What is STEM?

by Pascal Press | November 24, 2021


STEM is a new approach to learning that integrates the principles and areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Hence, the acronym STEM!

We are unpacking the curriculum subject, sharing benefits, and showing you how you can help your child embrace it!

STEM was created with the intention of providing students with skills for the future, that will prepare them for a rapidly evolving job market. It also focuses on cultivating problem-solving skills within collaborative environments, to mock the challenges of future employment.


How will STEM benefit my child?

Involving STEM theory and strategy throughout a child’s schooling years will result in being prepared for a bright and successful future in adulthood and work life. According to the Department of Education, high-quality STEM education is “critically important for our current and future productivity”, as well as for effective community, national and global citizenship.

STEM curriculum promises to encourage skills that qualify young learners to one day contribute to a more digital and technical world, which is now prevalent in all working environments. Recent reports state that 75% of all new jobs require skills in STEM, and new research reveals a major gap in digital skills across Australia, with 87% of jobs now requiring these skills. Perhaps it’s more important to ask yourself the disadvantages of not embracing STEM studies.

STEM considers the new economy and equips young people with the literacy to enable them to compete with it. Through connections made between school, community, work and global enterprises, this inter-disciplinary approach to education ensures students develop early fundamental skills for their futures.


What will my child learn in STEM lessons?

STEM is a cohesive teaching and learning paradigm which challenges your child to meet the demands of the new automated, globalised world. Looking forward into the future, certain repetitive tasks will be handled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), demanding a workforce of creative humans with lateral-thinking capabilities. STEM is a response to the expectations of our future, and treats the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and maths as “one lively, fluid study”.

Through STEM, students develop a wide variety of key skills that will assist them not only at school but within everyday life. Some of the key skills students develop through STEM are communication, teamwork, critical analysis, problem-solving, creativity, initiative, digital literacy, and independent thinking.


How can we embrace STEM?

Now is the time to embrace skills for your child and get them prepared for University and beyond. Pascal Press has made it easy to incorporate STEM within your child’s study routine, by producing a range of engaging Targeting STEM Journals for Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 students.


What is within the Targeting STEM Journal?

The Targeting STEM Journals are an exciting combination of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and provide 42 projects for students to work on independently or in groups using a range of commonly available resources.

Each project contains four steps with a picture list of requirements and just enough explanation for launching students on their journeys of discovery.

Each project includes a journal page with charts to complete with data from the experiments, more step-by-steps to take the project further, space to write about the project and sketch out ideas, and interesting facts and trivia about the subject and questions to extend thinking.

The STEM Journal range has been designed to cover unit curriculum content for several subject areas, including Digital Technologies; and include a table with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) correlations, for an easy way to monitor your child's learning. Finally, after each project is completed, answers can be easily checked (where relevant), by referring to the last pages of the STEM Journal.


Award Nominated!

Our range of STEM Journals was short-listed for the 2021 Educational Publishing Award Australia in the Category “Student Resource”!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab yourself a Targeting STEM Journal now!

 

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