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A series of circumstances has once more created an opportunity for technology educators to develop and implement new integrative approaches to STEM education championed by STEM education reform doctrine over the past two decades.
In the 1990s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began using "SMET" as shorthand for "science, mathematics, engineering, and technology." When an NSF program officer complained that "SMET" sounded too much like "smut," the "STEM" acronym was born. As recently as 2003, relatively few knew what it meant. Many that year asked if the STEM Education graduate program I was beginning to envision had something to do with stem cell research. That was still very much the case in Fall 2005, when we- the Technology Education Program faculty at Virginia Tech- launched our STEM Education graduate program. 1 But when Americans learned the world was flat (Friedman, 2005), they quickly grew to believe China and India were on course to bypass America in the global economy by outSTEMming us. Funding began to flow toward all things STEM, and STEMmania set in. Now, nearly everyone seems somewhat familiar with the STEM acronym.
And yet, it remains a source of ambiguity. Technology educators proudly lay claim to the T and E in STEM. But so, too, do Career and Technical educators, who (in my home state, at least) seem to have claimed the "E" as their own. Most, even those in education, say "STEM" when they should be saying "STEM education," overlooking that STEM without education is a reference to the fields in which scientists, engineers, and mathematicians toil. Science, mathematics, and technology teachers are STEM educators working in STEM education. It's an important distinction. In addition, there is the common misconception that the "T" (for technology) means computing, thereby distorting the intended meaning of the STEM acronym. Suffice it to say, STEM is often an ambiguous acronym, even to those who employ it.
The National Science Foundation knows what it means. For nearly two decades, NSF has used STEM simply to refer to the four separate and distinct fields we know as science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics. Yet, some have suggested that STEM education implies interaction among the stakeholders. It doesn't. For a century, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education have established...