Notable among these noble efforts is the competition known as “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” or FIRST, founded by the well-known inventor Dean Kaman. Organizations have supported advancement of the full array of technical skills in students, including some groups that that promote noble visions of the future. it will be important to finalize a government-wide strategic plan so agencies can better align their performance plans and reports to new government-wide goals . Given that STEM was poorly defined prior to August 2012, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed federal programs which reads, in part, In fiscal year 2010 , 13 federal agencies invested over $3 billion in 209 programs designed to increase knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and attainment of STEM degrees…. Since humans often act on emotional grounds and act on deeply held beliefs (for example, “entrepreneurs are more valuable than mathematicians”), private programs supporting STEM blend concoctions of their beliefs and motives into their approaches. Our economy is based on technological innovation, and it is this generally accepted recognition of this core fact that unconsciously drives disjointed approaches to STEM. ![]() The table is too large to include in this brief article, but the fact that the interagency definition of STEM is so complex underscores the notion that a formal attempt at defining STEM is susceptible to lumping too many disparate disciplines together. The SOCPC workgroup provided their recommendation in August 2012, and that recommendation came in the form of a table with four “domain” columns and twenty rows for “types of occupation” (providing up to 80 possible intersections). In July 2011, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget tasked the BLS Standard Occupation Classification Policy Committee (SOCPC), a collection of federal agencies, with providing recommendations for defining STEM occupations based on the 2010 SOC “to enhance comparability of data across statistical agencies and organizations studying the STEM workforce for policymaking purposes, including educational and workforce planners.” The existing Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Standard Occupational Classification (2010 SOC) system classifies all workers into 840 occupations. The term SMET was further highlighted to the public in a series of congressional hearings in 1997. This document reflects NSF’s educational focus of SMET in the words: One major NSF goal is to improve the quality of the Nation’s science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) education. The earliest that I have found the term used was dated 1993. ![]() The origins of the acronym SMET seem lost to history. The term STEM was coined by Judith Ramaley while a director at NSF (National Science Foundation) in 2001 to replace its predecessor SMET by reordering the words. History of STEMĬoncerns about domestic technical education are as old as the country per the following quote: Depending on how broadly the term is defined, federal interest in STEM education may be traced to the 1st Congress (outline of historic legislative provided in appendix of reference). This short article will attempt to explain how the lack of a STEM definition contributed to the origin of this philosophical confusion and, briefly, why this seemingly minor intellectual error has gained traction in our collective consciousness. ![]() Corporations flavor the definition they use to push for more workers while engineers and scientists, who complain there is an oversupply, have another. Honest and productive discussions about STEM topics (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) are muddled by the public’s confusion about what exactly STEM means.
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