This is a reflection on the international computing community’s efforts to define itself as a discipline and inject computing into the core education of everyone. Their aim is to prepare us for the technology-based society in which we work and live. Scholars who aim to explore the nature of No-Boundary Thinking can learn from the self-reflection of the computing discipline, and No-Boundary Thinking might be an essential solution for the effective integration of computing into the core body of knowledge needed by every educated individual. These connections might also assuage the recent frictions between STEM and liberal arts scholar educators.

This chapter explores how science education concepts may be integrated within STEM education contexts to enable student understanding of those concepts. We outline why STEM education is a strategic priority in many educational jurisdictions and note that a continuum of entry points into STEM education translates into a range of definitions and classroom implementation strategies. Aspects of science education (pedagogical practices, topic areas and skills) that lend themselves to STEM inquiry units are discussed with examples provided of how science concepts may be embedded and assessed.

Teresa Connolly argues that a profound understanding of key chemistry concepts and processes is as fundamental to scientific literacy as mastering complex procedures and skills, such as performing experiments, interpreting data or communicating one’s findings using specific text types. However, she points out that such an understanding of chemical concepts is inhibited not only by learners’ poor command of academic language but also by the fact that chemical processes can be observed at different levels of abstraction. This poses a specific challenge in chemistry because learners often report having difficulties distinguishing clearly between processes at the sub-microscopic, the microscopic and the macroscopic level, which will lead to misconceptions and prevent deeper understanding. To address that issue, Connolly’s deeper learning episode on redox reactions offers engaging ways of promoting scientific reasoning through a series of student-led experiments and inquiry. Systematic guidance in academic language use will enable learners to express their findings and observations precisely and adequately and thus help them distinguish the processes occurring at various levels of abstraction with increasing ease and confidence.

In this chapter, we focus on the ways that parent–child conversations during and after hands-on museum exhibit experiences can advance children’s learning and retention of information about cultural practices, and science and engineering. The work draws on research guided by sociocultural theory from two partially intersecting literatures, one concerned with children’s memory for personally experienced events, including work by Ornstein and his colleagues, and the other focused on learning during family museum visits. Unique partnerships between university researchers and museum practitioners make our work possible.

What is the future of STEM education and how will it be enacted and viewed over the next decade? This chapter uses the 100-plus years of collective STEM education wisdom of the authors to predict the future of STEM in Australian primary schools. The chapter first presents a short historical review of the ascent of STEM from its birth and then maps its current trajectory. Next it discusses careers of the future and the need for both STEM skills and STEM content knowledge, with an emphasis on the former. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are discussed as a context for the globalisation of STEM education, followed by a discussion of future trends spurred by the use of innovative technologies. Lastly, the chapter focuses on how to develop your own STEM identity.

“How should STEM be presented to students? What are the evidence-informed approaches currently being used in Australia and around the world? Given that Australia doesn’t have an actual STEM curriculum, what should you do? What is ‘best practice#x2019; for implementing STEM education in schools?

This chapter covers all these questions and more. It outlines a range of economic, historical and pedagogical factors that have led to current implementation strategies for integrated STEM education in schools. It clarifies the purpose of STEM education, and poses questions for you to discuss with your colleagues. By the end of the chapter you should have a better understanding of how to design and implement a range of small-scale activities that involve STEM education in some way, with the goal of moving towards an interdisciplinary project-based approach to engage yourself and your students with STEM concepts.”