This book chronicles the revolution in STEM teaching and learning that has arisen from a convergence of educational research, emerging technologies, and innovative ways of structuring both the physical space and classroom activities in STEM higher education. Beginning with a historical overview of US higher education and an overview of diversity in STEM in the US, the book sets a context in which our present-day innovation in science and technology urgently needs to provide more diversity and inclusion within STEM fields. Research-validated pedagogies using active learning and new types of research-based curriculum is transforming how physics, biology and other fields are taught in leading universities, and the book gives profiles of leading innovators in science education and examples of exciting new research-based courses taking root in US institutions. The book includes interviews with leading scientists and educators, case studies of new courses and new institutions, and descriptions of site visits where new trends in 21st STEM education are being developed. The book also takes the reader into innovative learning environments in engineering where students are empowered by emerging technologies to develop new creative capacity in their STEM education, through new centers for design thinking and liberal arts-based engineering. Equally innovative are new conceptual frameworks for course design and learning, and the book explores the concepts of Scientific Teaching, Backward Course Design, Threshold Concepts and Learning Taxonomies in a systematic way with examples from diverse scientific fields. Finally, the book takes the reader inside the leading centers for online education, including Udacity, Coursera and EdX, interviews the leaders and founders of MOOC technology, and gives a sense of how online education is evolving and what this means for STEM education. This book provides a broad and deep exploration into the historical context of science education and into some of the cutting-edge innovations that are reshaping how leading universities teach science and engineering. The emergence of exponentially advancing technologies such as synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and materials sciences has been described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the book explores how these technologies will shape our future will bring a transformation of STEM curriculum that can help students solve many the most urgent problems facing our world and society.

The U.S. system of graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has served the nation and its science and engineering enterprise extremely well. Over the course of their education, graduate students become involved in advancing the frontiers of discovery, as well as in making significant contributions to the growth of the U.S. economy, its national security, and the health and well-being of its people. However, continuous, dramatic innovations in research methods and technologies, changes in the nature and availability of work, shifts in demographics, and expansions in the scope of occupations needing STEM expertise raise questions about how well the current STEM graduate education system is meeting the full array of 21st century needs. Indeed, recent surveys of employers and graduates and studies of graduate education suggest that many graduate programs do not adequately prepare students to translate their knowledge into impact in multiple careers. Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century examines the current state of U.S. graduate STEM education. This report explores how the system might best respond to ongoing developments in the conduct of research on evidence-based teaching practices and in the needs and interests of its students and the broader society it seeks to serve. This will be an essential resource for the primary stakeholders in the U.S. STEM enterprise, including federal and state policymakers, public and private funders, institutions of higher education, their administrators and faculty, leaders in business and industry, and the students the system is intended to educate.

Theorising STEM Education in the 21st Century is a book that captures the essence of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the intricacies of STEM education in the contemporary society. It explores STEM as an interdisciplinary field as well as the individual disciplines that make up STEM. This ensures the field of STEM as a whole is theorised. The book provides critical insight on STEM education from Cairo to Cape Town or from America to Indonesia. With a team of authors from universities across the world, the book is a vital contribution to critical scholarship on STEM education in contemporary times.

Advancing education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in U.S. public schools has been at the forefront of educational issues and a national priority (President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010). The nation's changing demographics and continued need to remain globally competitive makes it clear that colleges and universities must increase the number of teachers trained in STEM education (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). Students in U.S. schools are academically behind their international peers in STEM areas. Currently, the U.S. ranks 17th in science and 25th in mathematics among other nations (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). President Obama stated that it is a "national imperative", to train 100,000 STEM college graduates over the next decade (America Chemical Society, 2012). In addition, colleges and universities will need to prepare 25,000 new K-12 teachers in STEM (Boynton, 2012). In order to meet this ambitious goal, U.S. teachers/education professionals must educate and engage students to pursue STEM disciplines including attracting underrepresented groups (eg: girls and persons of colour) into the STEM pipeline (CADRE, 2011; Custer & Daugherty, 2009). There is universal agreement that teachers do matter and, moreover, there exists empirical support that student learning is affected by the qualifications of teachers. This is especially true in mathematics, which is the foundation for all future STEM learning (CADRE, 2011). Although almost all U.S. teachers hold at least basic qualifications (e.g., a bachelor's degree and teaching certification), many are teaching subjects for which they lack adequate academic training, certification, or both.

The second decade of the 21st century has seen governments and industry globally intensify their focus on the role of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as a vehicle for future economic prosperity. Economic opportunities for new industries that are emerging from technological advances, such as those emerging from the field of artificial intelligence also require greater capabilities in science, mathematics, engineering and technologies. In response to such opportunities and challenges, government policies that position STEM as a critical driver of economic prosperity have burgeoned in recent years. Common to all these policies are consistent messages that STEM related industries are the key to future international competitiveness, productivity and economic prosperity. This book presents a contemporary focus on significant issues in STEM teaching, learning and research that are valuable in preparing students for a digital 21st century. The book chapters cover a wide spectrum of issues and topics using a wealth of research methodologies and methods ranging from STEM definitions to virtual reality in the classroom; multiplicative thinking; STEM in pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education, opportunities and obstacles in STEM; inquiry-based learning in statistics; values in STEM education and building academic leadership in STEM. The book is an important representation of some of the work currently being done by research-active academics. It will appeal to academics, researchers, teacher educators, educational administrators, teachers and anyone interested in contemporary STEM Education related research in a rapidly changing globally interconnected world. Contributors are: Natalie Banks, Anastasios (Tasos) Barkatsas, Amanda Berry, Lisa Borgerding, Nicky Carr, Io Keong Cheong, Grant Cooper, Jan van Driel, Jennifer Earle, Susan Fraser, Noleine Fitzallen, Tricia Forrester, Helen Georgiou, Andrew Gilbert, Ineke Henze, Linda Hobbs, Sarah Howard, Sylvia Sao Leng Ieong, Chunlian Jiang, Kathy Jordan, Belinda Kennedy, Zsolt Lavicza, Tricia Mclaughlin, Wendy Nielsen, Shalveena Prasad, Theodosia Prodromou, Wee Tiong Seah, Dianne Siemon, Li Ping Thong, Tessa E. Vossen and Marc J. de Vries.

This book provides a platform for international scholars to share evidence for effective practices in integrated STEM education and contributes to the theoretical and practical knowledge gained from the diversity of approaches. Many publications on STEM education focus on one or two of the separate STEM disciplines without considering the potential for delivering STEM curriculum as an integrated approach.This publication analyzes the efficacy of an integrated STEM curriculum and instruction, providing evidence to examine and support various integrations. The volume focuses on the problems seen by academics working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and provides valuable, high quality research outcomes and a set of valued practices which have demonstrated their use and viability to improve the quality of integrated STEM education.

This book reflects on science education in the first 20 years of the 21st century in order to promote academic dialogue on science education from various standpoints, and highlights emergent new issues, such as education in science education research. It also defines new research agendas that should be “moved forward” and inform new trajectories through the rest of the century. Featuring 21 thematically grouped chapters, it includes award-winning papers and other significant papers that address the theme of the 2018 International Science Education Conference.