The necessity of STEM knowledge is being more widely acknowledged as the priority in the development of education; however, students lack sufficient knowledge and interest in the acquisition of STEM subjects. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the teaching and learning methods that would correspond to the contemporary young generation and that would facilitate meaningful learning of modern students. Performing the survey of 256 students in Grades 10 – 12 of Latvia, students’ perceptions on how they understand and interpret their STEM learning and methods used by teachers have been explored. The questionnaire in the QuestionPro e-environment was designed according to the criteria describing meaningful learning considering the peculiarities of the young generation. Respondents’ answers were analyzed with the help of the SPSS program, using the methods of non-parametric statistics. Many representatives of the young generation tend to avoid difficulties which confirms a typical feature of this generation – to achieve an immediate result easily and quickly. These students also have a weaker understanding about the importance of STEM that testifies the lack of the learning motivation. The majority of students consider that it is necessary to acquire STEM only at school, failing to connect it with the everyday life. The study describes the national context, yet the presented trends could be significant also on the international level for understanding meaningful learning of STEM. Keywords: meaningful learning, STEM education, teaching/learning methods, today’s new generation

The development of the natural sciences in the XXI century is characterized by the need for a comprehensive solution of fundamental problems shared by experts in various fields. Advances in science are reflected in the content of modern education. Science in school education most often represented by a set of individual academic disciplines, such as chemistry, physics, biology, geography. Interdisciplinary communication is a reality expression of the integration processes in the study of these disciplines. Illustration of the material unity of the world around us, to demonstrate the possibilities of science to explain, modeling and reproduction of natural processes in the laboratory have a priori that the difference. In the practice of school education widespread the integrated courses of natural science too. Described trends in the development of science education in good agreement with the economic development strategy "Europe 2020: a strategy for intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth", one of the activities of which is to enhance the performance of education systems and to facilitate the involvement of young people into the labor market.

Active training methods (including game) are very popular in practice of modern natural-science education. Results of experiment on use of game training methods on chemistry education at base school are presented in the article. We questionnaire the 9 Form student of boarding school No. 5 in Minsk on first step of the investigation in the 2008–2009 year. The results showed that chemistry is not very interesting for students. Educational games used for increasing the interest and motivation to study chemistry. The lesson „Hidrocarbons“ carried out in the games form in the experimental group and in the traditional form in the control group. Efficiency of game methods proves to be true results of control of knowledge and responses of students. The chemistry computer games such as „Chemical elements“,“ Chemical bridge“, „Chemical Olympics“ used as a home work for 9 Form student. Games methods used during the traditional „Week of chemistry“ in the boarding school No. 5 too. The opinion of students about role of games in chemistry teaching is presented. Key words: chemistry education, games in chemistry, secondary school.

The number of students characterized as science enthusiasts in all countries and age groups does not exceed 20 %, except Belarus with 34%. The number of students character-ized as science negationists is average of 41% in Belarus and 55% in Latvia, 70% in Sweden and 76 % in Finland, decreased from the form 7 to 12. Students in Latvia and Belarus demonstrated a higher positive value practically in all 16 statements. The Belarusian students had a considerably more positive attitude to school science compared to the Latvian students, and the Finnish students - compared to the Swe-dish ones. For the students from Latvia and Belarus, school science plays an important role in developing their knowledge of nature and health, and in the choice of their future career. However, the number of students who see themselves working in the field of science is small both in post-socialistic and Nordic countries. Key words: attitude, carrier, comparative research, school science.

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