Unlocking the potential of STEM – the latest news and trends

MINT is an action plan to fund education in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences and technology (MINT) in Germany. The third funding guideline by the German Government for MINT clusters has now been published in order to unlock the potential of STEM for educationally disadvantaged children and young people. This includes a more intensive support for girls who are underrepresented in the STEM field. 

Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger comments in the following way:

“In order to master the great challenges of the future, such as climate change and digitization, we have to get more children and young people excited about STEM.”

In this spirit, the government aims to further expand the number of MINT clusters with an additional funding competition. Currently there are 53 clusters across Germany, many of them in rural areas. They create creative places of learning and low-threshold, extracurricular educational opportunities. Now 15 to 20 more clusters are to be added. 

But what can make STEM more engaging for youngsters? To answer this question three tech trends and an additional feature can be the bridge to empower STEM to be more engaging for youngsters.

Three tech trends to unlock the potential of STEM

1. The Metaverse – Immersive technologies like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality with focus on making learning more authentic and activity-based is taking both engagement and efficiency to a whole new level. Where AR unites the digital and real world with all the exciting overbridging possibilities this gives.
2. Active Video Games (AVG) that gives the opportunity to physically and actively explore for instance fields within natural science. That makes both mind and body interact since it puts the learning experience into practice.
3. AI-driven learning – to learn to use tools like ChatGBT and other to explore fields within STEM, which also aim to produce a critical mindset to the results the AI-application produces. 

The missing A

In my book Learning Design in Practice for Everybody I identify STEM schools to have a growing impact in the future. At the same time, STEM should adopt an A to make the concept fully adapted for the Digital Society. These schools that are directed on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, the Art-part is bringing the necessary soft skills, which makes the “concept” complete. Just like steam in its physical form was one of the main drivers at the birth of the Industrial Society. STEAM in its educational form will lead the way for the knowledge-based society of the Digital Age.  More about STEM to STEAM

Written by
LarsGoran Bostrom

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