STEM education is an educational methodology and philosophy focused on interdisciplinary learning and the development of skills that integrate the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The acronym STEM refers to each of the areas that are worked on in this educational approach. Below, we briefly explain them: Science: Refers to the study of natural phenomena, research, experimentation and understanding of the world around us. This area covers disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, among others. Technology: It encompasses the use and application of scientific knowledge to develop tools, systems and solutions that facilitate daily life, communication, transportation, industry, among other aspects. Engineering : This field focuses on designing, creating, and solving problems by applying scientific and technological principles. Engineers develop and improve products, infrastructure, and systems. Mathematics: Mathematics is a fundamental science that studies relationships, quantities, shapes, and abstract structures. It is essential in problem solving, data analysis, and model development in all STEM areas. Reality is interdisciplinary, as is the current job market. That is why STEM education emerges to instill analytical skills, innovation, lateral thinking and curiosity about a wide range of subjects that are interconnected. With this new approach, the hackneyed practice of memorizing and spitting out data in an exam without rhyme or reason is numbered. In this article we will tell you all the latest news about STEM education: its guiding principles, its relevance when it comes to training students prepared for the real challenges of the future, and we will discuss the role of the humanities in this entire technological movement. Principles of STEM methodology There are many ways to explain the fundamentals of the STEM methodology, but we believe that the 4 Cs unite all the skills that STEM aims to work on. These are: Creativity In the STEM field, creativity is key to problem solving and generating new ideas. When faced with scientific and technological challenges, it is necessary to think innovatively to find effective and efficient solutions. In fact, the focus of this philosophy is not primarily on rewarding the solution to a problem, but rather on evaluating how that solution was arrived at. Collaboration Collaboration is essential in STEM, as many projects require teamwork from experts across disciplines. Through collaboration, students learn to listen to, respect, and value each other's ideas, working together to achieve common goals. In the real world of work, workers rarely carry out their tasks in isolation. They often have to discuss and share points of view in order to successfully complete a project. This principle of collaboration is associated with another essential soft skill for any job: communication. Critical Thinking STEM education fosters critical thinking, which is the ability to analyze, evaluate, and solve problems in a logical and thoughtful manner. A class that follows the STEM philosophy should encourage students to learn to question, investigate, and make informed decisions based on data and evidence. Another advantage of STEM, which promotes the development of critical thinking, is that students are encouraged to experiment with different methods and solutions until they find the most suitable one. In other words, students are allowed to try and make mistakes on a regular basis so that they learn to innovate on their own. Curiosity Curiosity drives learning and discovery in STEM fields. Fostering curiosity in students motivates them to ask questions, explore concepts, and seek answers. Furthermore, in STEM, curiosity is seen as the driving force that leads to adopting a mindset of continuous learning and adaptation to technological and scientific advances. It is this curiosity that fuels the thirst for knowledge across a wide range of disciplines and for versatility. Why is STEM education essential in schools? Mainly, because STEM education is the future, but also the present. In the current educational system there is a very pronounced disjunction, not only between science and humanities, but between all the disciplines that derive from them. STEM education, for its part, breaks with this vice so prevalent in the educational curriculum and promotes interdisciplinarity. It provides an innovative approach that prioritizes practicality, creativity, cutting-edge technology and team cooperation to find innovative solutions to complex issues. Thus, a student who is well trained in STEM fields will have acquired good critical and innovative reasoning skills. In this way, he or she will be able to apply his or her knowledge to today's real world, plagued by constant technological advances. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary nature of STEM education allows students to adapt successfully when they enter university or if they change fields of study at some point in their lives. But that's not all. STEM education is aimed at training students who are competent in fields of study such as engineering, programming, robotics and mathematics. All you have to do is open LinkedIn and look for job offers anywhere in the world to realise that the demand for technology-related jobs is extremely high. STEM education is therefore essential for today's students to be able to find a job that contributes to society and has promising economic prospects that improve their quality of life. And where do the humanities fit into STEM education? The role that humanities should or should not play in STEM is a matter of debate. The majority opinion is that STEM should include humanities in its educational curriculum if it is really intended to find common ground between all disciplines. Furthermore, those who support the inclusion of the humanities in this new, eminently technological educational trend also claim that the humanities enrich the study of science , since they show how it has impacted society, culture and ethics. The humanities are also praised as a source of inspiration and creativity to create differentiating products and solutions. In some cases, to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of STEM and its broad scope, the A for “art” is added to the acronym, so that it reads “STEAM.” However, there are also critical voices regarding the attempt to include the humanistic disciplines under the umbrella of STEM education. Without undermining the relevance of the humanities in education, there are those who argue that humanities subjects do not at all work on the technical skills or hard skills that the market so demands. Furthermore, in the humanities it is more complicated to propose relevant STEM activities, since they do not present problems as such that require a specific methodology to be solved. That is why they also add that incorporating humanistic disciplines early in the educational system could be a hindrance to acquiring other more technical and in-demand skills. At the same time, there are detractors who observe that the humanities as an academic discipline have become totally outdated and detached from technologies, showing a stubborn rejection of innovation and anything that involves numbers.