According to the World Economic Forum (2016), "more than one third (36%) of all jobs across all industries" (p.21) need problem-solving as a key skill. Trilling and Fadel (2009) noted the shift from industrial to knowledge-based economies, requiring students not only to possess content knowledge but also have skills that enable them to make sense of information and synthesise useful products. Students in this century would certainly be facing more complex and multifaceted problems as well. 21st century problems can include those of a biological nature, such as persistent and complex health disorders such as diabetes mellitus. Combating diabetes requires an understanding of biology (particularly homeostasis and hormones), a knowledge of biotechnology tools that can measure blood glucose concentration, engineering potential solutions that address or alleviate the problems associated with diabetes and using mathematics to compute personalised dosages of the patient's medication. As such, students need to be able to integrate knowledge from different disciplines to synthesise solutions to these complex, novel, and often persistent problems. Yet there have been few STEM activities focusing on problems of a biological nature. In light of this the authors designed a STEM task that is centred on a problem related to biology and hence requires the application of biological referent-centred knowledge to devise a solution to a complex problem related to pill coating. The integrated STEM biological problem was aimed to (1) expose students to inter-disciplinary problem-solving; and (2) shift the learning of biological content towards solving problems rather than in neat categories or topics as one would find in a textbook.