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7 min readMay 28, 2021

Sharing my take on what STEM is and what it means today.

Before writing this, as it is an assignment for my programming school, all I could think about what cool title I could use to name this story on Medium. I think it was cool enough but after that I started looking out what STEM actually is…

STEM does not mean my title at all, but it’s still cool so I’ll leave it for now.

Life is hard. Life is tough. And life is making hard and tough choices and thinking about your future work life is part of those choices.

One of the subjects for this blog post is to navigate through the posibility of me (Checha) studying beyond my Basic Foundations Curriculum here at Holberton School. My options include:

Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality Developers
Full-Stack Web Developers
Developers working with Low Level Languages and Algorithms
Machine Learning Developers

I will focus on FullStack Web Developers because I love HTML, CSS and all things front end (back end too). And because VR and Machine Learning would take a whole lot more than 1,500 words to even scratch the surface.

Let’s begin the scratching!

What is STEM?

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. (source section number 1).

You know, if these were the 90’s, as a little girl I would have thought of STEM as exciting as I think of it now, but woudn’t say that to any of my friends because the general idea of science, and women in science, would have been boring to them: better be something more exciting. They would probably ask me why would I want to work on that kind of field.

My past little self wouln’t know how to answer that but my today self will.

It is a chance to be creative.

Back in high school, I had a subject called Art History (I thought my future laid on becoming an Architect). My teacher taught us about this really creative people: the greek, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, even the nameless cavemen who painted the walls of the Lascaux caves.

After that, in Architecture College, I studied some of the most famous architects in human history: Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Adolf Loos and many, MANY more.

But, what these teachers mentioned, but didn’t emphasize enough about was how much STEM actually influenced their work, specially in architecture. Probably because they didn’t know STEM (neither the teachers or the architects) was a thing as it is now, but all the same.

I’ll give you two examples, both italian, because why not?

Let’s start with something small:

Watched 2006 The Da Vinci’s Code yet? Or read the book? There’s this scene where Tom Hanks character has to type some code on a bank security box to get its content. He says the code (which is the fibonacci sequence unordered) should be typed ordered.

The Fibonacci Sequence is intimately connected with another mathematical construct, the Golden Ratio sometimes called the Divine Ratio. Mathematicians found that it was abundant in nature, in places as diverse as the proportions of the human face, the flowering of an artichoke, and the ancestry of the ideal bee.

Artists recognised that the Fibonacci Spiral is an expression of an aesthetically pleasing principle — the Rule of Thirds. This is used in the composition of a picture; by balancing the features of the image by thirds, rather than strictly centring them, a more pleasing flow to the picture is achieved.

From the Renaissance onwards, artists have — whether purposefully or simply by instinct — created dramatic and attractive paintings which demonstrate the Fibonacci Spiral in their composition.

Another big example:

Florence builders started the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower) construction in 1226 and was completed by 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. Other people integrated the Cattedrale “design team”, but I want to focus on Brunelleschi.

To keep the story short, Brunelleschi used his technical and mathematical genius to build said dome. Almost till that day, builders and architects relied on try and error to build. So, if you think about it, a lot of buildings had to fall to the ground before they got the desired (and lasting) result. He also invented a new hoisting machine for raising the masonry needed for the dome.

He challenged the typical, and the ordinary, and the comfort of what was known, relied on physical and mathematical calculations and ended up “creating” what is still one of the most significant buildings in Architectural History.

And that was way back in 1436, what else can be done now in 2021?

Why is a Full-Stack Web Developer an important one in STEM fields?

As a full stack developer, you may be involved in following activities:

Translate user requirements into the overall architecture and implementation of new systems
Manage Project and coordinate with the Client
Write backend code in Ruby, Python, Java, PHP languages
Writing optimized front end code HTML and JavaScript
Understand, create and debug database related queries
Create test code to validate the applicaition against client requirement.
Monitor the performance of web applications & infrastructure
Troubleshooting web application with a fast and accurate a resolution

I think a full-stack web developer does not focus on one thing only, (s)he can understand a bit about everything and can actively participate in every aspect of the development process.

A full-stack web developer can and MUST be a creative person. Not only to create beautiful and colorful projects, but to be creative regarding functionality and user experience.

It’s not art, because art has no functional purpose, but kind of feels like it if you think about it.

What makes this position interesting and unique?

Full-stack developers are experts in both the frontend and backend; so, the full-stack of technology that makes up a website. They are proficient in both frontend and backend languages and frameworks, as well as in server, network and hosting environments. To get to this breadth and depth of knowledge, most full-stack developers will have spent many years working in a variety of different roles. They also tend to be well-versed in both business logic and user experience, meaning they are not only well-equipped to get hands on, but can also guide and consult on strategy too. (source section number 2)

So… basically what I wrote before.

What makes this role similar to others?

I don’t knonw about similarities. Being a full-stack web developer prepares you to understand everything. You don’t need to study to understand what Machine Learning is about (you do to work on that, don’t get me wrong), but if you understand what other colleagues are saying about their work, you can help them come up with good ideas to acheive resolutions.

And that is what STEM education is all about: The focus on logical thought processes and problem-solving allows students to develop mental habits that will help them succeed in any field. STEM coursework challenges students to think critically and come up with their own solutions. As a result, students who receive a quality STEM education are primed to become the next generation of innovators.

What specific programming languages and tools could one expect to work with in this position?

Let’s make a list.

Front-end:

HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, W3.CSS, JavaScript, ES5, HTML DOM, JSON, XML, jQuery, Angular, React, Backbone.js, Ember.js, Redux, Storybook, GraphQL, Meteor.js, Grunt, Gulp.

Back-end:

PHP, ASP, C++, C#, Java, Python, Node.js, Express.js, Ruby, REST, GO, SQL, MongoDB, Firebase.com, Sass, Less, Parse.com, PaaS (Azure and Heroku)

Popular Stacks:

LAMP stack: JavaScript — Linux — Apache — MySQL — PHP
LEMP stack: JavaScript — Linux — Nginx — MySQL — PHP
MEAN stack: JavaScript — MongoDB — Express — AngularJS — Node.js
Django stack: JavaScript — Python — Django — MySQL
Ruby on Rails: JavaScript — Ruby — SQLite — Rails

What are some positives and negatives about this position?

Although disagreement over the term continues to this day, there’s no question that full-stack developers are in high demand, and that demand is rising. More and more people in the technology field now define the role more broadly and see the full-stack developer as someone with working knowledge of the entire stack, with true expertise in a few layers.
The full-stack developer of today is an effective and experienced generalist with a wide base of knowledge and more narrow scope of specialization, who understands both their capabilities and limitations. (source section number 3)