The Importance of STEM

STEM this and STEM that. Oh, go do this STEM thing. That’s all you seem to hear nowadays, something innovative in STEM is happening and you have to do it. But what exactly is STEM? The lines between what is and isn’t STEM isn’t clearly defined and at times it can seem overwhelming. But no worries, we’re here to break it down. STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. And yes, this acronym basically includes everything and anything. But the thought process behind this STEM acronym was the idea that these 4 main factors work together to explain the world around us, make amazing discoveries and invent. Still this explanation about STEM is vague, so let's take a deeper dive about the main components and characteristics about STEM!

Science:

Ahh… the amazing world of science. But what is it? And yes, before you say “It's biology, or chemistry” and so on and so forth, yes you are right, it’s all of that. (Want a congratulatory cookie?) It's an amazing field of millions of different fields combining and interacting with each other to explain even the smallest of events in our world. But what I wanna do is delve into what makes science… science! To do this, let's define some key characteristics about Science and what sets it apart from the rest.

Systematic Approach:

Science relies on a system, a set of steps to investigate the world. Many of you may have heard about the scientific method, but if not let me break it down for you:

1. Observation - Exactly what it sounds like, looking at everything outside and noticing things, whatever it may be.

2. Question - While observing, wonder about certain things until you have a solid question that you want to answer.

3. Hypothesis - This word means to take an educated guess. So, whatever question that you have, try to answer it to the best of your abilities. But don’t worry this answer doesn't  have to be right; in fact sometimes it is better when you’re wrong because then you can investigate how you got your answer.

4. Experiment - Next, test your question in an experiment. This could be virtually anything, from a survey to testing a new fertilizer. Make sure to have a control and experimental group. (Don’t worry, we’ll be discussing this on our next blog).

5. Data Collection - After the experiment (and during it), collect your data, make sure that you have qualitative and quantitative data!

6. Analysis -Using the data you collected, decide whether it supports or disproved the hypothesis you made previously. This could look like a simple spreadsheet or even a pie chart, it just has to help you understand your data.

7. Conclusion - From your analysis, draw conclusions and talk about what this conclusion could mean in the broader scientific community.

8. Communication - Share your results, this can be done through research papers, presentations or reports. Make sure to get feedback whilst you’re communicating your results.

9. Revision - Using the feedback you gathered, revise the experiment that you had made by making any necessary improvements and conduct further research. Repeated experiments like this are vital to make sure that results weren’t just a fluke.

This scientific method seems like a very simple tool - and it is, to an extent- but it's also extremely powerful as it allows scientists alike to approach complex problems in a specific way. This standardization is key to ensuring that the results of an experiment or report are up to the standards of the scientific community. (And it also prevents random people claiming that something is true!)

Objectivity:

Science is the one topic that puts an emphasis on objectivity. With its wide range of areas and various experiments and studies that can be focused, objectivity is key to making clear conclusions about raw data. This is done through peer review, which is a key part in validating the experiment and the data created from it.

Technology:

Now, let's move on to technology! And no, it's not the boring clickity-clackity keyboard stuff (but to be fair, a decent portion of it is), it’s much, much more than that. To be honest, it’s not easy to summarize technology in a couple of paragraphs, but here we go.

I like to think about this area as a canvas for creativity. Technology allows you to do anything you can set your mind to, whether that be creating a business to writing blogs! With its various tools for pretty much anything, design, research, coding - in short, whatever you can think of- technology has become an integral part of our society.

This leads to another key aspect of technology, connection. Technology enables us to be connected with the rest of the world in a split of a second. Whether that be texting someone from halfway across the world to accessing archives from a century ago, we all benefit from this aspect of connectivity. The ability to communicate and spread your insights on a global network is remarkable, no matter how you look at it. 

This increased communication leads to one glaring thing. Don’t know? Don’t worry, I’m here to tell you. It leads to innovation. Increased communication and access to other research accelerates critical thinking and thus spurs the invention and discovery of new frontiers! (Ok, let me calm down a little bit). But seriously, this communication is what has triggered a lot of the groundbreaking research that we see today.

One of these new “frontiers” is something that I’m sure many of you have heard of.. AI. But don’t worry, we’ll have a whole blog for that!

Engineering

We’re on the third letter! The “E” or the elusive engineering. This - at least to me, though I can’t say the same for you - is pretty mysterious. It’s the topic that somehow relates to everything, but no one really describes WHAT it is. Don’t worry, that's what I’m here for!

Engineering is a happy medium of everything(yes, I l know, so specfic). In a STEM setting, it focuses on applying the basic principles of the other topics to solve real- world problems. Because of this, engineering is known for its “interdisciplinary nature,” basically meaning that it involves concepts and knowledge from a variety of topics to effectively solve the problem. This integration of topics allows engineers to work together to solve a common problem.

However, engineering is distinguished by a far more important factor, its emphasis on problem solving and designing. Unlike other topics, where the main emphasis is on understanding, engineering involves the usage of that information to tangible solutions to various occasions.  This emphasis involves a general engineering system that is applicable to any and all situations:

1. Identify the Problem: This is exactly what it sounds like. Hone in on a problem that you encounter. Whilst you do this, take note of specific factors or limitations of your problem. You should also conduct some background research on whatever the topic may be.

1. Define requirements: This step is vital to the process. Identify what your solution has to do and what constraints you may face. This ensures that you are - in fact - making a plausible solution for a problem.

1. Brainstorm and Develop concepts: Think up of any ideas that you can figure out! Nothing is wrong, if you think of it, put it down in the list. You can use online resources/research for inspiration as well. From these ideas and choose one. Flesh out the details and flesh out your idea as much as possible.

1. Prototype and Test: Now, the part that most people think of when they think of engineering. You can now build an actual prototype of your idea. This could be a physical item of your idea or it could be a model of an online system that you developed. These prototypes go through rigorous testing to assess their performance.

1. Evaluate and Optimize: Here, we see how well the prototype fits the defined criteria. This criteria comprises any real life obstacles that apply to the problem you are trying to fix. Using these results, make any necessary adjustments to your design.

1. Finalize and Implement: After your prototype has been perfected, refine it to your final design. Then you can proceed to implement it to the problem; for example you may end up mass producing your solution and ship it to everyone.

1. Monitor and Improve: After your idea has been established, keep monitoring your solution. This could look like a feedback survey or yearly performance checks- whatever fits your product best. Then, using this feedback make alterations to make your product more effective.

While this list looks like a step by step process, a more apt representation of this process is a cycle. While creating a solution of any sort, you will continuously move from one step to another, maybe even going back to step one if your prototype turns out to be defunct. Don’t worry if it happens, not even the most talented person can possibly think of the perfect idea and create the perfect prototype for it. 

For the keen observers out there, this process is extremely similar to the scientific method discussed before. And in fact, the lines between these processes/methods can get blurry, and often, one scientific discovery leads to the invention of a new product (or vice versa)!

Mathematics

If you think of engineering as the glue that holds the others together, then math can be seen as the underrated friend who does a lot of the heavy lifting. While to some degree, you can survive not learning the key skills for each topic, you have to have some basic knowledge about math concepts and frameworks.

And yes, yes I know, math is soooo boring. And annoying. And while some sections or even whole math classes may seem useless to you, the skills you acquire in these classes are vital to becoming successful in the other three areas.

For example, in science, mathematics is essential in forming hypotheses, analyzing experimental data and expressing data in precise terms. Certain branches of science also have a direct relation to mathematics, for example physics and chemistry.

In technology, algorithms, a key component of computer science, relies heavily on math principles. Discrete mathematics, a specific branch of mathematics, is also a vital foundation for technology, specifically in developing algorithms. 

Engineering is pretty much self-explanatory. If we turn towards “classical” engineering such as buildings and bridges, math is required to calculate how much force a material can withstand and how we can use the least amount of material to withstand the highest amounts of weight. We also have to factor in how these buildings withstand natural disasters such as tornadoes and earthquakes.

So yeah, while math can be pretty mind-numbing and all too frustrating, no one can deny the importance math plays in the other STEM subjects.

Conclusion

So what did we learn about STEM? Well… if you can’t answer that, maybe I didn’t do that good of a job. But, to boil it down, STEM is an acronym that aims to encompass all the various intersections of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Rarely do we ever have a situation where we don’t need at least 2 of the STEM topics and more often we need all 4 to effectively solve a problem.

STEM is a vital component in our lives, and while not all of us may want to get involved, it is still important to understand and identify the basics!

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