STEM a clear priority

AS the roles of science, mathematics, and technology grow in our society, schools must prepare students to thrive in a highly complex world that is changing exponentially.

Today’s students must have a solid background in science, technology, engineering and maths to keep up with the rapid growth of the technological innovations happening daily. However, the emphasis is no longer on the sole acquisition of knowledge but the nurturing of the inquiry skills needed to apply this learning in creative and innovative ways.

STEM has been referred to “as an approach to learning that removes the traditional barriers separating the four disciplines and integrates them into real-world, rigorous, relevant learning experiences for students”. It is much more than simply acquiring and utilising expensive hardware.

My belief is that STEM should be a broad-based curricula where learners are provided opportunities to develop their skills in a cross-disciplinary approach using innovative thinking, problem solving, and digital technologies. As teachers, we often fall into the comfort zone of teaching the way we were taught as opposed to teaching the learners the way they should be taught to prepare them for the skills they require in the 21st century. This means – and this is certainly the case in secondary schooling – moving away from subject-specific understanding to multi-subject application within an inquiry based problemsolving approach.

Applied simply, STEM becomes cross referencing concepts from different learning areas and applying them into real-world situations that learners can relate to. In doing so learning becomes meaningful and relevant to their future and emerging careers.

To do this, I believe that we need to create a school culture where the importance of STEM is recognised and valued, and there are high expectations for all students to engage with STEM education opportunities. We need to recognise that STEM education approaches work best when supported by a whole-ofschool collaborative effort.

Teachers should be encouraged to prioritise STEM when determining their professional learning needs, given the rapidly changing nature of technology in today’s world.

Amit Kundu is the assistant principal at Dripstone Middle School