Table 4 Different connections in STEM
From: The S-T-E-M Quartet
Levels of integration | Number of disciplines with strong connections | Description |
|---|---|---|
STEM | 4 | Conceptual knowledge, epistemic practices and skills of all four disciplines are required to solve the problem. Any missing discipline would render the problem unsolvable |
STEm, STeM, StEM, sTEM, | 3 | Conceptual knowledge, epistemic practices and skills of three disciplines are required to solve the problem. Knowledge and skills of the last discipline is either not required or used merely as a tool in the problem solving process |
STem, StEm, SteM, sTEm, sTeM, stEM | 2 | Conceptual knowledge, epistemic practices and skills of two disciplines are required to solve the problem. Knowledge and skills of the two other disciplines are either not required or used merely as a tool in the problem solving process |
Stem, sTem, stEm, steM | 1 | Conceptual knowledge, epistemic practices and skills of only one discipline is required to solve the problem. Knowledge and skills of the other discipline are either not required or used merely as a tool in the problem solving process. When there is only one discipline, this is NOT considered a complex problem. In such a situation, the problem needs to be re-evaluated |
Stem | 0 | All the disciplines are used but the problem is not anchored in one specific discipline. A superficial form of integration of the disciplines takes place. Similar to the situation described above, the problem here is NOT a complex problem and will need to be evaluated |