About STEM

What's in a Name?

STEM is a Government priority endorsed by all the Ministers from Australia's States and Territories.

As educators, we can see the value in a range of Learning Area integrations - whenever we can make authentic connections for students, opportunities for better learning are generally present. That's true if we're talking themes, service learning, or project based learning. The connections will be based on the priorities that teachers see to meet the needs of the students and the Curriculum.

STEM has its priorities rooted in Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics. Those priorities have been set to redress the significant decline in students studying these disciplines.

It has been argued that the Arts should have a place in STEM in the form of STEaM. We would argue that the Arts is fundamentally important to all students. We would also argue that there are many opportunities to integrate the Arts in other multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary units within the classroom via themes, service learning, or project based learning.

For that reason, we see STEM as a transdisciplinary integration of the the three Learning Areas - Science, Technologies and Maths.