Understanding scientific discoveries
and methods is relevant for citizenship in a democracy that is
dependent on scientific products and technologies (Bencze & Di
Giuseppe, 2006). Third, the economic benefits of STEM education
to individual students in the form of higher income and greater job
security have also been clearly established (Carnevale, Strohl, &
Melton, 2011; Zaback, Carlson, & Crellin, 2012). For example, in
their analysis of the ten college majors associated with highest
median income eight out of the ten majors were engineering
majors with the remaining two majors also in STEM fields
(Carnevale et al., 2011).