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Humanities vs. STEM
If you’re on any secondary education campus that offers degrees in both humanities and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) studies, then you are bound to come across the ongoing debate of the value of which field of study is more ‘valuable.’ You might even hear a group of STEM students during finals bemoaning all the cramming and memorization for the exams they have to pass, questioning why they didn’t go into something ‘easier’ like liberal arts and humanities. Or you might hear a group of humanity students lamenting over the arduous papers and readings they have to endure and questioning why they didn’t go into something more practical and detail-oriented like STEM.
The debate on the value of humanity versus STEM degrees has been raging for as long as higher education for individuals across gendered and racial lines has become accessible and normalized over the past century, and there is much to be said for both sides. One thing that remains true though is that the number of humanities students has declined precipitously, with surveys of graduating classes over the past few decades showing that the percentage of seniors with humanities degrees fell by a whopping 50% over the last 20 years.[1] And surely, the job market for liberal arts and humanities majors isn’t currently a boon of financial success, with professional opportunities that are less monetarily lucrative as jobs in the STEM field. But in the end, is the rise in STEM oriented degrees, the ebb in humanities, and the debate over the two really worth fighting over? Or would a combined approach that recognizes humanities and STEM’s individual and collective merits instead be more beneficial to everyone involved?
Degrees in humanities are made up of degrees in subjects such as philosophy, literature, history, and cultural studies among other things.[2] STEM degrees, on the other hand, are degrees that focus on technological development in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering. As to be expected, the two fields of studies vary in the nature of their educational process as well as in their prospective job fields. While it is not difficult to quantify that value of obtaining a degree in either field of studies—according to the Hamilton Project, degree holders earn around $600,000 over a lifetime more than those entering the workforce with just a high school diploma or GED—it is a bit harder to quantify the data concerning post-graduate earnings by graduates of different majors.[3] What is not difficult to quantify is the plain fact that there are a larger number of job opportunities available to STEM graduates than those with degrees in the humanities. When people think of ‘important’ or ‘essential’ jobs they often think of doctors, surgeons, engineers, and nurses, but what of the importance of teachers, artists, journalists, and writers? Instead of placing a hierarchy of value on people’s careers, perhaps we should stop and consider the impact that art, music, literature, film, and education have on our culture, in conjunction with science, mathematics, and engineering.
What’s the Truth?
It’s true that there is limited research available that proves STEM majors have a better salary than humanities majors. The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey reports that full-time workers with computer science and engineering bachelor degrees between the ages of 23-25 earned an average of $61,744 annually, which is 37% higher than the average starting salary of $45,032 for those who majored in history or social studies.[4] The previously mentioned Hamilton Project report also found that the five highest earning majors are all in STEM fields, such as aerospace engineering, energy and extraction engineering, chemical and biological engineering, computer engineering, and electrical engineering.[3] With figures like these, it’s easy to see how one can conclude that STEM degrees might be more ‘valuable’ than those in the humanities. But it is crucial to revalue education in the humanities for a host of reasons, and in this case, it is to ensure a balanced approach to the fast-growing technological and social progress we are making.
The Collective Merits of Humanities and STEM Degrees
Another reason that interest and action in the humanities should be reinforced is because its studies such as literature and philosophy play a large role in fostering critical thinking skills and in encouraging students to question everything, which is key to progress of any kind. Although technology is vital and has positive impacts for the world at large, it’s important to balance the growth of STEM studies with that of the humanities to have students engage in complex ideas and diverse perspectives that better allows them to critique and analyze the world around them and the context of their work, whether that be in STEM or not. [5]
The Challenges
As mentioned, there are challenges to getting people to perceive in the humanities the same value they perceive in STEM degrees. The shrinking job market, the niche opportunities for high-paying work, and the low-pay that humanities students face in the current career climate are certainly challenging in getting over the perception of humanities degrees as less useful than STEM ones. There is also the institutional issue of lack of funding for government programs that support the humanities. For example, the National Endowment of the Arts just shut down its grant program that supported projects for underserved groups and communities.[6] Until public attitudes shift around the value of the humanities as compared to STEM, students of that former discipline are going to have a harder time being perceived as ‘valuable’ in today’s job market.
But that doesn’t mean students should shy away from going into their preferred field of study just because the perceived value of those studies might not seem as prized as others. While humanities majors might not be a direct pathway to high-paying jobs after graduation, they have a long-run value in various careers, including leadership and management positions. In this world of rapidly evolving technology, it is necessary to understand that studies in the humanities not only benefits the evolution of our technological success, but keeps it in check by applying the critical thinking skills about the world around students that their degrees taught them.
Publishing Solution Group
Whether studying STEM or humanities, we here at Publishing Solutions Group believe that all fields of education are worth exploring, and that is why as a PreK-16 educational content development company, we create outstanding content to make sure that students excel in whatever studies they decide to pursue or are taught. We believe in the power of symbiotic education to reach every student’s learning goals!
[1] https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/02/13/the-decline-and-fall-of-humanities/#:~:text=In%20more%20recent%20years%2C%20the,in%20the%20last%2020%20years
[2] https://action.nationalhumanitiescenter.org/what-are-humanities/
[3] https://www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/post/major-decisions-what-graduates-earn-over-their-lifetimes/
[4] https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/data-tables.html
[5] https://medium.com/@sahin.samia/the-death-of-humanities-education-why-we-need-to-revalue-the-arts-and-sciences-463114779431
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/arts/national-endowment-for-the-arts-trump.html
Photos free to use under the Unsplash License
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Once, in grade school, I was given a blank map of the world and asked to label every country (in pen—yikes). I may have gotten a lot wrong on that test, but it turns out the map I was working with may not have been accurate to begin with!
I was probably being tested on the Mercator projection, one of today’s most common maps. It was created in 1569 with colonial trade routes in mind. As a result, North America and Europe ended up disproportionally emphasized.
Since Earth is round, any two-dimensional map will be distorted. But the Boston Public School (BPS) system is trading out its Mercator maps for a more geographically accurate model: the Gall-Peters projection, which first started gaining traction around 1974.
When I first saw it, I was suspicious; the continents seemed oddly stretched. But the Gall-Peters projection accurately scales surface area, so you can see how big (or small) places actually are.
For example, on the Mercator map, Greenland rivals Africa in size. In reality, Africa could swallow Greenland nearly 14 times!
Hopefully the Gall-Peters projection will give BPS students a more well-rounded view of the world (pun intended).
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In high school, we had three foreign languages to choose from: Spanish, French and Latin. I decided to take Latin, hoping it might take me on a school trip to Italy as a senior. Although I didn’t make it to Italy in high school, I did study Latin throughout and learned quite a bit about ancient Roman culture.
One thing I learned was that the ancient Romans stayed on top of new technology just as fervently as we do today. The wealthiest Romans often owned the newest tech and the latest styles, which were used to show off just how much wealth someone had. A portable sundial was a combination of both, and therefore the perfect status symbol.
The Roman day was divided into 12 increments of daylight and 12 increments of nighttime, with an hour measuring about 45 minutes in the winter and 75 minutes in the summer. Wealthy Romans who sported portable sundials could boast about knowing the time wherever they traveled. But these flashy pieces did require a good bit of technical knowledge in order to be used correctly. Many of the sundials that have been recovered were found with “cheat sheets,” collections of coordinates for different locations, which were used to calibrate the sundial to find the correct time for the desired area.
One of the most famous portable sundials was discovered in 1706 in the ruins of Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. Think your Hello Kitty iPhone case is cool? This sundial is in the shape of an Italian ham, and has been dubbed the “pork clock” since its discovery. It was recently recreated in a 3D model, which includes a replication of a grid on one side of the ham that marked the months of the year as well as hours past sunrise or sunset. The actual dial piece (called the gnomon) is missing, but it had been described in the past as being in the curly shape of a pig’s tail, so the 3D model includes this unique feature. A sundial of this shape is an extravagant example of a Roman status symbol, possibly intended for an Epicurean philosopher. These thinkers used a pig for their symbol and were known for their carpe diem attitude. Seize the day—and the pork, apparently!
But, similar to today, there were always those who preferred simpler ways over new technology. Some ancient Romans insisted that their stomachs were the best judges of time, since they told them when it was time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They’d probably have something similar to say about roosters vs. alarm clocks—too bad they never got the chance to experience the snooze button!
Did You Know?
The month of January is named after the Greek God Janus, the god of beginnings and ends. He is depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and the other back, to represent the transition between the old year and the new.
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When I see ants running around my yard, I’m usually not impressed. Those little guys seem so vulnerable and can get trampled on so easily. Then again, that was before I knew that several ant species began farming long before humans ever did.
Small, black ants, called Philidris nagasau have their own form of farming and have been doing it for around 3 million years. These ants gather the seeds of their favorite food, Squamellaria, which is a lumpy, brown plant. They then put the seeds in crevices of tree bark and fertilize them with their own waste. Once the plants have grown, the ants harvest the seeds and plant them again. This way, the cycle continues and both Philidris nagasau and Squamellaria are happy.
Leaf-cutter ants also farm, but they work with fungi instead of seeds. And they are not limited to places where fungus grows. When a colony gets too big, the queen ant leaves with a fungus that can be grown when she starts a new colony. These ants have been doing this for at least 8 million years.
A third species, Acropyga,don’t farm plants, but other bugs called mealybugs—kind of like the way humans care for bees, so we can eat their honey. The Acropyga carry the mealybugs around and ingest a liquid the mealybugs secrete called honeydew (no, it’s not the melon). Acropyga, like the leaf-cutter ants, bring their “crop” with them when they start a new colony. Aqueen actually carries a pregnant mealybug to her new colony and then this mealybug starts a new generation for the Acropyga to raise. Acropyga have maintained this system with the mealybugs for quite a while—15 to 20 million-year-old evidence of this farming in action has been found in an amber fossil of Acropyga holding mealybugs.
Compared to these ants, humans began to farm what seems recently. Humans started harvesting things in the Stone Age at least 12,000 years ago in what is now Iran. There, archaeologists have found stone tools as well as grains and seeds. They turned out to be different kinds of lentils, barley and peas—like those we eat today. After studying these, archaeologists can tell that, at first, humans just picked the food they found. However, about 10,000 years ago humans started selecting plants with a certain attribute they liked. An example of this early domestication in present-day Iran is corn that had tough ears, which humans kept selecting over time because it was easier to harvest.
A claim to agricultural fame can only (as far as we now know, at least) be made by four animal groups: humans, bark beetles, termites and ants. Though I’m proud that we are one of those four, I never thought that we had so much in common with those bugs!
Did You Know?
There are more than 10,000 species of ants. Instead of farming, one species in the Amazon sets traps. Allomerus decemarticulatus make traps from plant fibers, and when a bug gets stuck on one, the Allomerus decemarticulatus are waiting beneath.
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National Portrait Gallery /American Art Museum
In the eighth grade, I researched Sam Houston for one of my classes. As a final part of the project, we spent a class period acting out the person we researched. I had never considered anyone I studied that deeply until I was assigned that project.
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a program it has run for the past 10 summers that gives high school students the same opportunity. Teenagers who have applied and are selected to work for Portraits Alive come and study someone who has a portrait in the museum. The students first choose someone, then research that person without relying on the information that the museum provides on the plaque beside the portrait.
Students then write monologues about the subject of the portrait they’ve chosen. And they don’t just recite the monologue. They wear costumes to look like the people they’ve studied and perform the monologue for visitors touring the museum. Students put a lot of work into this. And after three weeks of presenting to tour groups, they rewrite their script, focusing on a new theme or approach. So not only are they learning research methods and performance skills, they are also learning how to review and strengthen their own work. When they perform, they present themselves alongside the portraits they studied, bringing the image beside them to life.
This project involves more than memorizing basic facts about the portrayed person. Not just anyone gets their portrait displayed at famous museums. Students in the program learn why the people they’re researching got their portraits on the wall. They also each find a personal connection to the person in the portrait. Some of the actors even come to resemble those they choose to perform after studying them in such detail. Christopher Schelb, a student portraying poet Allen Ginsberg, became known among his fellow teens as just “Ginsberg.”
The best part of this program is that not only do the students learn about the power of a new portrayal of the past, but the visitors do as well. Those who see the performance are encouraged to think about history that they may have forgotten about or that they have never encountered before.
Did You Know?
The smallest portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in London is about the size of your thumbnail. Made of enamel on gold, it’s a picture of Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orléans in the seventeenth century.
Image credit: Difference engine
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As a child, my favorite activity at the beach was digging through the sand for lost objects. Old coins, keys, painted shells and tarnished rings lined the pockets of my beach shorts after a day by the sea. But what if there were an easier way to look at buried treasure, a way without having to get my palms dirty and sand under my fingernails?
In the world of archaeology, there is. It’s called lidar. Short for “light detection and ranging,” lidar is a remote sensing device attached to the bottom of a helicopter or airplane that sends measured laser pulses toward Earth. The light bounces off the Earth’s surface and back to the lidar device with measurements and outlines of the ground below. This information is then compiled to form precise, three-dimensional maps.
What makes lidar so special is that it can reveal objects hidden beneath both vegetation and water and, by doing so, unearth buried artifacts, dwellings and—in this particular case—entire hidden cities.
Let’s take a trip to Cambodia in Southeast Asia, where scientists and archaeologists recently used lidar to uncover a massive residential city surrounding Angkor Wat, a Hindu (and, later, Buddhist) temple built in the twelfth century during the Khmer Empire. Considered one of the world’s largest religious sites and Cambodia’s most popular tourist destination, the temple has been visited by millions of tourists each year, none of whom had any idea just what kind of buried treasure lay around them.
Archaeologist Damian Evans of Cambodia’s Siem Reap Center and his team spent nearly two weeks using lidar to survey the area around Angkor Wat—a vast expanse of thick jungle vegetation—in search of artifacts. Imagine their astonishment when they discovered a massive “buried” city with the temple at its center, complete with residential districts, dried-up canals and ponds, streets, and buildings!
One of the more mystifying discoveries was a series of lines in the ground in the shape of labyrinthine coils. Evans and the team could not be sure what these coils were used for and claimed that there was nothing similar to these coils in surviving Hindu writings or art. Overall, the discovery of the city surrounding Angkor Wat provides exciting new clues for learning more about the ancient Khmer people.
So next time you’re at the beach, dig your hands a little deeper into the sand. You never know—you might just discover an ancient city.
Did You Know?
Lidar can also be used to take “photographs” of living beings, creating surreal pieces of art. Photographers discovered this unique feature in 2014 while profiling the landmarks and people of Harari, Ethiopia. They found that using the lidar could blur and smudge images of people, generating visually-stunning photographs. The artwork was displayed in an exhibit at the New York Institute of Technology in 2014.
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I love collecting old books. My favorite piece of my collection by far is a grammar book from the 1800s. It’s nearly falling apart and held together by unraveling twine. On the inside, you’ll find doodles from its original owner, Agnes. She wrote her name in large, antique cursive and even played tic-tac-toe in the margins. When I flip through the pages, I feel like I’m getting a glimpse into the past.
One museum intern in New York City stumbled upon more than just doodles in an old book. She found an original document from the American Revolution that would become the saving grace of the Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum.
In July of 2013, intern Emilie Gruchow was combing through the museum’s attic, re-cataloguing manuscripts. It was almost 100 degrees in the attic that day, but she stopped to read one of the documents she found anyway. She soon recognized it as “The Twelve United Colonies, by their Delegates in Congress, to the Inhabitants of Great Britain.”
The address was a plea to the British people. Americans hoped to avoid war by reconciling with the empire’s inhabitants. The final printed copy “reveals the strong, conflicted feelings of the colonists in the spring and summer of 1775” on the brink of revolution. The version Gruchow found turned out to be an original draft with edits and strikethroughs, which now gives historians an even clearer picture of the decisions made during drafting and who contributed the most to the document.
After confirming that this was a historic find, the museum then had to decide what to do with the document. Should they sell this piece of history . . . or keep it?
At the time, the museum was in desperate need of repairs and had run a deficit of $30,000. Selling the document would not only save the museum, it would also provide the chance that the address would be preserved and stored in a major institution where the country could see it. The museum voted to sell.
The document was auctioned off by celebrity auctioneer Leigh Keno of Antiques Roadshow fame.
After viewing the famous document, Keno said, “when reading the draft, with its many changes in place, one gets a sense of what was going through the minds of our Founding Fathers. It really is a national treasure.”
The museum expected this treasure to sell for around $350,000. Instead, it sold for an incredible $912,500. A shocking conclusion that will provide enough financial stability for the Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum to serve the people for years to come.
Did You Know?
The contents of an entire library in Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, were thought to be too corrupted and blackened to read without damaging them. Now, however, archaeologists are hoping to use digital scanning technology to read texts that would otherwise be lost to history.
Image credit: Beyond My Ken
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One of the more exciting prospects about moving to Boston was the chance to live in a seaside city. Boston has been a port city since the colonial period, when it was a hub of shipyards and bustling maritime trade. Although Boston has an extensive seaside past, San Francisco has perhaps an even greater presence of marine history. As a matter of fact, San Francisco may be the only place in the states where you’ll actually find said history right underneath your feet.
In 1850, hundreds of different ships from both sides of the world arrived in the harbor of San Francisco, attracted by the glittering promise of the California Gold Rush. These ships were left behind as the thousands of forty-niners who had sailed on them moved further inland. As one might imagine, this took up a lot of space. So those ships that couldn’t be used were either bought and sold for parts or were sunk deliberately, then buried when the area was filled in to make more land. Even more were buried over time as the sediments in the bay steadily built up.
As a consequence of this, the San Francisco area is replete with entombed shipwrecks. In fact, archaeologists think that there may be as many as 35 or 40 ships in the Golden City’s financial district alone!
In 2001, for instance, construction workers unearthing the remains of a downtown building found the remains of something else entirely: the wreck of the General Harrison. During another excavation undergone for the Infinity Towers project in 2005, a whaling ship, the Candace, was also found. In addition to that, archaeologists found the remains of the shipyard the Candace occupied, as well as the house of its owner, a shipwrecking site and a great deal of salvaged parts.
“Ultimately, we were able to put together a very detailed portrait of the shipyard and the Candace, and of maritime activity in San Francisco during the Gold Rush,” stated Dr. James Allan, a leading maritime archaeologist who supervised the survey. Dr. Allan and his team were very pleased with the find and are determined to find more like it.
But perhaps the greatest discovery has been the most recent. In late 2014, the wreck of the City of Rio de Janeiro was discovered only half a mile away from the city. The ship was infamous for being the deadliest shipwreck in the region—an accolade that earned it the nickname “the Bay Area’s Titanic”—and its previously unknown location was one of the city’s greatest mysteries for over a hundred years.
Who knows what might be found next?
Did You Know?
Margaret Brown wasn’t the only “unsinkable” woman on the Titanic. Stewardess and nurse Violet Jessop survived the sinking of both the Titanic and its sister ship the Britannic. Violet also was present on board the first sister of the White Star Line’s trio, the Olympic, when it collided with a British warship in 1911.
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This morning, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock and went to the kitchen, where I pulled out milk from the fridge and used the toaster to make a nice breakfast. Then I changed into a blouse and skirt, which I bought at a fast fashion retailer, and came to the office.
You might be wondering why I’m describing a mundane morning routine. You will be surprised to learn that this boring account is actually filled with innovations and lifestyle revolutions, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History’s exhibition, the Object Project.
The ongoing exhibition at the Smithsonian presents familiar objects in a new light, exploring how people, things and social change shaped life as we know it now. Visitors can see and touch more than 300 objects on display, along with relevant historic documents. No worries if you cannot visit in person—the comprehensive companion website can provide a wealth of information and colorful images of the objects.
Clicking through the site tells me my morning routine is supported by amazing innovations over the years. Clocks were a phenomenon even before most people could read the time; automatic toasters first came out in the 1920s, immediately appearing on breakfast tables across the nation; and ads for refrigerators from the 1930s showed ladies in gowns and men in tuxedos, as refrigerators were luxurious items, a “style sensation.”
What is more, I learned that the skirt that I am wearing today not only owes its origin to the concept of mass-produced, ready-to-wear clothing, but possibly to bicycles! When women started riding bicycles in the 1890s, they were symbols of liberation for women. Not only did the vehicle physically liberate women by offering them mobility, but they also transformed the way women dressed. Skirt lengths were shortened for smoother rides, causing a singer to wonder: “If we give them the chance, they will all wear pants! I wonder what they will do next?” Hmm, I wonder what?
Another important point that the exhibition makes, writer Rob Walker notes, is that people changed products and trends too, not just the other way round. A recent example is the MP3 player. Many people were skeptical of the gadget when it first came out, but some curious people tried it anyway, paving the way for its mass popularity and eventual revolution in the way we listen to music.
The exhibit shows that the newest cool gadget you’re considering trying out just might turn out to be an integral part of life decades down the line.
Did You Know?
The line between creative and absurd is thin when it comes to inventions. PingPong Door is a door that transforms into a table tennis table; there is a cup holder that you can attach to an umbrella; and with Kitchen Art Ham Dogger, you can transform hamburger meat into a hotdog shape whenever the occasion calls for it.
Photo Credit: Andreas Lakso/
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If you’re like me, you dug in your backyard as a kid, hoping to find fossils and make some sort of groundbreaking discovery. Unless you were really lucky though, you probably didn’t find much more than rocks. If you lived in northern Kenya, your search could turn out differently—it’s home to Lake Turkana, where fossils have remained for millions of years.
Lake Turkana, Africa’s fourth largest lake, lies in the middle of a harsh desert climate. Called the “Jade Sea” for its beautiful color, the lake sits in a volcanic area that experiences activity from tectonic plates that move the Earth’s crust. This creates layers where archaeologists can clearly see different eras of fossils preserved in the lake and its surrounding basin.
There are 100 archaeological and paleontological sites surrounding Lake Turkana, meaning it’s an ideal place for fossils to give us insight into our species’ ancestors: what they looked like, how they walked, where they lived and more. The fossils here span four million years of human evolution. The lake hosts numerous groundbreaking discoveries about the hominids who lived over 4.2 million years ago.
Out of all the discoveries at Lake Turkana, one still shapes our understanding of human evolution—connecting the dots among our predecessors.
It was 1984 when Turkana Boy, the most complete early human fossil, was discovered. He was preserved in the sediments of the lake for 1.5 million years. Our ancient human ancestors were comprised of multiple species rather than the one homogenous species we are today; Turkana Boy was a member of the Homo erectus species, arguably the most important species to study.
H. erectus is thought of as the direct ancestor of humans: the first hominids to migrate out of Africa and into Europe and Asia. By studying Turkana Boy, archaeologists learned that H. erectus walked like us, centering their weight over their pelvis. They had arched feet, long strides and larger brains than other species such as Homo habilis.
Did You Know?
The prehistoric species Nuralagus rex is the largest rabbit ever discovered—a 26-pound animal with short ears and small eyes that is unable to hop. These features have never been seen before in rabbits. This giant rabbit had no predators on its native Minorca, a Spanish island, allowing it to live a leisurely life without any worries.
Photo Credit: AdamPG
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