The Rise of STEM

STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math has more recently become a bigger part of American children curriculums with the coining of the term in 2001 by Judith Ramaley. Over the last decade, the U.S. has seen nearly 2 million new STEM jobs – but students’ math and science scores continue to lag behind other nations. The interest in STEM really got going when in 2005, “Rising above the gathering storm” was released by the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. They argued that U.S. students were academically behind in STEM achievements – that very same year American 8th graders placed 12th in math and science skills, behind Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.
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