STEAM (science, technology, engineering, and applied mathematics) more focus on applied mathematics.STEAM (science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics) add agriculture.STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).

SMET (science, mathematics, engineering, and technology) previous name.SHTEAM (science, humanities, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).MINT (mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, and technology).GEMS (girls in engineering, math, and science) used for programs to encourage women to enter these fields.

A-STEM (arts, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) more focus and based on humanism and arts.

The Office of Science was also an early adopter of the STEM acronym. Peter Faletra, the Director of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists at the Office of Science, the acronym was adopted by Rita Colwell and other science administrators in the National Science Foundation (NSF). One of the first NSF projects to use the acronym was STEMTEC, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Teacher Education Collaborative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which was founded in 1998. Based on the program's recognized success and his expertise in STEM education, Charles Vela was asked to serve on numerous NSF and Congressional panels in science, mathematics and engineering education it is through this manner that NSF was first introduced to the acronym STEM. Moreover, the CAHSEE started a summer program for talented under-represented students in the Washington, D.C., area called the STEM Institute. Vela, the founder and director of the Center for the Advancement of Hispanics in Science and Engineering Education (CAHSEE). Previously referred to as SMET by the NSF, in the early 1990s the acronym STEM was used by a variety of educators, including Charles E. Some sources also use HEAL (health, education, administration, and literacy) as the counterpart of STEM.

In the United Kingdom, the social sciences are categorized separately and are instead grouped together with humanities and arts to form another counterpart acronym HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences), rebranded in 2020 as SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy). In the United States, these are typically included by organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Labor's O*Net online database for job seekers, and the Department of Homeland Security. There is no universal agreement on which disciplines are included in STEM in particular whether or not the science in STEM includes social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, economics, and political science. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns (as a shortage of STEM-educated citizens can reduce effectiveness in this area) and immigration policy, with regard to admitting foreign students and tech workers. The term is typically used in the context of education policy or curriculum choices in schools. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ( STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. A high school student explains her engineering project to a judge in Sacramento, California, United States (2015)

Stem education act of 2015