STEM education why do we need it ?
Before answering this quesyon let us start from the very basic understanding of STEM. It is an acronym used for SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS and Its advanced version is STEAM which is SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING ARTS AND MATHEMATICS.
If you’re a parent or a teacher and looking for a simpler explanation of STEM, this article will help you to understand everything about it. In recent years, you may have come across that the schools are introducing a STEM curriculum in their education system but you must be wondering how exactly this is going to help your child in future. Apart from the expansion of the acronym of STEM, there is a lot to understand before you decide to go for it.
What is STEM?
The term STEM is not as simple as its acronym, it is a philosophy of education which uses subjects like science, technology, engineering and mathematics as a whole to approach and solve any specific problem resulting in better collaboration, communication, research, and critical thinking and creativity.
To burst a myth, if a student is studying science doesn’t mean he’s contributing to STEM learning, however, a cross-curricular approach through all four subjects is educating with a STEM approach.
It still may sound a little bookish and you’re not able to understand it fully, but it will become easy with this small example:
If you are an environmental engineer whose mission is to investigate current environmental problems and find solutions, you will use environmental science by making some computational and extensive use of technology and engineering to find solutions. Therefore, the STEM program is designed to help you find and innovate solutions by integrating all four themes.
Why choose a Stem curriculum for your child in a developing nation like INDIA?
The schools are already teaching science and math as the main subjects contributing to STEM but, unfortunately, that doesn’t solve the purpose of innovation and research. The way these two subjects are taught in a non-STEM curriculum includes a lot of memorisation, rote learning and almost no practical approach to solving any problem. knowledge of many subjects to innovate and solve issues. Therefore, STEM education doesn’t just educate students but turns them into thinkers and innovators. For a growing economy innovation and technology play the greatest roles.
So, are you still not thinking to enroll your child in STEM programs? If you’re still not convinced maybe you would want to see the list of benefits of STEM programs.
Progressive countries like India need more interdisciplinary thinking along with technological advancements.
Check out a report presented by INDIA TODAY.
According to some surveys and reports STEM jobs are likely to encounter less recession as compared to any other market. As India is a developing nation, our economy will be in great need of those young talents with 21st-century skills
- Internet of things (IoT), Artificial thinking, Design thinking and Robotics are new technology required to grow our economy. The prediction is that STEM jobs have increased by 44% by 2016 and it is expected to grow more with each passing year.
- STEM education produces thinkers and innovators
STEM Courses in India
Since 2006, STEM is being incorporated into many school curriculums. There’s no government regulation related to STEM curriculum but many progressive schools have incorporated it into their main curriculum
Stem Courses provide a wide array of programs to school children. Like we always say for sports, and arts theatre that it’s important to start early same goes for STEM learning as well. Following are some of the STEM course providers available in India
- INDIA STEM FOUNDATION
- STEM LEARNINGÂ
- STEM CENTREÂ Â Â
- STEM ALLIANCE
- SCIENCE UTSAVÂ
- STEM ACADEMYÂ
Types of STEM education
With four major subjects contributing to STEM there are types of STEM education with a different focus. Following are the types of STEM education
- Robotics
- Engineering
- Biology
- Computer science
- Chemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Electrical engineering
Ways to incorporate STEM learning at school and home
Incorporating STEM into a regular curriculum must be sounding a lot of work for teachers as well as students but it is not like that. With very simple tweaks and re-structuring approaches in lessons, STEM can be made part of school education. Whenever a concept is taught, a project or problem can be given to start coming up with the solution.
Following are the simple ways to include
STEM in the classroom
- Gamify the concepts to learn
- Project-based learning
- Problem-based learning
- Inquiry Inquire Inquire
- Encourage to create something new
How the Government is Supporting STEM education in India?
Govt. is taking initiative for supporting STEM education in India for school children. With the very recent campaign of the ‘Atam Nirbhar Bharat’ government along with a few STEM-based Edtechs companies have started to establish ‘Atal Tinkering labs’ in various schools to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds who can contribute to nation-building.
These young minds will be empowered with 21st-century skills like design thinking, Artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, adaptive learning and computational skills. So far, the number given by the government on this is 9500+ ATLs all across the country helping 75 lac + students with 70% of govt aided and funded schools who are mentored by 5100+ mentors. As these numbers seem very promising but the size of the country is huge so a lot of Edtech companies are also participating to enable more and more students.
Wrap up
There is a lot of demand for STEM education all over the world. In progressive countries, like India, one must think to educate the child with STEM learning. The reasons behind it are that this type of education helps the student to develop their skills and creativity. It is also helpful in learning new things and exploring the world around them.
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