ACLC College of Butuan

JC Aquino Avenue, Butuan City

RESEARCH INVESTIGATORY

WHAT IS STEM?

SUBMITTED BY:
JOSE ENRIQUE MIRALLES
GRADE 12/ TWAIN/ STEM

SUBMITTED TO:
JHOANNA MHARIEZ DELA PAZ
WORK IMMERSION ADVISER

MAY, 2021
 ABSTRACT

STEM is a teaching philosophy that integrates all four disciplines together into a

single, cross-disciplinary program which offers instruction in real-world (as

opposed to purely academic) applications and teaching methods.

It is one of the hardest programs to choose before you enter college. But it doesn’t

mean that it’s not worth your time as most jobs that pays well in the society today

and the future are mostly STEM-related. It may have a lot of hardship and pain

when choosing this path, but it also rewards you well with a better future.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my work immersion teacher, Mrs. Jhoanna Mhariez Dela Paz

for her lessons and advice leading to the writing of this study. My sincere thanks

also to my classmate as she helped me correct the grammar of this study.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Results & Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
I. INTRODUCTION

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

which mainly focuses on the integration of the four (Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines to form a

single, interdisciplinary program that offers real world applications

and teaching methods. STEM requires the students to become

proficient in Math and Science, Technology, and Engineering

because, without the integration of the disciplines, students would

find it difficult to master them.

II. METHODOLOGY

I used the internet to research for an article about what STEM

programs is really like and chosen this article as this particular article

has sufficient information to use in this study. I sorted the gathered

information and compiled them in this study. I used the Tahoma font

at 12 font size. I justified and used spacing in the words and

paragraphs
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Results

3.1.1 STEM is reliant on science and math.

Take note that the disciplines STEM focuses on are Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Math. Some students might find Math

and science as fun, but for the majority of them, they think otherwise

since being able to quickly become proficient in these two subjects

is one way to become successful in STEM.

They are particularly important in Stem because technology and

engineering are dependent on them. If an Engineering student

needed to design a 1-kilometer concrete bridge, they need to know

first the underlying mathematical and scientific principles to make a

bridge like this possible. Stem related jobs share this heavy reliance

on either math or science or often both. That is why students who

perform poorly so often quit STEM to follow an easier academic

program
However, this did not mean that Stem is out of your reach. It just

simply means that STEM is more difficult for you than the others.

Alternatively, you might find these subjects actually easier for you

than the past given that you have already been exposed the way

they are taught in STEM Programs

3.1.2 STEM Is A New Way of Learning.

STEM is meant to build a program that unites all four disciplines in a

way to make students use their interdisciplinary knowledge to solve

problems. Which means students no longer have to memorize

equations and only needed their comprehension to solve a particular

problem.

You’ll be often be required to use what you have already learned to

figure out the right answer for yourself and won’t be given the exact

solutions to the problem. This requires the students to become more

creative and flexible in their thinking as well as having the

technological knowledge and mastery of each individual discipline.

3.1.3 Less Freedom to Choose Classes

Because STEM students require a solid foundational understanding

over a broad array of subjects in order to succeed, they typically

have less control over what course they take than the other

programs. After all, while other students only focus on one mastery

of the subject, STEM students require to have mastery of four.

As a result, Stem student won’t have enough time to take extra

classes outside of their program.

3.1.4 STEM Programs Are A Ton of Work

STEM Program is not without its workloads as even students already

gifted in all four disciplines are often burdened by the sheer amount

of homework and studying required by each class. This makes the

STEM program famous for having super heavy workloads, resulting

in the subjects covered in the program being extremely complex.

Being able to understand them adequately requires hours of extra

work outside of class.

But its not all busy work. STEM student are expected to deliver the

highest quality of work produced regardless of how much homework

they have. Which make sense if we consider the jobs these students

will be doing after they graduates as STEM careers require perfect

execution in their work.

3.1.5 STEM Forces Students to Approach Education In An

Active And Exploratory Way

Despite the stress environment, Stem can be fun and interesting too.

Remember, at the core of these programs are applications and study

methods in the real world. It means that it would not be simple as

learning robots in a textbook but actually building robots in order to

learn and understand them.

A good example of this is California Institute of Technology (one of

the best STEM colleges in USA) which teaches biological science by

combining classroom instruction with student participation in their

research programs. Their students have an active role in producing

whatever cutting edge technologies or ground-breaking discoveries

the university doing real work in the discipline that they’re in the

process of mastering.

This type of education, learning by doing, is a large part of STEM

program.

3.2 Discussion

STEM program focusses on its four subjects of Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Mathematics and integrate them into a singular,

cross-disciplinary program that help students to build their future in

their STEM related careers.

This is important to understand because being proficient in only one

subject doesn’t necessarily mean you have what it takes to be in

STEM. You have to be proficient in all four of them as that will

become your solid foundation to be successful not only in STEM but

also in your STEM-related jobs.

When it comes to learning, STEM is quite hard to learn especially all

four principles. Memorization and the recitation of the information is

not quite important, you only have to have a good foundational

knowledge and a creative and flexible thinking in order to figure out

and solve the problems. It means that the traditional learning style

of memorization and recitation of information is not applicable in

STEM program.

Being proficient in four principles, STEM students have no time at

all to consider if they can have other courses as most of their time is

dedicated on the studies in STEM programs. Some might have time

but, in these cases, they would be so tired that it can potentially ruin

in their studies. That is why most STEM students only focus on the

program and not the other courses. This makes students to have less

freedom on their jobs and only have a limited choice to make.

That’s not all. Since STEM programs don’t work unless a student

makes steady process in all four disciplines simultaneously, stacking

difficult class on top of each other can easily lead to falling behind

and falling out. With this restrictive schedule and high-stress

 environment, finding time to explore your passions or simply take a

break becomes extremely important for STEM students. Otherwise,

they would quickly burn out.

STEM is a stressful environment especially their never-ending

workloads. But that’s not the most stressful part. Doing these

homework and activities with the highest quality and perfect

execution is where all the stress is coming from. STEM students

require to have keen mind and senses as one error can potentially

produce another error just like a software developer make a single

error in apiece of code might cause an important program to break.

That is why STEM students only have little time for themselves.

IV. CONCLUSION

STEM is one of the hardest programs to choose before you enter

college. But it doesn’t mean that its not worth your time as most jobs

that pays well in the society today and the future are mostly STEM-

related. It may have a lot of hardship and pain when choosing this

path, but it also rewards you well with a better future.

V. RECOMMENDATION

I recommend that the reader should research more about the STEM

program in order to have an in-depth knowledge about the study.

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

What is STEM? By Wyatt Dalton

VII. APPENDIX

What is STEM? (pearsonaccelerated.com)