The aim of this study is to examine how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is implemented in the published literature. To accomplish this, the educational experiences published in indexed magazines in the main Web of Science collection during the 2013-2018 period were examined, with special attention paid to (a) The STEM concepts defined in the theoretical frameworks; (b) the STEM disciplines that intervene; (c) the possible benefits of STEM education; and (d) the key aspects for the success of the educational intervention. The results indicate that the theoretical frameworks used normally focus more on the variables that are the object of the study than on STEM education, and that there are multiple interpretations of what STEM education is, and these interpretations do usually involve the integrated appearance of the four disciplines that make up the acronym.

The emergence of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in research and the practice of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education is today an unquestionable fact at international level. Despite the importance attached to STEM education, there is a lack of synthesized approaches to teaching the interdisciplinarity of STEM. This lack of synthesis can hinder a strong theoretical foundation for STEM education and possible new contributions. The purpose of this position paper is to contribute a theoretical framework for STEM education that enables the unification of criteria regarding disciplinary integration and associated teaching methods. The authors discuss disciplinary integration in STEM activities, the implication of STEM literacy, educational stage, and teaching method, and provide suggestions for future research.

Given the progressive loss of influence for the school relative to television in youngsters' everyday lives, this article describes the procedure and the results of including cartoons in the physics curriculum in secondary education. Work was carried out intensively with a small group of pupils and sporadically with a larger group. In the first case, cartoons were used for identifying and discussing fictitious phenomena, problem-solving, and assessment of the learning. In the second case, for identifying and discussing fictitious phenomena, a quasi-experimental research design was followed. The results back the use of this didactic tool as an element for motivating and invigorating the classroom, for identifying the pupils' alternative ideas and the assessment of their learning, as well as for a more critical way of watching television.

If we want to integrate science into society as part of modern culture, we should first ensure that we know about the image that its citizens hold, starting with the students themselves. One of the aims of this could be to increase the number of students studying physics when at present they appear to be in decline. In this paper, we analyse the image presented in cartoons based on criteria previously used for comics by other researchers. To do so, we monitored 100 television episodes broadcast in Spain and we compared them with the results obtained with comics. The results show similarities and differences in line with the audiovisual format used, though both show evidence of a distorted image of science and scientists that is so common in the classic stereotypes sustained by society as a whole.

One of the characteristics of our times is the powerful socio-cultural influence of television. Formal education seems to be losing its attraction to youngsters in favour of TV: physics is no exception. We present here the first results of a working proposal aimed at coupling physics teaching with viewing cartoon programs. The study was carried out over two school years with a small number of participating students. It involved the individualized analysis of two cartoon programs by teachers and students with a focus on discriminating between `real' and `impossible' situations, a class discussion of the results, an attempt to give a physical explanation for what was observed, an in-depth debate about some of the previously identified phenomena, and a final interview with the students and their parents. Using TV cartoons was a clear incentive to the students and our results encourage us to develop the notion of TV `literacy' further.