STEM Connections identifies 3 key aspects to be addressed in a unit. These key aspects of learning have been developed in consultation with state and territory STEM educators. They are used to highlight how STEM can be addressed across the learning areas.
The 3 interrelated key aspects of STEM are:
STEM contexts can be transdisciplinary and/or authentic. Contexts can be drawn from authentic needs, opportunities or problems; related content in the Australian Curriculum; technologies contexts; and the Sustainability organising ideas. They can also be school-defined.
Authentic needs, opportunities or problems: Students can identify an authentic need, opportunity or problem to create an innovative or impactful solution locally or globally. They can then consider how STEM knowledge and skills might be used together to solve that problem or create a solution.
Related content: The related content identified on the Australian Curriculum website is a good source of inspiration for STEM contexts. The related content can help to determine connecting ideas that can inform the choice of STEM contexts. In each year or band level, there is content in at least one other learning area that relates closely to learning in another and, in many cases, complements content.
For example, contemporary food and fibre production involves:
- knowledge and skills associated with managed environments such as aquaculture spaces, plantations and farms (Design and Technologies)
- data analytics skills (Mathematics and Digital Technologies)
- knowledge of natural systems like weather, animal and plant growth and production, and associated knowledge and skills such as sustainable practices and breeding (animal husbandry), hybridisation (Science) and content in Geography.
Design and Technologies: Underpinning the Design and Technologies curriculum are the core concepts of the Technologies learning area. The subject-specific core concepts for Design and Technologies (the technologies contexts) are Engineering principles and systems, Food and fibre production, Food specialisations, and Materials and technologies specialisations.
- Engineering principles and systems: knowledge and understanding of scientific and mathematical principles and concepts through the application of engineering design processes and practical skills.
- Food and fibre production: knowledge and understanding of the sustainable management of the environments in which they are produced.
- Food specialisations: knowledge and understanding of what constitutes healthy and sustainable food systems to make informed food selection and preparation choices.
- Materials and technologies specialisations: knowledge and understanding of characteristics and properties of a range of materials, components and production technologies.
Sustainability cross-curriculum priority organising ideas: Actions to improve sustainability may be individual or collective endeavours shared across local, national and global communities. The organising ideas may provide the basis or stimulus for a STEM context.
- Systems: The interdependence of Earth’s systems (geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere) that support all life on Earth, and social and economic systems.
- World views: The role of world views (sets of attitudes, values and beliefs) that shape individual and community ideas about how the world works and our role in the world.
- Design: The role of innovation and creativity in sustainably designed solutions, including products, environments and services, that aim to reduce present and future impacts or to restore the health or diversity of environmental, social and economic systems.
- Futures: Ways of thinking and acting that seek to empower young people to speculate and design more equitable, sustainable and inclusive futures.
The STEM practices (ways of thinking, knowing, doing and being) provide a framework for planning rich STEM units, activities and tasks that provide opportunities for students to develop STEM dispositions.
There are specific ways of thinking that enhance knowledge, understanding and skills in STEM subjects. These are systems thinking, computational thinking, design thinking, mathematical thinking, scientific thinking and futures thinking.
Systems thinking helps people to think holistically about the interactions and interconnections that shape the behaviour of systems.
Source: Australian_Curriculum_Systems_Thinking_poster (PNG 281KB)
Computational thinking helps people to organise data logically by breaking down problems into parts; defining abstract concepts; and designing and using algorithms, patterns and models.
Source: Australian_Curriculum_Computational_thinking_poster (PNG 215KB )
Design thinking helps people to empathise and understand needs, opportunities or problems; generate, iterate and represent innovative, user-centred ideas; and analyse and evaluate those ideas.
Source: Australian_Curriculum Design_thinking_poster (PNG 184KB)
Mathematical thinking helps people to investigate and solve problems; visualise, recognise and generalise patterns and relationships; think abstractly and reason logically.
Scientific thinking helps people to understand the world around them and make better data- informed decisions through systematic research, observation, experimentation and reasoning.
Futures thinking helps people to speculate about what might be possible in the future. It involves identifying compelling visions of the future and making considered design decisions, taking into account diversity; ethics; and economic, environmental and social sustainability factors.
In STEM subjects there are specific concepts (ways of knowing) that help students to organise content and to see the relationships between the concepts.
Relationships provide an understanding of how ideas, things or events are related to one another; for example, how causality and equivalence are crucial to problem-solving and designing solutions. This way of knowing underpins the other ways of knowing.
The concept of relationships relates to the concepts of interactions and impact. These need to be considered when creating solutions. This involves examining the relationships between components of technologies systems, sustainability and the effects of design decisions on users.
Systems comprise the structure, properties, behaviour and interactivity of people and components (inputs, processes and outputs) within and between natural, managed, constructed and digital environments.
The concept of systems involves an understanding of how interconnected procedures and/or components (objects, processes and concepts) are organised and work together. It involves the ability to abstract the relevant details of these systems according to the situation.
Form and function and the relationships between form (the make-up of an aspect of an object or organism) and function (the use of that aspect) influence STEM projects.
Patterns are an important aspect of science and mathematics. The concept of patterns involves recognising patterns in the world around us, and ordering and organising phenomena at different scales. It involves pattern recognition: an ability to recognise, describe, create and visualise patterns; make predictions and inferences based on observations and analysis; and see connections and develop generalisations.
Science understanding and Technologies knowledge and understanding often provide the context for STEM teaching and learning. The 4 Science understanding sub-strands, Biological sciences, Chemical sciences, Earth and space sciences and Physical sciences, align well with the technologies contexts of Engineering principles and systems, Food and fibre production, Food specialisations, and Materials and technologies specialisations.
The STEM ways of doing are the processes that are used to produce tangible evidence of students’ STEM thinking and knowledge such as measurement and data, models and modelling, investigating, designing, producing and implementing, evaluating and managing.
Measurement and data knowledge and skills are critical to STEM activities. Data can be acquired, interpreted and represented to help inform decision-making. It can be manipulated, stored and communicated by digital systems. Quantification of time and spatial scale is critical to the development of STEM understanding as it enables the comparison of observations. It involves an ability to collect and analyse information that provides insight, allows for formation of theories, and influences design and iteration.
Models and modelling provide representations that describe, simplify, clarify or explain the workings, structure or relationships within an object, system or idea. The ability to create physical, mathematical or conceptual models may enhance problem-solving. Students develop an understanding of mathematical modelling when they use mathematics to gain insight into and make predictions about authentic phenomena. Mathematical models are used to inform judgements and make decisions in personal, civic and work life.
Source: Australian_Curriculum_Mathematical-modelling_process_poster (PNG 267KB)
Investigating processes are used in Science, Technologies and Mathematics. Science investigations are activities in which ideas, predictions or hypotheses are tested and conclusions are drawn in response to a question or problem. In Technologies, students are analysing, exploring, investigating and defining information, needs and opportunities. They will critically reflect on the intention, purpose and operation of technologies and designed solutions. In Mathematics, students develop the ability to conduct statistical and mathematical investigations through informal exploration in the early years. Later they use guided processes, which progressively lead them to plan, conduct and review their own statistical investigations and to critique others’ processes and conclusions.
Source: Australian_Curriculum_Probability_experiments_and_simulations_poster (JPG 505.7KB)
Designing is fundamental to Technologies education. Students are developing and communicating design ideas for a range of needs, opportunities or problems. They generate and iterate ideas, make choices, weigh up options, consider alternatives, and document various design ideas and possibilities. Students use critical and creative thinking strategies to generate, evaluate, modify and document ideas to meet needs, opportunities or problems identified by an individual, a group or a wider community.
Producing and implementing solutions allows students to apply their learning and demonstrate STEM ways of thinking, knowing and being. In Technologies, students are learning and applying a variety of skills and techniques to make designed solutions to meet specific purposes and user needs. Students apply knowledge about components and materials and their characteristics and properties to ensure their suitability for use. They learn about the importance of adopting safe work practices. They develop production skills to produce prototypes that accurately reflect their proposed designed solutions.
Evaluating occurs throughout scientific inquiries and when working through a design process. It involves students reviewing design ideas, processes and solutions. Students seek feedback and make judgements throughout a design process and about the quality and effectiveness of their and others’ designed solutions.
Managing resources using project management skills helps students to plan, manage and complete projects to meet identified design criteria successfully and efficiently. Students learn to work cooperatively and to manage time and other resources to effectively create designed solutions. They work individually and in groups to plan, organise and monitor timelines, activities and the use of resources.
STEM ways of being are those dispositions that are helpful when working on STEM projects and considering their impact. They enable collaborating, communicating, being ethical, and being enterprising and innovative.
Collaborating with others on a common task requires students to develop the ability to communicate and share ideas throughout the process. They need to negotiate roles and responsibilities and make compromises to work effectively as a team. Working with a group to achieve shared goals is a key employability skill. It involves developing Personal and Social capability.
Communicating involves listening and sharing ideas effectively using various tools, such as media and technology. It draws on the general capabilities of Literacy and Digital Literacy.
Being ethical involves students building a strong personal and socially oriented ethical outlook that helps them to manage design and technologies decisions. They develop awareness of the influence that their values and behaviours have on others, including impact and outcomes, and reflect on ethical action.
Being enterprising and innovative helps students to identify opportunities to take action and create change; follow through on initiatives; and generate new ideas, processes and solutions. Students develop the skills of responsible decision-making and enterprise. They learn to apply informed decision-making in a range of authentic contexts. They learn to use criteria to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of alternative choices, leading to actions proposed in response to an issue or challenge.
For more information about the STEM ways of thinking, see the STEM practices support document.
Students design and produce STEM solutions and/or enterprises as a culminating activity to show evidence of transdisciplinary knowledge, understanding and skills.
In Design and Technologies, students should have the opportunity to produce 3 types of designed solutions (products, services and environments) in a number of technologies contexts. The different types of designed solutions have been specified to give students opportunities to engage with a broad range of design thinking and production skills. The combination of technologies contexts and types of designed solutions is a school or student decision.
Solutions can be physical or digital solutions:
- products, for example, an engineered solution such as a robotic arm prototype, ethical and sustainable food, digital advertising product, a piece of clothing for a specific need
- environments, for example built, managed (such as a food production space) or virtual environments
- services, for example, experiences in a particular setting, the service of a product, online user experience.
- communications and reports, for example, science and engineering reports, portfolios to demonstrate critical and creative problem-solving, data representations and promotional materials.
- enterprises, for example, managing the production and sale of food from paddock to plate, a tech startup such as a new app service.
Key aspects mapped to authentic contexts and the Australian Curriculum
The following table indicates the relationship of STEM learning to:
- authentic contexts for problem-solving, innovation and enterprise
- the key aspects of STEM
- connected dimensions of the Australian Curriculum.
Mouse over the image below for an expanded view or download the digital version for use as a planning resource: STEM key aspects mapping (XLSX 38KB).
Planning for STEM learning
Select from the following section buttons for more information and resources to support a deeper understanding of STEM in the Australian Curriculum, STEM unit or whole school curriculum planning.