STEM may stand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, but for Kathy Foust, Oak Ridge Schools STEM coordinator, it’s more than that.
Foust addressed the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce at a lunch Zoom meeting.
“Oak Ridge Schools takes a very holistic view when it comes to STEM,” she said. “All teachers are STEM teachers.
“All content areas are STEM,” she said, even physical education.
She explained that STEM teaches a “set of behaviors and skills that students need to be successful in the 21st Century Workforce.”
She listed what the World Economic Forum considered the top 10 skills employers will consider important in 2025.
These skills are analytical thinking and innovation, active learning and thinking strategies; complex problem solving; critical thinking and analysis; creativity originality and initiative; leadership and social influence; technology use, monitoring and control; technology design and programming; resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility; and reasoning, problem-solving and ideation.
Foust talked about a much shorter list of skills associated with STEM: collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. She said the school system aims to use these “4Cs throughout the year in PreK-12 in all content areas.”
“There’s nothing on this that’s only science, that’s only technology, that’s only engineering or math,” she said. “We all teach these skills. Just through different avenues and different ways.”
She said STEM frequently involves project-based learning, which includes learning by working on projects.
She gave some examples of programs she said were related to these ideas. A prominent example she cited was the RamSat project in which Robertsville Middle School students worked on a satellite that went into orbit. Yet another example she gave was the Fall into STEM event at Willow Brook Elementary School, in which students work with robots to complete various tasks related to different subjects. Another example she described was the Titanic Living Museum for third graders.
Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal and email him at [email protected].
