Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

STEM—short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—is a group of important school subjects. These subjects help us understand nature, create new tools, design useful structures, and use numbers to solve problems. They all work together because they need careful thinking and smart ways to find answers.

Teachers and leaders talk about STEM when they plan what children should learn in school. Learning about these subjects helps people invent new things and improve technology. It is also important for finding jobs and keeping countries strong.

Not everyone agrees on which subjects belong in STEM. Some people think it should only include natural sciences like biology and physics. Others believe it also includes social sciences such as psychology, sociology, economics, and political science. Different countries have different ideas about this. For example, in the United States, groups like the National Science Foundation usually include social sciences in STEM. But in the United Kingdom, social sciences are often grouped with humanities and arts instead, using names like HASS or SHAPE.

Terminology

History

In the early 1990s, many teachers started using the term STEM to group together science, technology, engineering, and math. A teacher named Beverly P. Schwartz began a special program in New York State in 1991. Another teacher, Jane Silverstein, created a special curriculum at John F. Kennedy High School in New Jersey in the mid-1990s. Charles E. Vela started a summer program in Washington, D.C., for students who were good at these subjects. The National Science Foundation began using the term STEM around 2001.

Other variations

There are many ways people change the STEM idea a little bit:

eSTEM (environmental STEM)
GEMS (girls in engineering, math, and science); used for programs to encourage women to enter these fields.
MINT (mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, and technology)
SHTEAM (science, humanities, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics)
SMET (science, mathematics, engineering, and technology); previous name
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics)
- STEAM (science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics); add agriculture
- STEAM (science, technology, engineering, and applied mathematics); has more focus on applied mathematics
STEEM (science, technology, engineering, economics, and mathematics); adds economics as a field
STEMIE (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, invention, and entrepreneurship); adds inventing and entrepreneurship as a means to apply STEM to real-world problem-solving and markets.
STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine)
STM (scientific, technical, and mathematics or science, technology, and medicine)
STREAM (science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts, and mathematics); adds robotics and arts as fields
- STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, arts, and mathematics); adds reading and arts
- STREAM (science, technology, recreation, engineering, arts, and mathematics); adds recreation and arts

Geographic distribution

By the middle of the 2000s, China gave out more doctorates than the United States. China is expected to give out about 77,000 doctorates by 2025, compared to around 40,000 in the United States.

STEM graduates by country (2020)
Rank	Country	Number of STEM grads	Percent of total grads
1	China	3,570,000	41%
2	India	2,550,000	30%
3	United States	820,000	20%
4	Russia	520,000	37%
5	Indonesia	300,000	20%
6	Brazil	238,000	17%
7	Mexico	221,000	26%
8	France	220,000	26%
9	Germany	216,000	36%
10	Iran	211,000	33%
11	Japan	192,000	19%

By country

Australia

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority said in 2015 that STEM is important for schools. It helps students get skills for the future. Goals include:

Making sure all students finish school with good STEM knowledge
Encouraging students to take harder STEM subjects

Events and programs to help STEM in schools include the Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge, the Maths Challenge, Go Girl Go Global, and the Australian Informatics Olympiad.

Canada

Canada ranks 12th out of 16 similar countries for STEM graduates, with 21.2% of graduates studying STEM. Programs like SHAD focus on STEM learning for high school students. Scouts Canada started a STEM program in 2015. The Schulich Leader Scholarships, started in 2011, help students begin university in STEM programs.

China

China made a plan in 2016 to become a technology leader by 2050. In 2018, China started the 2029 Action Plan for STEM Education. But China needs more STEM teachers and training.

Europe

Several European projects help with STEM education. For example, Scientix connects STEM teachers, and the Erasmus programme project AutoSTEM introduces STEM to young children using automata.

Finland

The LUMA Center helps with STEM education in all levels in Finland. The Finnish National Board of Education started the LUMA program to improve science education.

Middle school chemistry on a blackboard in Beijing, China, 2011

France

In France, STEM is called industrial engineering sciences. The group UPSTI supports STEM in the country.

Hong Kong

STEM education is new in Hong Kong schools. In 2015, the Education Bureau shared ideas to grow STEM education.

India

India has many STEM graduates, and women are 43% of these graduates. But they hold only 14% of STEM jobs. Groups like OMOTEC create new STEM lessons and build things to solve problems.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, programs like the Association of Professional Women Engineers Of Nigeria get girls involved in science courses to encourage them to study STEM in higher education. The National Science Foundation helps girls with invention programs.

Pakistan

STEM subjects are taught in Pakistan from grades 9 to 12. The government approved a STEM education project to create STEM labs in public schools. Google works with Pakistan to start a coding program for children aged 9 to 14.

Philippines

In the Philippines, STEM is a two-year program for Senior High School. It gives students advanced knowledge in STEM fields.

Qatar

Medalists from Team India at the 2019 International Physics Olympiad

AL-Bairaq is a program in Qatar for high-school students focused on STEM, run by Qatar University. It uses projects and team work.

Singapore

Singapore’s Ministry of Education promotes STEM through the Applied Learning Programme in schools. The Singapore Science Centre also started a STEM unit to grow students' love for STEM.

Thailand

Thailand approved a STEM Education Centre to grow STEM education across the country. The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology also started a STEM Education Network.

Turkey

The Turkish STEM Education Task Force works to improve STEM education quality, not just the number of graduates.

United States

In the United States, STEM is important in education and immigration to get skilled workers. Programs like Project Lead The Way and NASA’s STEM programs work to improve STEM education. The National Science Foundation supports STEM fields including chemistry, computer science, engineering, and more.

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation supports all areas of basic science and engineering except medical sciences. It offers scholarships, grants, and fellowships in many STEM areas.

Immigration policy

The United States Department of Homeland Security has a list of STEM degree programs that let international students stay in the country for extra training after graduation.

A high school student explains her engineering project to a judge in Sacramento, California, in 2015.

Education

Efforts to grow STEM education in the U.S. include changing the Mathematics and Science Partnership and starting new programs. States like California and Florida have also put money into STEM education.

Racial gap in STEM fields

In the U.S., black and Hispanic students score lower in science than white, Asian, and Pacific Islander students. Efforts work to make STEM more fair and open to everyone.

Gender gaps in STEM

Women are 47% of the U.S. workforce but hold only 24% of STEM jobs. Programs try to encourage girls to choose STEM careers.

Intersectionality in STEM

STEM fields often have problems with missing people and unfair treatment. Efforts are needed to make these places more welcoming.

American Competitiveness Initiative

In 2006, President George W. Bush started the American Competitiveness Initiative to grow support for STEM education and research.

STEM Education Coalition

The STEM Education Coalition supports STEM programs for teachers and students. STEM.org gives a system to check STEM education quality.

Scouting

Most AP exams in STEM saw an increase in the number of takers between 2018 and 2024.

The Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the USA have added STEM to their programs with awards and badges.

Department of Defense programs

Programs like eCybermission, STARBASE, and SeaPerch work to get students excited about STEM through contests and hands-on learning.

NASA

NASAStem is a program to make NASA more diverse, including age, disability, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Legislation

The America COMPETES Act, passed in 2007, aims to grow money for science and engineering research and STEM education.

Jobs

STEM jobs pay well and are growing. In 2015, there were about 9 million STEM jobs in the U.S., or 6.1% of all jobs.

Recent progress

In 2017, tech companies gave $300 million for computer science education. In 2018, the Smithsonian Science Education Center shared a plan for STEM education.

Events and programs to help develop STEM in US schools

Vietnam

Vietnam has many STEM education plans. In 2015, the Ministry of Education added STEM to the national school program. In 2017, the Prime Minister signed a plan to grow STEM education.

Zimbahwe

In Zimbabwe, there is a big gap in STEM fields, with only about 29% of STEM degrees held by women.

Women

Main articles: Female education in STEM and Women in STEM fields

Image of participants of NASA Goddard's STEM Girls Night in 2018

Women are important workers, but they are not always seen in all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, jobs. In the United States, women hold about 24% of STEM jobs. In the United Kingdom, the number is lower, at around 13%.

The number of women in different STEM areas can change a lot. For example, in the European Union, women made up more than half of students in social sciences and health but fewer in engineering and construction.

Having good examples and support from other women who work in STEM can help more women do well in these fields. This includes having good learning tools and ways to connect with others.

LGBTQ+

People who identify as LGBTQ+ have sometimes faced unfair treatment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Some famous figures in STEM, like Alan Turing, a key figure in computer science, and Sara Josephine Baker, a leading American doctor, were part of this community.

Even though attitudes are improving, many LGBTQ+ people still face challenges in STEM careers. Organizations like the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) in the U.S. work to support LGBTQ+ people in STEM. Other groups, such as 500 Queer Scientists and Pride in STEM, aim to help LGBTQ+ individuals around the world.

Criticism

Some people have wondered if we really need more people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs. In 2014, a writer in The Atlantic said there is no proof that there is a big shortage of workers in these fields. He noted that many people with STEM degrees do not end up in STEM jobs, and some of these jobs do not pay very well.

Other reports have also said that not all STEM jobs pay a lot, and many people with STEM degrees work in jobs that are not related to their studies. Some think that talking about a "STEM crisis" happens often, but real studies show there is no big problem with not enough workers in these fields.