50 Interesting STEM Facts

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Do you know what STEM is?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. STEM represents a unique set of interlinked subjects used in a variety of fields. STEM education is a common focus on elementary and secondary school curriculums as we’ve seen the benefits kids have learning these fields.

In the digital age, the demand for STEM skills has increased. We are constantly adopting new technologies to make life easier and more accessible. So let’s learn a little bit about STEM, and the features that make it unique and interesting with this list of STEM facts.

STEM Education Facts

Let’s look at some interesting facts about the STEM education:

STEM employment is predicted to double in number between 2017 and 2027, compared to non-STEM occupations, with roles in computers, engineering, and advanced manufacturing forging ahead.
Numerous STEM employees have advanced degrees, but roughly a third have not completed college.
With 4.7 million and 2.6 million graduates, China and India produced the most number of STEM graduates in 2016.
15 of the top 20 fastest-growing professions demand advanced math or scientific foundation and skills.
Mechanical engineering is the most popular and chosen major among students interested in pursuing a STEM profession.
International students receive more than half of engineering degrees in the United States.
According to experts, firsthand contact with a STEM topic activates neurons in a kid’s brain that influence how long the youth remembers a certain memory.
92% of boys and 97% of girls will lose interest in STEM if they are not immersed before 5th grade.
In the United States, there are more employment opportunities for skilled scientists than there are applicants to fill them.
Biology, the second-most popular STEM subject, draws 24.7 percent of all STEM-studying female students compared to only 6.3 percent of male students.

Interesting Facts about Science and Technology

Ever wondered how our world would move without science and technology? We would probably still stick with our good old letters, emplaced in a traditional envelope, and wait for months to receive a message from one country to another. We would also wait for hours until our food was ready to serve and eat. It sounds difficult, which is why we must thank the innovative minds that helped us live better and less complicated. Here are some additional facts about science and technology that you might have never heard before:

We have accumulated 44 zettabytes of digital data! For the record, a zettabyte has 21 zeroes.
The amount of data created each day in the world is anticipated to rise to 463 exabytes by 2025.
Statista revealed that in 2021, there were already 15 billion mobile devices actively used by people across the world.
Despite component supply restrictions, which dragged the entire market by 18% year over year to 3.4 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2022, plug-in electric auto sales in the US climbed substantially. If forecasts are correct, since its rising in 2020, Electric Vehicle sales will approach 6.4 million across the globe.
When Google was first launched in September of 1998, it was only delivering 10,000 daily search inquiries. Yet, a year after, it already skyrocketed to 3.5 million search processes and 50 million pages due to its high demand.
A third of the world’s population has never used a phone.
The earth’s circumference is approximately 25,000 miles, with a mass of 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons and a surface area of around 200,000,000 square miles.
Every year, the United States discards 220 million tons of outdated computers and other electronic equipment.
According to Carolyn Bohach, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho, the bacteria residing within you could fill a half-gallon container since there are ten times more bacterial cells in the body than overall human cells.
Thomas Edison holds the record for receiving the most US patents, amounting to 1,093 in all.

Engineer boy is studying STEM education on black board

STEM Facts for Kids

Most applications that we use are products of someone’s imagination. More often than not, their quest for knowledge and excellent advancements begin from their early years as innocent and creative children. Now, we listed down some of the inspiring facts about STEM that are perfect for kids.

During the pandemic, Avi Schiffmann, a 15-year-old boy, developed “ncov2019.live,” one of the most effective COVID-19 tracking websites on the internet.
The average adult human comprises approximately 7 Octillion atoms!
When you direct a laser beam onto a jet of moving water, the water traps the laser, resulting in “total internal reflection.”
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple, originally achieved fame as teenagers by developing the video game named “Breakout.”
Pluto was discovered in 1930, but its cycle around the Sun has not yet finished since a Plutonian year is 247.68 times longer than an Earth year.
Because it is coated in rust, Mars appears to be red in photographs.
An average of 5,000 faces are remembered by humans.
More than half of the world’s oxygen is produced by plankton, seaweed, and other photosynthesizers.
According to scientists, the average cell phone carries 20 to 30 times the germs found in a toilet bowl.
Google’s search engine has detected more than 30 trillion distinct URLs on the Web, scans 20 billion pages each day, and executes 100 billion monthly searches.

Women in STEM facts

Time has truly changed the course of life. Women in STEM are continuing to dominate and prove themselves in the field. There is nothing a woman cannot do. Here are some interesting facts and accounts:

The English mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer.
Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded two Nobel Prizes in Science.
Emma Haruka Iwao, a Google employee, achieved the record for computing Pi to 31 trillion digits in 2019.
Women make up 29.3% of all researchers globally.
During World War II, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was
used to compute ballistic trajectories, operated by six women, namely Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas, and Ruth Lichterman.
Mary Kenneth Keller is the first woman in the United States to obtain a Ph.D. in computer science.
Radia Perlman dubbed the “Mother of the Internet,” is a computer programmer who is best known for creating the “spanning-tree protocol.”
Mae C. Jemison, an American engineer and physician is the first Black woman to fly to space.
Women work in life and physical science in greater numbers than ever before; however, women in computer science are declining.
In comparison to 41% of women in all occupations, 50% of women in STEM positions have experienced workplace discrimination and sexism.

Amazing STEM facts

We have prepared bonus facts to further expand your knowledge and quench your curiosity!

According to a study published in the journal Green Chemistry last 2021, researchers have worked out a method of turning plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring using genetically modified bacteria.
The worldwide retail Artificial Intelligence industry is expected to reach $110 billion by 2024, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).
The only number with the letter “a” in it from 0 to 1000 is “one thousand.”
Botulinum toxin is the most deadly poison on the planet, capable of killing a human within hours if 1g is taken. However, many are eager to utilize it in the form of Botox injections to freeze facial muscles.
IBM introduced the first hard disk drive with a capacity of 1 GB in 1980. The IBM 3380 had a 2.52GB storage capacity, which explains its gigantic cabinet, which was about the size of a refrigerator and weighed 550 pounds in total or 250 kilograms.
According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, there were around 2.5 billion T. rexes that lived throughout more or less 127,000 generations.
Every individual on the planet shares 99.9% of their genetic structure with everyone else.
The US Geological Survey estimates that there is $771 trillion worth of gold in the world’s oceans, but it is fragmented in microscopic particles that are nearly impossible to detect.
Technology developments, fueled mostly by Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, have contributed approximately 50% of economic growth in the previous 50 years.
When you burp on Earth, gravity holds the solids and liquids from your meal down, enabling only the gas to escape. Because the gas cannot separate from the liquids and particles in the absence of gravity, burping instantly turns into puke.

Kaitlyn Siu

Kate is mom of two rambunctious boys and a self-proclaimed super nerd. With a background in neuroscience, she is passionate about sharing her love of all things STEM with her kids. She loves to find creative ways to teach kids computer science and geek out about coding and math. She has authored several books on coding for kids which can be found at Hachette UK.