According to Judith Ramaley, 2001,at the National Science Foundation, was working on a curriculum to

enhance the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math. She called it STEM. Ramaley
described how in the acronym science and math serve as bookends for technology and engineering.
“Science and math are critical to a basic understanding of the universe, while engineering and
technology are means for people to interact with the universe. STEM weaves those elements of human
action and understanding into all aspects of education,” Ramaley said. Seventeen years later and it
seems like STEM is everywhere. The term has been used as handy shorthand for anything related to the
four subjects, not just in education, but in career development, research funding, state and federal
initiatives, and even immigration policy. With all the hype and expectations around STEM, it can be hard
to define it.

According to Dewey's Theory of Education Traditional education's focus was more on curriculum and
heritage, defining a student's learning path for them; a progressive education focused on the student's
interest rather than that of the instructor or subject. In Dewey's opinion, neither of these schools of
thought were sufficient. Dewey believed that traditional education was too strict and progressive
education too spontaneous. He believed that traditional education left little regard for the learner's
interests and progressive education was too individualized. Not being fully pleased with either
philosophy, Dewey proposed a new educational theory, which highlighted the role experience plays in
education. According to Dewey, powerful educational experiences are a result of two fundamental
principles: continuity and interaction. Continuity refers to how experiences, both past and present,
influence the future while interaction refers to how one's current situation influences their experiences.
Dewey combined these two principles, stating that one's present experiences are a direct result of how
their previous experiences interact with and influence their present situation. Simply put, Dewey stated
that human experiences- past, present, and future- influence the capacity to learn. He once said that:
'Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is
life itself

In Dienes’ Principles, the work of Zoltan Dienes is by no means new in mathematics education
literature. In Mura‘s (1998) survey of mathematics educators in Canadian universities, among the most
influential mathematics education authors or theorists cited most frequently were the names of Piaget,
Dienes, Freudenthal and Bruner. Dienes (1960) originally postulated four principles of mathematical
learning through which educators could foster mathematics experiences resulting in students
discovering mathematical structures. The first principle, namely the construction principle suggests that
reflective abstraction on physical and mental actions on concrete (manipulative) materials result in the
formation of mathematical relations. The multiple embodiment principle posits that by varying the
contexts, situations and frames in which isomorphic structures occur, the learner is presented
opportunities via which structural (conceptual) mathematical similarities can be abstracted. The
Dynamic principle states that transformations within one model correspond to transformations in an
isomorphic model although the embodiments of these models are different. Finally the Perceptual
variability principle recommends that when presenting problem situations one should include
perceptual distractors, i.e., one should vary the perceptual details of
the problem but include some common structural characteristics so that students have an opportunity
to link structurally similar problems.
According to Richard Lesh in order to prepare students to address the problems of our society, it is
necessary to provide students with opportunities to understand the problems through rich, engaging,
and powerful experiences that integrate the disciplines of STEM. Separating the disciplines sets up
artificial divides that are not generally present outside of the classroom, while integration presents the
disciplines in a more honest or realistic fashion.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-dewey-on-education-theory-philosophy-quiz.html
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=enewp
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.582.2413&rep=rep1&type=pdf
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d5fd/9dcf185e5f812f4aa992e2d189a48e9b254e.pdf
https://www.sutori.com/story/stem-and-project-based-learning-curriculum-trend--
zj2mqLn2bD5k8WqCCwAUw4zL
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225761425_On_the_teaching_and_learing_of_Dienes'_princ
iples