Grundlos: Watch out, you almost ran me over! Where are you rushing off to?

Magnus: I’m off to give a talk and I’m in a hurry.

Grundlos: What is the talk about? You’re not very dressed up.

Magnus: Look, that’s not necessary. It’s about the meaning of STEM.

Grundlos: What is STEM?

Magnus: Don’t you know?

Grundlos: No — it sounds like something out of quantum physics, or the garden club.

Magnus: Not at all! I’m amazed you haven’t heard of it. Don’t you keep up with things?

Grundlos: I have a hard time keeping up with myself. Just now I was thinking I needed a new roof on my house. But I’m curious. What is STEM?

Magnus: It’s an acronym, an abbreviation —

Grundlos: Like most things.

Magnus: It stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

Grundlos: Clever. What’s the point?

Magnus: What’s the point? Of science?

Grundlos: No, of the abbreviation. Why lump all these subjects together?

Magnus: Because they’re the future.

Grundlos: Now you lost me. My future is a leaky roof, unless I fix it. What are you talking about?

Magnus: These are the fields that shape our destiny, our prosperity.

Grundlos: Our destiny is our prosperity?

Magnus: Just listen, will you? The STEM fields create progress; they are inherently innovative; they constantly challenge us to be smarter, and do things more efficiently.

Grundlos: That certainly sounds like progress.

Magnus: And the problem is that not enough young people are studying these fields. We’re at risk of falling behind other countries and losing our competitive edge.

Grundlos: Why aren’t there more students in these fields? I thought people loved technology.

Magnus: People think these STEM subjects are difficult to learn.

Grundlos: You mean they’re easy?

Magnus: No — they’re challenging.

Grundlos: So their impressions are right?

Magnus: Wait — let me explain. We need to persuade students to meet the challenge and enjoy it.

Grundlos: Is that the job of scientists and engineers?

Magnus: What do you mean?

Grundlos: To persuade students to study STEM, as it’s called?

Magnus: Why yes! That’s what I’m talking about.

Grundlos: But I thought scientists were trained to conduct experiments, and to discover the nature of the physical world.

Magnus: Yes.

Grundlos: But you’re talking about persuasion, education, the arc of history, and communication. Aren’t you really needing skills in those areas, in language and history, and not in science?

Magnus: I really have to go.

Grundlos: Well, good luck! Maybe you’ll meet someone who has a better design for my roof.