Approaches

STEM education and training establishes relationships between the four disciplines with the objective of expanding people’s abilities by supporting technical and scientific education with a strong emphasis on critical and creative-thinking skills. 2

STEM is addressed in the Australian Curriculum through the learning areas of Science, Technologies and Mathematics, and through general capabilities, particularly:

• Numeracy
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
• Critical and Creative Thinking.

Engineering is addressed in Design and Technologies through a dedicated content description at each band that focuses on engineering principles and systems. It is presented across the curriculum through Science, Digital Technologies and Mathematics. Engineering often provides a context for STEM learning.

Evidence suggests that STEM knowledge, understanding and skills seem to be:

• strengthened when the connections between learning areas are emphasised
• enriched when learning areas combine to find authentic learning opportunities for students in answer to an identified problem or in the creation of a solution. 3

This happens by creating a deeper understanding of STEM, and gives students the ability to transfer skills across disciplines to find innovative solutions to issues and problems.