We are in the STEM generation whose comprehensive purpose is to resolve (1) societal needs for new technological and scientific advances; (2) economic needs for national security; and (3) personal needs to become a fulfilled, productive, knowledgeable citizen. STEM specifically refers to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but now has a broader meaning to include environment, economics, and medicine. Currently, there is not an agreement of the particulars in education, or in standards, by professional organizations that define STEM literacy. Most definitions do cover societal and economic needs but overlook personal needs. There is a general consensus that everyone needs to be STEM literate. But there is a difference between literacy and being literate. STEM literacy should not be viewed as a content area but as a deictic means (composed of skills, abilities, factual knowledge, procedures, concepts, and metacognitive capacities) to gain further learning. This paper gives a brief background of literacy definitions in STEM and presents a description of STEM literacy based upon (1) cognitive, (2) affective, and (3) psychomotor learning theory domains. The paper stresses the need to evolve from learning for STEM literacy to using STEM literacy for learning to satisfy our societal, economic, and personal needs.

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A growing concern for STEM teachers is the responsibility of having students who do not speak English proficiently in their content area classrooms. This paper gives a background of how STEM literacy and English language learner (ELL) literacy can be used productively together as well as strategies for STEM teachers to help all students learn. Strategies for ELL literacy are good strategies for all students. We discuss specific strategies that STEM teachers can use that benefit all students in developing academic language and conceptual understanding in STEM content using a hands-on STEM experiment, "Why do I need to wear a bicycle helmet?" that incorporates Newton's first, second, and third laws of motion."How am I expected to teach the same content to every student when some kids in the class don't even understand English? I'm a content area teacher, not a language teacher." We hear this many times from STEM teachers.

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