STEM in Geography Education - an Earth Science Perspective - Dr Kate Selway

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Finn

Geography in Australia is positioned within the humanities and social sciences, which shapes curriculum content, teacher backgrounds, and students’ subject choices. The text argues that expanding STEM skills in school geography would help students pursue clear goals, access satisfying careers in nationally needed fields, and develop future leaders who make better-informed decisions. It also links STEM to core geographical problem-solving through numeracy, statistics, programming, GIS tools, and earth-science methods.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Why expanding STEM skills benefits students

How STEM strengthens Australia’s capability

STEM in Geography Education – an Earth Science Perspective Dr Kate Selway Macquarie university Introduction In the Australian school curriculum, geography is housed within the humanities and social sciences. This classification affects the content within the curriculum, the backgrounds of teachers and their professional development opportunities, and also the expectations and subject choices of students. As an earth scientist working in the Australian university sector, my research is closely linked to geographyand I teach many undergraduates who had their passion sparked during geography lessons at school. From this perspective, I suggest three reasons why the expansion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills in the school geography curriculum would be of benefit. 1. It would help students pursue and achieve their own goals. 2. It would help interested students find fulfilling careers in areas of national skills shortages. 3. It would help develop a population and future leaders who will make successful and wellinformed decisions. 1. The expansion of STEM skills into geography teaching will help students to pursue their goals. If a keen high school student were to type geography into the search bar of the Good Universities Guide (www. [gooduniversitiesguide.com.au](gooduniversitiesguide.com.au)), they may be surprised at the diverse range of university degrees they are directed towards. While someone wanting to study chemistry could be confident they should do a science degree and someone wanting to study history will almost certainly do an arts degree, our student looking for a geography major has amore ambiguous path. They will be directed to a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, but to a Bachelor of Arts atthe University of Adelaide. At the University of Queensland, geography sits within the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, while at Macquarie University it sits within the School of Social Sciences. This range of paths reflects the broad range of areas of focus within geography, which include both human geography and physical geography and span the arts and the sciences. However, our current school curriculum, focused on the humanities and social sciences, may not be fully preparing students for these future options. Students who choose to study geography at school are often interested in questions like how humans interact with their environments, how environments change, and how that change can be monitored and mitigated. From the perspective of an earth scientist, I would argue that an enhanced emphasis on STEM skills within geography teaching in schools will support students to understand and address these questions and to pursue further study. These skills would include, but not be limited to, improved numeracy and confidence with maths, statistical analyses, programming and data processing, GIS and online mapping tools, familiarity with the scientific method, and an understanding of earth science, chemical, physical and biological analytical tools (Figure 1) . In many cases, answering geographical questions requires STEM skills. This is clearly true for physical geography but many questions in human geography also require thorough statistical analyses and an ability to tap into big data. For instance, Wolf et al.(2021) argue that quantitative analysis inhuman geography can help developments in the field become more replicable, inclusive, specific and open. Expanding the inclusion of STEM in the school geography curriculum would highlight the importance of quantitative skills to students and better equip them to successfully solve problems. In the lifetimes of our current students, in which incredibly vast volumes of data are likely to be collected, those who have the ability to access, analyse and understand that data will be able to create much more significant and effective change than those who do not. The application of STEM skills to

FAQs

Why does the text connect STEM expansion to students’ goals in geography?

It argues that STEM skills support students in understanding geographical questions and pursuing further study, with clearer pathways into relevant university degrees and careers.

What STEM skills does the text say geography teaching should include?

It mentions numeracy, maths confidence, statistical analysis, programming and data processing, GIS and online mapping tools, familiarity with the scientific method, and earth-science analytical tools.

How does the text claim STEM in geography could strengthen national capability?

It links geography-related skills to Australia’s shortages in roles such as surveyors, cartographers, spatial scientists, and geotechnical engineers, emphasizing that these jobs rely on STEM tasks like satellite data analysis and groundwater modeling.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Finn