A Brief History of STEM The political tone of recent months has captured significant public attention with the promise of copious amounts of federally allocated dollars to fund new STEM Initiatives such as Educate to Innovate (2011). The problem with all of this political posturing and fiscal maneuvering, however is that politicians, educational reformists, and even educators in STEM disciplines have markedly under-conceptualized what STEM education is and how it should be facilitated in schools and universities (Narum, 2008). Education reformists and special interest groups appear to be positioning themselves to be recognized as STEM experts in order to secure federal dollars, some even going so far as to claim credit for contributing to the STEM acronym and coining new acronyms such as STEAM, incorporating the arts for the sake of creativity, and STREAM, further incorporating aspects of technical reading (Piro, 2010).