STEM as the Key to Success 1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Abstract

This qualitative case study’s title is STEM as the key to

success. The background of the study presents that STEM will

develop the student’s ability to evaluate simple to complex

societal problems and active in the formulation of its solution

through the application and integration or science,

technological, engineering and mathematical concepts as it

prepares them to pursue college degrees that focuses on the

enigma of the natural world thereby leading them to become

future scientists, technological analysts and experts,

engineers, mathematicians, and programmers. The problem of the

study is that students are giving up because of high difficulty

level/ hard subjects and sometimes choose to transfer to another

strand. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to encourage and

motivate STEM students to keep studying on STEM field. This

research must be able to answer the questions, How the STEM

Education influence the student to become a critical thinker and

a new generation innovator? What are the benefits of choosing

STEM strand? How will we define a STEM? This study is

significant to all the STEM students; this will discuss the

STEM as the Key to Success 2

advantages of choosing this strand. This will verify that STEM

Education will enhance their abilities, skills and knowledge in

terms of how it’s like studying in STEM and what could be their

possible job attainments in the future.

Background

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics. The STEM majors in subject of Science and

Mathematics which makes students strive to think more critically

and innovatively. STEM is known as the creator of innovators and

critical thinkers in new generation that will make a better

future.

“STEM education is important to the future of this country

and is critical to maintain a social, economic and natural

security that comes with leading in STEM fields” (Preston 2012).

It is clear that STEM students and graduates are in demand and

is needed in the society, and people who are critical thinkers,

innovative and creative and social and cultural competent are

likely to excel in this strand. STEM is important because it

pervades every part of our lives. STEM activities provide hands-

on and minds-on lessons for the student. Making Math and Science
STEM as the Key to Success 3

both fun and interesting helps the student to do much more than

just learn.

This strand will develop the student’s ability to

evaluate simple to complex societal problems and active in the

formulation of its solution through the application and

integration or science, technological, engineering and

mathematical concepts as it prepares them to pursue college

degrees that focuses on the enigma of the natural world thereby

leading them to become future scientists, technological analysts

and experts, engineers, mathematicians, and programmers.

Problem Statement of the study

As a researcher, we noticed that many STEM students were

about to give up due to the difficulties of the subjects and

activities in STEM field. Some of them were suffering because

they can’t handle the stress, pressure and sometimes end up in

depression.

Purpose Statement of the study

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating

students in four specific disciplines: science, technology,

engineering, and mathematics, in an interdisciplinary and

STEM as the Key to Success 4

applied approach. The purpose of this research study is to

motivate the STEM students to keep learning, explore more, and

develop their knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to verify that even STEM is

hard, this is the best way where we can enhance our skills and

knowledge. Improve our abilities to become critical thinker and

new generation innovators.

Research Question

1. What are the advantages/benefits of taking STEM strand?

2. How does the STEM strand can help students to attain

success on their future careers?

3. How the STEM education influence you students to become a

critical thinker and be new generation innovators?

Scope of the study

The scope of this study is in school campus study concerned

about a group of students chooses the Academic track wherein

STEM strand is included, specifically the STEM students in our

school.
STEM as the Key to Success 5

Limitation of the study

The willingness of the respondents to participate

- One of the factors that may affect the time we are going

to spend on this study and the member of people we are

able to be our respondents.

We know every one of us have different time or schedule on

ourselves.

- If the respondents are not available in the time we are

conducting research we might take some time to find

another respondents or wait for the respondent when he is

available.

Significance of the study

This study is significant in a way that grade 11

students must be able to know how important to choose the ideal

track and strand that will perfectly fit in their skills, as

well as their educational background.

This study will encourage the STEM students to

continue learning in STEM field.

STEM as the Key to Success 6

To all the STEM students, this will discuss the

advantages of choosing this strand. This will verify that STEM

Education will enhance their abilities, skills and knowledge in

terms of how it’s like studying in STEM and what could be their

possible job attainments in the future.

SUMMARY

This chapter introduces to us if what is the study all

about. This qualitative research was point out that the STEM is

one of the key to success and to prove that, we should be able

to find an answer to the research questions that we made. This

study is significant to everybody specially to STEM students.

This will verify that STEM education is one of the key to

success and will encourage STEM students to keep learning in

STEM field.
STEM as the Key to Success 7

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter introduces us to related literatures of this

study on STEM being as the key to success. This includes the

evidences; how STEM can be a key to success and the past studies

which is STEM is included or related.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

education has emerged as one of the most sought after curriculum

designs for integrating science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics into K-12 education. It first became popular as a

means of serving the needs of mathematically gifted students,

providing opportunities to both accelerate learning and increase

the rigor and depth of learning. This combination afforded

opportunities for motivated students to advance into special

classes, including taking college classes in high school and

receiving college credit for advanced classes taught during high

school (Wai, Lubinski, Benbow, & Steiger, 2010).

A 2011 follow-up report by the National Research Council

(NRC) on successful K-12 STEM education cited 14 indicators

related to tracking progress toward students’ access to quality

learning, educator’s capacity, and policy and funding STEM

initiatives. These indicators aim at creating and implementing a

STEM as the Key to Success 8

national-level monitoring and reporting system to assess

progress toward key improvements; measuring student knowledge,

interest and participation in STEM disciplines and STEM-related

activities; tracking financial, human, capital, and material

investments in K-12 STEM education at the federal, state and

local levels; providing information about the capabilities of

the STEM education workforce, including teachers and principals;

and facilitating strategic planning for federal investments in

STEM education and workforce development when used with labour

force projections (Kenedy, 2014). Dylan John (2017) states that

“the study by Salzman, 2013, narrates how industry leaders and

policy makers seem to be of the belief that the United States is

in a high tech talent crisis and that there is a shortage of

graduates in STEM fields. However, the study reveals that the

Nation graduates more than two times as many STEM students each

year in comparison to those who find jobs in STEM fields.”

Ted Boscia, highlighted the importance of STEM education

and that the future of the STEM industry would demand around 1

million STEM graduates (Boscia, 2013). According to the

Occupational Outlook Quarterly, “STEM workers use their

knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math to try to

understand how the world works and to solve problems.” The

number of STEM career openings is expected to grow by 12 percent

STEM as the Key to Success 9

or 1 million jobs by the year 2022 with a median wage of $76,000

(Occupational Outreach Quarterly, spring 2014, www.bls.gov/ooq).

SUMMARY

This chapter provided a lot of sources and evidences from

previous books and studies which will support this study “STEM

education as a key to success”. It emphasizes that the STEM

graduates will be need or in-demand in our society which makes a

STEM graduate have lots of opportunities. This literature review

also emphasizes how important STEM education for the future

industry.
STEM as the Key to Success 10

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the outline of research methods that

were used in our study on claiming the STEM as the key to

success, particularly the grade 11 students of STEM in our

school. This includes the research locale/place, sampling method

that is used in the participants, data gathering and procedures.

We chose a qualitative approach for this study for several

reasons. In general, qualitative research methods are especially

useful in discovering the meaning that people give to events

they experience (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003; Denzin &Lincoln, 2000).

The purpose of this study is to motivate and encourage STEM

students to continue learning and developing their knowledge in

STEM field and to verify that even STEM is hard, this is the

best way where we can enhance ourselves, giving them

opportunities to explore STEM related concepts, they will

develop a passion for it and pursue a job in a STEM field.

Improve our ability that we can create, discover and be a

critical thinker that we can use in our life.

STEM as the Key to Success 11

Research Design

In this study we used case study research design since we

need to prove that the STEM strand is a key to success.

Explanatory is the type of case study we use, since our aim is

to prove and explain how the STEM will be a key to success, this

type of case study is suitable to our study.

Research Setting

It is very important to describe fully the research setting

because it helps the readers to visualize it and decide on their

own whether or not the findings of your study are applicable to

them (Lune & Berg, 2017; Neuman, 2014). The Research setting is

being one of the public schools at Puerto Princesa City at the

3rd floor of the Senior High Building.

Sampling

Purposive sampling is the one commonly used in qualitative

research. In purposive sampling (or purposefully sampling), we

select research participants because we believe (a) they meet

our selection criteria, (b) they have the expertise on our

STEM as the Key to Success 12

research topic, and (c) are willing to share truthfully what

they know.

Research Participants

The participants of our Research are specifically 15

students currently enrolled in STEM strand of Sta. Monica High

School.

Data Collection Procedures

This research was started on the 2nd semester of the S.Y

2018-2019. An Approval sheet was signed by the school

authorities for the conduct of the study. The researcher

prepared questionnaires. These instruments were checked and

approved by the research teacher. The researchers conducted of

survey questionnaire at one of the public school in Puerto

Princesa City.

Data Analysis Procedures

It is the process of evaluating data using analytical and

logical reasoning to examine each component of the data

STEM as the Key to Success 13

provided. There are a variety of specific data analysis method,

some of which include data mining, text analytics, business

intelligence, and data visualization. The study used of the

following procedures in analyzing data.

THEMATIC ANALYSIS METHOD

- Is the most commonly used method in QLR. It is based on

10 steps presented systematically below. (Wa-mbaleka &

Gladstone, 2018)

a. Prepare and Organize the data

b. Read your transcripts once or twice

c. Develop your coding manual

d. Code all your data

e. Find recurring ideas

f. Abstract your ideas

g. Write the interpretation

h. Write your report

i. Verify your findings and conclude

j. Make final revisions.

Quality Control Plan

To ensure the quality of this research, the researcher must

be able to know if the respondents understand all the questions

STEM as the Key to Success 14

that is written on the research questionnaire. We must ensure

that our respondents are STEM students.

Ethical Considerations

In conducting a Qualitative research, it is important

to take into account many ethical considerations. As a

researcher, you are expected to do things professionally,

ethically and respectfully. The way you conduct your research

should show some evidence that you are indeed been well trained.

(We-mbaleka and Gladstone, 2018) pg.91.

 Informed Consent

-It is important to prepare and send a form first to

the respondent so that would be able to decide whether

they are willing to participate with the research or

not. It is ethical to not forcefully invite a

participant.

 No Risks

-It is necessary to keep the safety of the

participants and us the researcher and put in any

danger. To apply this, we must pick a place and time

that only has lesser/minimal risk.

 Academic Honesty
STEM as the Key to Success 15

-To gain the trust of the participant, you must act

professionally and not to lie in what is your research

is all about.

 Privacy

-To ensure that the participant is protected his/her

identity and the data is not leaked. We must choose a

place to interview where there is no other people to

watch the interview. It is ethical also to leave their

private life, unless it is relevant to your study.

 Anonymity and Confidentiality

-All the data we receive from participant must be

confidential and the names of the participants

must not be mentioned or written in the study.

SUMMARY

This chapter presents the methods of how this

research was conducted. This qualitative case study used

purposive sampling with participants of 15 and the procedure we

used to collect data is survey questionnaires that our

respondents are able to answer. The Grounded theory is the

thing we used when we analyze the data and our quality control

plan must ensure that our respondents are STEM students.

STEM as the Key to Success 16

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS

The purpose of this research study was to prove that STEM

is the key to success; to collect the perceptions and

experiences of STEM students. The following research questions

where addressed: What are the advantages/benefits of taking STEM

strand?; How does the STEM strand can help you to attain success

on your future career?; and How the STEM education influence you

students to become a critical thinker and be new generation

innovators.

Participants

The participants of this study consist of 15 students from

one of the public schools in Puerto Princesa City. The range in

age from 16-18 years old; 9 are female and 6 are male. They were

all grade 11 students. All of the participants come from strand

of STEM.
STEM as the Key to Success 17

GENDER AGE POPULATION

MALE 16 4

FEMALE 16 3

MALE 17 4

FEMALE 17 2

MALE 18 1

FEMALE 18 1

Total: 15

Theme 1: Benefits/Advantages of STEM

Based in majority of the answers of the respondents, in

their experiences by learning in STEM field, the

benefits/advantages of STEM are:

STEM as the Key to Success 18

Enhances problem-solving skills:

STEM education builds and encourages problem-solving

skills. In STEM activities, students learn how to analyze

problems and then work to correct and overcome them.

Creativity and innovation:

Creativity can co-exist with science and technology and

lead to creative careers like in Architecture and Graphic

Design. In our world of innovation, creativity is the fuel for

new technologies and ideas. Creativity allows students to see

problems in new ways and to think outside of the box.

Theme 2: Success on future careers through STEM strand

Since many students form their career goals and grow into

their interests by age 14, middle school is a critical time to

expose students to unique and unexpected STEM jobs. Studies have

shown that students who are interested in STEM careers at the

beginning of high school are much more likely to continue to

show interest at the end of high school. Educating students

about available careers, salary expectations, and education

STEM as the Key to Success 19

paths sooner increases the likelihood that students will choose

to take STEM-focused courses in high school (Bravo, 2018).

Most of the participants said that the “STEM improves and

enhances their problem-solving skills, creativity and

innovation. Since the Mathematics and Science are the

specialization of STEM strand, it will help them to adopt in

their chosen courses/careers because mathematics and sciences

are the most required subjects.” If the students applied they’ve

learned on STEM, it can help them to be their guide to attain

success on their future careers.

Theme 3: Influencing STEM students to be a critical thinker and

be new generation innovators

Our country needs more scientists, engineers and

innovators, to be sure. And the more diverse talent pool we can

draw from, the better. But, it goes beyond those working

directly in STEM fields. We also need government and business

decision-makers who understand science and all its implications.

We need citizens who similarly understand science. We need more

journalists to accurately report on scientific developments. And

we need more gifted teachers to advance science literacy and

STEM as the Key to Success 20

curiosity. There is much to be done. Working together, we can

change the future in bright, imaginative ways (Babe, 2011).

According to the answers of our respondents, they said that

STEM educations can influence them to be a critical thinker and

be new generation innovators. Based on their experiences, mostly

in every subjects of STEM are you needed to always create new

ideas, most especially at mathematics. Problem-solving helps

students to create ways to solve that problem. Due to that,

students are able to squeeze every drop of idea in their brain.

On these activities, they’re unconsciously being an innovators

and critical thinkers and eventually creating new ideas is

normal to them.

SUMMARY

In this chapter, we presented the findings of the study;

these findings are based primarily on our questionnaires.

Findings were discussed in three parts that correspond with the

major themes that emerged from the data.

STEM as the Key to Success 21

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter presents us the summary of the findings,

practical implications, recommendation for future research,

personal reflection, references, and appendices.

Summary of the findings

STEM education can help to the STEM students to enhance

their problem-solving skills, creativity and innovators. These

abilities can help them to attain success on their future

careers and become a new generation of innovators.

Practical implications

As we gathered this study, there are a lots of ideas

came up in our mind regarding on this research "STEM as the key

to success.” Our perspective didn't change at all right from the

start until the ending because we pursue to prove this study.

STEM as the Key to Success 22

Recommendations for future research

To the STEM students, keep learning on STEM field.

To the Teachers, encourages the STEM students to

keep learning on this strand and if their profession is aligned

on it.

To the School Authorities, keep guiding the students

on their future careers.

Personal reflection

Our personal reflection to this study is we realized that

STEM is one of the key to success, to prove that we provided a

lot of evidences and sources which will support our study, but

it depends to students if they are going to pursue and continue

learning on this strand. No doubt, STEM has a lots of benefits

and advantages that can apply for future careers of STEM

students. Knowing this fact, some of the STEM students couldn’t

continue nor pursue this strand because of the difficulties of

the subjects and activities. Then, we realize that it's just a

matter of determination, persistence, and willingness if you

really want to be successful on your future careers or

profession.
STEM as the Key to Success 23

REFERENCES

STEM Education, Science Literacy and the Innovation Workforce in

America: 2012 Analysis and Insights from the Bayer Facts of

Science Education Surveys, Babe (2012)

http://www.se.edu/dept/native-american-

center/files/2012/04/STEM-Education-Science-Literacy-and-the-

Innovation-Workforce-in-America.pdf

https://successfulstudent.org/best-stem-degrees-for-careers-of-

the-future/

STEM Education Redefined, John (2017)

https://www.academia.edu/33690075/STEM_Education_Redefined

What is STEM Education?, Hom (2014)

https://www.academia.edu/35580939/What_is_STEM_Education?fbclid=

IwAR2CnAQBN9dSwbkRAiNNHFpxPxmOjlKfwUH8YX1oPSEUC04TXGeFn0y-jCY