STEM - The Secret Ingredient that Makes It Work

A little over a week ago, I was reading our local Sunday Newspaper when a front page headline caught my eye.  It began, "Climate warming leaves 'em cold... ."  The article went on to describe how a group of meteorologists from several local television stations and colleges had recently expressed skepticism about predictions that have been made regarding the potential impact of climate change.


As I read the article, I thought it peculiar that a group of high profile meteorologists should feel compelled to weigh in on the Climate Change debate so publicly.  None in the group expressed doubt about global warming.  They noted that the melting glaciers provided ample evidence to support the fact that the earth is getting hotter.  What they disputed were the predictions being made as to the eventual impact that global warming could have on the earth and its inhabitants.  After all, they pointed out, they had difficulty predicting the weather a few days in advance.


Over the years, I have followed the research and debate relating to climate change fairly closely.  Thus, I was aware that there was some discord between climatologists and meteorologists on the subject of climate change.  

At the same time that I saw the Sunday News article, I was just finishing a book entitled, "The Essential Engineer" by Henry Petroski.  In "The Essential Engineer," Petroski describes the chasm that  exists between engineers and scientists.  In fact, Petroski suggests that many scientists look disparagingly at engineering as an inferior profession.  This, of course, makes effective communication and collaboration between the two groups difficult at a time when their combined skills are desperately needed to solve critical problems such as scarce energy resources, global security threats and, yes, climate change.


As I reflected on my reading, I became disillusioned.  Climatologists, meteorologists, scientists and engineers all play a vital role in meeting serious challenges such as global warming.  Yet, they do not appear to have the skills needed to do so in a cohesive manner.  Is this the "real" crisis that we face?


My concern grew to a crescendo when I read an article in the Economist.  Again it dealt with Climate Change.  This time the article summarized the findings of a panel charged with investigating the scientific procedures employed by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.  The CRU has been one of the lead agencies in climate change research and has recently been rocked by charges of impropriety due to careless comments made by member scientists in e-mails.


Overall, the panel found that the procedures employed by the CRU were appropriate and that their conclusions appeared valid.  What I found startling, however, was the observation that when analyzing their data, the scientists had never consulted or collaborated with professional statisticians.  While the investigative panel did not feel that this would have changed the results, it did suggest that professional statisticians would have used better statistical methods to analyze the data and could have avoided some statistical errors.


In education today, "STEM" is all the rage.  It serves as a gateway to grants and a means to demonstrate our schools' commitment to America's future.  Yet, I fear that we do not fully appreciate the significance of the acronym.  STEM is more than simply Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  It is the integration of each discipline into something that is greater than the sum of its parts.  

If the accounts that I have related above are accurate, today's scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians clearly lack the most essential STEM skill...the ability to collaborate.  Interdisciplinary collaboration is the cement that gives STEM its stability and strength.  It is the ingredient that makes STEM powerful enough to solve the most complex problems of the 21st Century.  

As we design exciting new STEM programs to prepare our students for the challenges ahead, we must take care to emphasize the most essential STEM skill, collaboration!  It is what makes STEM more than a simply a clever course listing.