'. In Higher Education STEM often refers to an alliance between different subject areas which are considered to have some interests in common (such as the continued supply of new students with strong school backgrounds in maths and the sciences – the "STEM pipeline').
At school level there has been some movement towards seeing science within the curriculum as a part of STEM. This could mean no more than a sway to organise school staff within faculty type structures that subsume several teaching departments, or it may be seen as a teaching subject in its own right.
There are clearly various ways to organise science and other STEM subjects (such as maths and design & technology) within a school curriculum, and their are strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches (Taber, 2018):
The unique nature of science
Whilst the natural sciences have very strong connections with mathematics, and with engineering and technology, science also has its own quite distinct nature.
"The goal of technology is successful action rather than pure knowledge. Accordingly the whole attitude of the of the technologist while applying his technological knowledge is active in the sense that, far form being an inquisitive onlooker or diligent borrower, he is an active participant in events…
Mario Bunge
while it is true that technology challenges science with new problems and supplies it new equipment for data gathering and data processing, it is no less true that technology, bu its very insistence on reliability, standardisation (routinisation) and fastness, at the expense of depth, range, accuracy, and serendipity, can slow down the advancement of science."
Work cited:
- Bunge, M. (2017/1998). Philosophy of Science. Volume 2: From explanation to justification (Revised ed.). Routledge. (1967)
- Taber, K. S. (2018). Knowledge sans frontières? Conceptualising STEM in the curriculum to facilitate creativity and knowledge integration. In K. S. Taber, M. Sumida, & L. McClure (Eds.), Teaching Gifted Learners in STEM Subjects: Developing talent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (pp. 1-19). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. [Download this chapter]
