I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8390 

To require the Director of the National Science Foundation to establish 

a grant program to make grants to eligible entities to develop instructional content on artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 

Mr. TONKO (for himself and Mr. RESCHENTHALER) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for 

a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To require the Director of the National Science Foundation 

to establish a grant program to make grants to eligible 

entities to develop instructional content on artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. GRANT PROGRAM FOR ARTIFICIAL INTEL4 LIGENCE INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning not later than January 

6 1, 2022, the Director shall award grants on a competitive 


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1 basis to eligible entities to research the development of in2 structional content for teachers of a public elementary 

3 school or secondary school in accordance with subsection 

4 (e). 

5 (b) APPLICATIONS.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 

7 grant under subsection (a), an eligible entity shall 

8 submit to the Director an application at such time, 

9 in such manner, and containing such information as 

10 the Secretary may require, which shall include— 

11 (A) an explanation detailing how the pro12 posed research and development of instructional 

13 content by such eligible entity would com14 plement and enrich a curriculum approved by a 

15 State educational agency for implementation in 

16 a public elementary school or secondary school; 

17 and 

18 (B) a plan to— 

19 (i) develop or adapt instructional con20 tent in accordance with subsection (e); 

21 (ii) pilot such instructional content in 

22 a public elementary school or secondary 

23 school; or 

24 (iii) assess the comprehension of stu25 dents after the instruction of such pilot inVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:44 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8390.IH H8390

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1 structional content to determine the effi2 cacy of such instructional content. 

3 (2) CONDITIONS FOR RECEIVING A GRANT.—As 

4 a condition of receiving a grant under this section, 

5 an eligible entity shall agree to— 

6 (A) report to the Director, at such time 

7 and in such manner as the Director may re8 quire, on— 

9 (i) the activities carried out and mate10 rials developed using funds from such 

11 grant; and 

12 (ii) input received from any teacher of 

13 an elementary school or secondary school 

14 that has successfully used the instructional 

15 content within the curriculum of such 

16 school; 

17 (B) ensure that all instructional content 

18 created as a result of such grant are freely 

19 available to the public; and 

20 (C) comply with the requirements of sec21 tion 3474.20 of title 2, Federal Code of Regula22 tions. 

23 (c) REVIEW BOARD.— 


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1 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Director shall es2 tablish, and appoint individuals to, a review board to 

3 select the grant recipients in accordance with— 

4 (A) the standard metrics in the most re5 cent version of the National Science Foundation 

6 Proposal and Award Policies Guide; and 

7 (B) the metrics outlined in subsection (d). 

8 (2) COMPOSITION.—The review board shall be 

9 equally comprised of the following: 

10 (A) Faculty members at institutions of 

11 higher education with expertise in artificial in12 telligence. 

13 (B) Faculty members at institutions of 

14 higher education with expertise in education. 

15 (C) Teachers at institutions of higher edu16 cation. 

17 (D) Teachers at elementary schools or sec18 ondary schools, including elementary schools or 

19 secondary schools receiving funds under part A 

20 of title I of the Elementary and Secondary 

21 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et 

22 seq.). 

23 (E) Professionals who, as determined by 

24 the Director, spend the majority of their workVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:44 Oct 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8390.IH H8390

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1 day interacting with artificial intelligence tools 

2 in the workplace. 

3 (d) ADDITIONAL SELECTION METRICS.—The Direc4 tor shall develop metrics, for the review board to measure 

5 the likely success of an application, that assess— 

6 (1) the ability for the instructional content de7 rived from the research grants to be widely distrib8 uted, and easily accessible, to public elementary 

9 schools and secondary schools; 

10 (2) the ability for the instructional content de11 rived from the research grants to reach a diverse 

12 student body; and 

13 (3) the ability for the instructional content de14 rived from the research grants to address the unique 

15 needs of a school receiving Federal funds under 

16 Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education 

17 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.). 

18 (e) INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity conducting 

20 research under subsection (a) shall devise a com21 prehensive and structured series of exercises— 

22 (A) appropriate to each grade level; and 

23 (B) designed to— 


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1 (i) convey the principles behind, me2 chanics of, and societal implications or eth3 ics of the use of artificial intelligence; and 

4 (ii) provide teaching instructions for 

5 teachers at elementary schools or sec6 ondary schools on such mechanisms when 

7 needed. 

8 (2) TEACHING INSTRUCTIONS.—In providing 

9 teaching instructions for teachers at elementary 

10 schools or secondary schools under paragraph (1), 

11 an eligible entity may include the following: 

12 (A) Prescribed worksheets. 

13 (B) Textbooks or other reading materials. 

14 (C) Educational games. 

15 (D) Digital instructional resources, includ16 ing web-based applications, mobile applications, 

17 or application programming interfaces. 

18 (E) Virtual professional development pro19 grams for teachers at elementary schools or sec20 ondary schools, including webinars, online con21 ferences, or massive open online courses. 

22 (F) Tools to improve the accessibility of in23 structional content to students with learning 

24 disabilities. 


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1 (G) Tools to improve the accessibility of in2 structional content to students learning English 

3 as a second language. 

4 (H) Any other materials or activities that 

5 the Director determines to be necessary to ac6 complish the general goal outlined in paragraph 

7 (1)(B)(i). 

8 (3) TOPICS.—In conveying the mechanisms be9 hind artificial intelligence and the societal implica10 tions of the use of artificial intelligence, an eligible 

11 entity may address the following topics: 

12 (A) How artificial intelligence systems 

13 work, including— 

14 (i) how artificial intelligence systems 

15 perceive and interact with their sur16 rounding environments; 

17 (ii) how artificial intelligence systems 

18 derive patterns and relationships from 

19 data; and 

20 (iii) how artificial intelligence systems 

21 adapt based on the acquisition of new in22 formation. 

23 (B) The societal implications of the broad 

24 application of artificial intelligence systems, in25 cluding— 


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1 (i) investigating when and how bias 

2 may be intentionally or unintentionally cre3 ated when using artificial intelligence; 

4 (ii) investigating the tradeoffs between 

5 privacy and security as it pertains to the 

6 use of artificial intelligence applications; 

7 and 

8 (iii) investigating the likely future im9 pacts of artificial intelligence on society. 

10 (C) Any other topics determined necessary 

11 by the Director. 

12 (f) EVALUATION.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 4 years after 

14 the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 3 

15 years thereafter, the Director shall evaluate the 

16 grant program under this section. 

17 (2) CONTENT.—In evaluating the grant pro18 gram under subsection (a), the Director shall in19 clude— 

20 (A) a common set of benchmarks and as21 sessment tools to identify best practices and 

22 materials developed and demonstrated by the 

23 grant recipients; and 

24 (B) recommendations for future expansion 

25 of such program. 


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1 (3) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 30 days 

2 after the completion of the evaluation under para3 graph (1), the results of such evaluation shall be 

4 made available on a publicly accessible website of the 

5 National Science Foundation. 

6 (g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

7 (1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar8 tificial intelligence’’ means a machine-based system 

9 that— 

10 (A) can, for a given set of human-defined 

11 objectives, make predictions, recommendations, 

12 or decisions that influence real or virtual envi13 ronments; and 

14 (B) uses machine and human-based inputs 

15 to— 

16 (i) perceive real and virtual environ17 ments; 

18 (ii) abstract such perceptions into 

19 models through analysis in an automated 

20 manner; and 

21 (iii) use model inference to formulate 

22 options for information or action. 

23 (2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

24 the Director of the National Science Foundation. 


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1 (3) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti2 ty’’ means— 

3 (A) a State research agency; 

4 (B) a Federal research agency; 

5 (C) an institution of higher education; 

6 (D) a junior or community college; 

7 (E) a nonprofit organization with a history 

8 of publishing peer-reviewed research in the 

9 fields of education, computer science, or related 

10 fields; or 

11 (F) any combination of subparagraphs (A) 

12 through (E). 

13 (4) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL; SECONDARY

14 SCHOOL.—The terms ‘‘elementary school’’ and ‘‘sec15 ondary school’’ have the meanings given those terms 

16 in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 

17 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 

18 (5) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 

19 term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 

20 meaning given that term in section 101 of the High21 er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 

22 (6) INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT.—The term ‘‘in23 structional content’’ means lesson plans, educational 

24 tools, and educational resources designed to assist in 

25 the teaching of a concept or series of concepts in a 


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1 structured manner to students in elementary schools 

2 or secondary schools. 

3 (7) JUNIOR OR COMMUNITY COLLEGE.—The 

4 term ‘‘junior or community college’’ has the meaning 

5 given that term in section 312(f) of the Higher Edu6 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1058(f)). 

7 (8) STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term 

8 ‘‘State educational agency’’ means the State board 

9 of education or other agency or officer primarily re10 sponsible for the State supervision of public elemen11 tary schools and secondary schools, or, if there is no 

12 such officer or agency, an officer or agency des13 ignated by the Governor or by State law. 

14 SEC. 2. ROBERT NOYCE TEACHER TRAINING AND EDU15 CATION PROGRAM. 

16 Section 10(i)(5) of the National Science Foundation 

17 Authorization Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 1862n–1(i)(5)) is 

18 amended to read as follows: 

19 ‘‘(5) the term ‘mathematics and science teacher’ 

20 means— 

21 ‘‘(A) a science, technology, engineering, 

22 mathematics, or computer science, including cy23 bersecurity, teacher at the elementary school or 

24 secondary school level; or 


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1 ‘‘(B) a teacher at an elementary school or 

2 secondary school who instructs from a cur3 riculum that incorporates, to a substantial de4 gree, quantitative data analysis.’’. 

Æ 


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