What is STEMS²?
Mission Statement
Our mission is to prepare compassionate, capable changemakers who apply learning in service of their communities and contribute thoughtfully to a more just, sustainable future. The program facilitates real-world problem-solving through experiential, place-based, and culturally sustaining pedagogies. By integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics with the Social Sciences and a rich focus on Sense of Place, STEMS² empowers learners to connect STEM content with their personal identities and their communities. It cultivates civic agency, cultural identity, and educational leadership, transforming STEM into a collaborative practice that weaves and honors ancestral, indigenous, and Western academic perspectives.
Learn more about the origins and journey of STEMS².
An Educational Movement
STEMS² is a place-based, interdisciplinary, problem solving framework that is composed of theory, pedagogy and a growing network.
Research
STEMS² theory is an ever growing body of research grounded in several major bodies of literature: 1) STEM Education, 2) Problem-Solving Theory 3) Multicultural Education, 3) Sense of Place, 4) Place-based Education, 5) Indigenous Education, and 6) ʻĀina Education.
Pedagogy
STEMS² experience is grounded in the Hawaiian proverbs of Ma ka hana ‘ike – through doing one learns and A’o – that teaching and learning is a reciprocal relationship in which one is both a learner and a teacher at all times.
Network
The STEMS² network is made up of partners from around the world who share a passion for building integrated educational spaces that connect community, culture and place.
Participant Perspectives on STEMS²
STEMS² participants describe STEMS²
Community partner Herb Lee describes who STEMS² is for