STEM is meant to be project based learning with a group of students working as a team on a real world engineering problem.
What if we pointed some children towards a backyard which is a litttle soggy and suggested that they drain itso that they could play.
Could the kids figure out how to build a bunch of drainage ditches and work together to get it done?
This was in fact an experience that I lived through 52 years ago when I was just a little little kid