Summary of Findings

CONCLUSION Summary of Findings

STEM education has been targeted as a national concern for over the past decade, as studies have shown less and less students enrolling in STEM majors in higher education, along with falling numbers of students remaining in STEM fields and ultimately pursuing a STEM career.

Although billions of dollars have already been spent addressing this issue, in order for the U.S. to maintain its prominent global presence as a leader in advancement and technology, the numbers have not seen much improvement. As other research has suggested, a reason for this could be the ways in which these resources have been allocated. Most funding and research has gone towards improving teaching methods and curricula, forming a new pedagogy best fit for the unique needs of STEM education, with much less focus on the built environment and facilities that house this education and its environmental impact.

Building from this notion, the goal of this research is to provide an architectural framework and foundation for the design and construction of Sustainable STEM Learning Environments that will best cater to the new curricula and teaching methods that have already been researched and established. It is through this that we hope to focus an equal or greater attention on the built environment as on the curricula and teaching methods for STEM education, so as to better address the lack of improvement we have seen thus far in combating the STEM crisis in addition to the larger, global crisis of sustainability.