If you have a student in your life, you've likely heard them talk about STEAM or STEM education. It stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math.

They are concepts we all learned, but how younger generations are learning is much different. Especially since these industries are growing, rapidly.

Now Gov. Kathy Hochul has a plan for a countywide STEAM school in Central New York. The governor's announcement comes as great news for those pushing nationwide efforts to grow the field of STEM for kids.

New research from the Walton Family Foundation in partnership with Gallup found limited exposure to STEM concepts in school could be contributing to the drop-off between students’ interest in and eventual pursuit of STEM jobs.

That's a problem because they say the economy is going to add about 1.4 million jobs by 2030. That is about twice the rate at which economists expect the overall economy will grow. So we need our children to be excited about these fields.

We’ll start with the pay and stability of these careers. The medium wage for a STEM job is about twice the medium wage in the economy overall. There is a catch, it takes a lot of training. However, the benefit of STEM or STEAM concepts for kids is huge. It gets them thinking critically, asking questions and even helps to build their self-confidence.

There is one hiccup in this data found. Young women and girls are far less likely to pursue a career in STEM.

“Fifty-seven percent of girls who said that they don't plan on pursuing a STEM career, that was because they reported that they didn't think they'd be good at it," said Dan Correa, CEO of the Federation of American Scientists. "And, you know, we know from lots and lots of research that there's no validity to that at all. But it does beg the question for our educators and for us as a society like we need more girls to go into these fields.”

It's important for parents to help inspire young minds by giving them hands-on experiences like playing with Legos or any other building toys. Ask your child's school if there are in- and out-of-class opportunities for coding, 3D printing, circuit building and rocketry. A trip to the science museum is another great option.