Table 1 Seven Key Characteristics of Integrated STEM

1. Focused on real-world problems

Real-world problems:

• contextualize learning (Kelley & Knowles, 2016; Kloser et al., 2018)

• should foster multiple solutions (Lachapelle & Cunningham, 2014)

• engage learners in applying and expanding their STEM knowledge (Monson & Besser, 2015)

• should be motivating and relevant to students (Diekman et al., 2010; Leammukda & Roehrig, 2020)

• should, when possible, position students as agents of change (Billington et al., 2013; Gunckel & Tolbert, 2018).

The selection of a real-world problem is a complex process as there are many factors that impact both cognitive and affective student outcomes. Gender and ethnicity should be explicit considerations in choosing a real-world problem to promote the student engagement and development of strong STEM identities for all students.

2. Engagement in engineering design

• Students are expected to have opportunities in engineering design (NRC, 2012)

• Students should engage in the full engineering design process, with opportunities to learn from failure and iteratively improve their design solutions (Moore, Glancy, et al., 2014; NRC, 2012; Stretch & Roehrig, 2021)

• Teachers need to empathize dimensions of ethics, care, and empathy to promote attention to socio-political aspects of engineering design (Gunckel & Tolbert, 2018; Jackson et al., 2021)

Teachers need to ensure that students have opportunities to evaluate their designs and use collected data to redesign. Design decisions should include analysis of social and political considerations in addition to technical factors such as cost, materials, and functionality.

3. Context integration

• Integrated STEM contexts provide opportunities to learn and apply STEM content (Arık & Topçu, 2020; Reynante et al., 2020)

• Evidence-based reasoning provides explicit scaffolding for application of STEM content to the real-world problem (Mathis et al., 2016; Mathis et al., 2018; Siverling et al., 2017)

• Criteria and constraints should be explicitly addressed during the design process (Watkins et al., 2014)

• The broader socio-political context of the engineering design problem should be explicitly addressed (Gunckel & Tolbert, 2018)

Teachers need to take care that an engineering design challenge does not become an exercise in tinkering. Makerspaces and many engineering curricula are not reflective of quality integrated STEM as the connections between STEM content and the context are implicit. Teachers need to explicitly make connections by engaging students in reflection and evidence-based reasoning. Real-world contexts encompass social and political issues that need to be explicitly addressed in addition to the technical focus of consideration of STEM content, criteria, and constraints.

4. Content integration

• Students should have opportunities to learn and apply STEM content to the development of design solutions (Tank et al., 2019; Tran & Nathan, 2010)

• Connections amongst the STEM disciplines need to be explicit (English, 2016; Moore, Stohlmann, et al., 2014; Tran & Nathan, 2010)

• Content integration can be achieved through multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary approaches (Bybee, 2013; Moore & Smith, 2014; Vasquez et al., 2013)

• Mathematics and technology should not be limited to tools in service to science and engineering (Authors, 2019, 2021a; Baldinger et al., in press; Walker, 2017)

• Non-STEM disciplines should be explicitly integrated as relevant to developing solutions and understanding the broader socio-political context of the problem (Gunckel & Tolbert, 2018)

Most critical to integration is making connections between the disciplines and between the context and disciplines explicit to students. Teachers need to model the connections for students, use interdisciplinary models and representations, and use purposeful facilitation and questioning to promote students’ understanding of these connections. The integration of non-STEM disciplines broadens the students’ experience with engineering beyond a technocratic focus, pedagogical approaches such as socio-scientific issues can elevate the socio-political aspects of a real-world problem that need to be considered in developing design solutions.

5. Engagement in authentic STEM practices

• Students should have opportunities to engage in STEM practices (e.g., Kelley & Knowles, 2016; Reynante et al., 2020)

• Students’ use of STEM practices should not be teacher-proscribed (Authors, 2013; Asunda, 2014; Guzey, Moore, & Harwell, 2016; Riskowski et al.,2009)

• Students should have epistemic agency, drawing on cultural and personal knowledge and practices in addition to STEM practices (Miller et al., 2018; Schwarz et al., 2017)

• Critical to STEM are data practices (Duschl et al., 2007), including evidence-based reasoning (Mathis et al., 2016; Mathis et al., 2018; Siverling et al., 2017)

Integrated STEM education requires that students are afforded the opportunity to determine their own solution paths. Teacher proscribed directions will result in a single design solution, and integrated STEM education calls for the possibility of multiple possible solutions to a problem. The open-ended nature these integrated tasks requires careful facilitation from teachers, helping students to understand the STEM practices in which they are engaging and reflecting on their process. Students should engage in data practices and evidence-based reasoning to justify their design decisions.

6. twenty-first century skills

• Integrated STEM instruction should support the development of the development of twenty-first century skills (e.g., Sias et al., 2017; Wang & Knoblach, 2018).

• Small group work in STEM requires that students negotiate learning and engage at higher cognitive levels of Bloom’s taxonomy (Asunda, 2014; Dolog et al., 2016; Sharunova et al., 2020; Wendell et al., 2017)

• Engagements in small group STEM activities differs for female students and students of color compared to their white male peers (Authors, 2024, 2020b)

Ill-defined problems lend themselves to students’ development of twenty-first Century Skills as they engage in iterative design thinking. Teachers need to structure small group activities to support collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and higher order cognitive tasks, such as analyzing and evaluating. Teachers need to carefully facilitate small group work to support equal participation of all students. Students require explicit instruction on working in small groups.

7. STEM careers

• Exposure to details about STEM careers (Jahn & Myers, 2014; Luo et al., 2021)

• Opportunities to engage in authentic STEM practices (Kitchen et al., 2018; Ryu et al., 2018)

• Attend to identity development by connecting to personal knowledge and experience (Carlone et al., 2014)

Teachers need to describe specific STEM careers relevant to the topic, including exposure to role models. Students would have opportunities to learn about the work of STEM professionals by using STEM practices and applying STEM content and personal experience to proposing solutions to real-world problems.