Could referring to ‘Stem’ turn pupils off science?

Teachers should obscure from students that they are doing Stem work because young people are put off if it is framed in this way, leading politicians have been told.

Stem is the commonly used acronym for science, technology, engineering and maths, but expert witnesses advised today against referring to Stem when dealing with students – instead, they should use terms such as “creativity”, “ideas” and “problem-solving”.

Clare Adamson, convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee, said today that some educators had told her a few weeks ago that they “only do Stem by stealth”, because “if they presented young people with a problem or a project, they got stuck in – until they labelled it [as Stem]”.