To understand and address the challenge of achieving STEM literacy for all students begins with understanding and defining its component parts and the relationships between them.
Scientific literacy is the ability to use scientific knowledge (in physics, chemistry, biological sciences, and earth/space sciences) and processes to understand the natural world and to participate in decisions that affect it (in three main areas — science in life and health, science in Earth and environment, and science in technology).
Technological literacy is the ability to use, manage, understand, and assess technology. Students should know how to use new technologies, understand how new technologies are developed, and have skills to analyze how new technologies affect us, our nation, and the world.
Engineering literacy is the understanding of how products, processes, and systems are developed via the engineering design process. Engineering design is the systematic and creative application of scientific and mathematic principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and systems.
Mathematical literacy is the ability to analyze, reason, and communicate ideas effectively through posing, formulating, solving, and interpreting solutions to mathematical problems in a variety of situations.
STEM literacy is the ability to identify and apply concepts and content from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to understand and solve challenges or problems that cannot be resolved by any one disciplinary approach. Each of the STEM disciplines include particular habits of mind, ways of thinking, and core content that are essential to STEM literacy. And, while mastery in each STEM discipline is necessary, so too is the ability to recognize and appreciate the connections among them. STEM literacy is achieved when a student is able to apply his or her understanding of how the world works within and across these four interrelated disciplines to improve the social, economic, and environmental conditions of their local and global community. The end result is that the whole of STEM literacy is greater than the sum of its individual disciplinary parts. Moreover, STEM education must also be situated in the context of 21st century skills such as adaptability, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and systems thinking. To achieve these ends students must have the opportunity to develop from novice to expert in their understanding in all of these areas through experiences that begin in preschool and are intentionally expanded and refined throughout their K12 experience.
This framework provides a unifying definition of STEM literacy that is firmly rooted in a set of desired outcomes - prepared citizenry, postsecondary success, and an enhanced and diverse STEM pipeline - and aligned with a comprehensive career and college ready agenda. This definition does not prescribe a single model or approach as the sole solution, but rather allows for schools and districts to mobilize their unique local and regional resources in flexible ways to achieve those outcomes. This outcomes-driven approach can reduce confusion about the meaning of STEM, and allow schools and communities to build ownership and support for models that draw upon their local context and assure student success.