Where does STEM education currently stand? As we return to the physical teaching spaces of campuses and schools, it is a time to reflect on what is best about STEM education. Whilst the impetus to build back better is clear we also ask: how will we grow back better? We hope to acknowledge not just the toll on teachers and learners but also highlight the rise of the affective in educational research. Affective concepts include emotions, feelings, motivations and moods and aims to build on and enrich cognitive models of behaviour and learning (Dukes et al 2021). Affective variables may be critical in models of student belonging and their related persistence in STEM courses (Estrada et al 2020). Outdoor learning, playful learning and indeed any pedagogical strategy that engages the imagination of learners may be at least partly understood with relation to affective models and theories.