In November 2023,UNESCO adopted a resolution to establish an International STEM Education Research Institute in China. The goal is to achieve inclusive, equitable, context-relevant, Sustainable, and high-quality STEM education accessible to all. While flourishing in China, STEM education is problematic in its "elitism" and "urbanization" orientation(inequity in urban and rural education), utilitarian origins and practical tendencies , and insufficient integration in curriculum development.

From the theoretical perspective of connecting scientific learning with everyday life experiences and concepts such as “funds of knowledge”, we argue that agricultural civilization, as the "ethnic and cultural gene" of China, with its core concept of "harmonious coexistence between humans and nature," can counteract the utilitarian tendencies of STEM education. And the incorporation of themes and content that culture and context responsive may enhance the inclusiveness of STEM education and address urban-rural integration issues. Simultaneously, derived from real agricultural production and life practices, agricultural culture in the context of the history of science and technology provides abundant authentic problem scenarios that are rich in interdisciplinary and hands-on learning resources.

The team including reserachers and teachers developed a STEM curriculum module of the "Hand-cranked Grain Winnowing Fan" (a classic traditional agricultural tool in China). It was implemented in two parallel classes of the fourth grade in an ordinary urban primary school and a rural primary school in District B of City C. The experimental class underwent a six-week STEM course with the entire process recorded on video, while the control class received conventional science instruction. Procedural data were collected through methods such as pre-and-post paper-and-pencil tests, thinking-aloud sessions, and focus groups. The results demonstrate significant progress among students in dimensions such as conceptual understanding and application, design thinking, and values.

Finally, based on the curriculum development case, three key curriculum design principles are distilled: firstly, "value-guided differentiated design for rural and urban area". Specifically, for rural students, the guidance should be on promoting principled thinking about relevant experiences. For instance, even though some rural students may immediately associate grain sieving with the agricultural tool, the windmill, it is still essential to engage the entire class in debating the "optimal solution for grain sieving: wind sieving or water sieving." This encourages students to transition from knowing the outcome to understanding the underlying principles. Similarly, by exploring mechanistic questions such as "How is wind generated?" the aim is to guide students to pay attention to the design intentions and operational principles. This mode of thinking has a powerful impact on rural students, as reflected in post-tests where students mentioned, "I used to think my sister wasn't serious, but now I realize that my grandma have more experienced techniques when sieving grains, and this technique involves the scientific knowledge we learned in this class." Some students also expressed their intention to "further contemplate and investigate the scientific principles inherent in everyday life". Other principles include "integration of two-path（"engineer design and practice" and “Value-Led“）and " science and technology history as scaffolding of curriculum design and learning".

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