Title: Building Blocks of STEM Act
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
Building Blocks of STEM Act
This bill instructs the National Science Foundation (NSF), when awarding grants under the Discovery Research PreK-12 program, to consider age distribution in order to more equitably allocate funding for research studies with a focus on early childhood.
The bill directs the NSF to award competitive grants to institutions of higher education or nonprofit organizations to accelerate research efforts to increase understanding of the factors that contribute to the willingness or unwillingness of girls under the age of 11 to participate in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities.
The NSF shall also award competitive grants for such institutions and organizations to enter into partnerships with local educational agencies or states to develop and evaluate interventions in pre-K and elementary school classrooms that seek to increase participation by such girls in computer science activities.
The bill amends the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002 to authorize the NSF to award grants under the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program for the recruitment and training of informatics and computer science teachers.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3471 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3471

  To direct the National Science Foundation to support STEM education 
                  research focused on early childhood.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 18, 2018

  Mr. Schatz introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To direct the National Science Foundation to support STEM education 
                  research focused on early childhood.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Building Blocks of STEM Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The National Science Foundation has made the largest 
        financial investment in STEM education of all Federal agencies, 
        and plays a very powerful role in helping to set research and 
        policy agendas.
            (2) Studies have found that children who engage in 
        scientific activities from an early age develop positive 
        attitudes toward science and are more likely to pursue STEM 
        expertise and careers later on.
            (3) However, the majority of current research focuses on 
        increasing STEM opportunities for students in middle school and 
        older.
            (4) Women remain widely underrepresented in the STEM 
        workforce and this gender disparity extends down through all 
        levels of education. Strategic funding of programs is needed in 
        order to understand and address the root cause of this gap.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of 
        the National Science Foundation.
            (2) Early childhood.--The term ``early childhood'' applies 
        to children from birth through the age of 10.
            (3) Institution of higher education.--The term 
        ``institution of higher education'' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
        U.S.C. 1001(a)).
            (4) Local educational agency.--The term ``local educational 
        agency'' has the meaning given the term in section 8101 of the 
        Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
        7801), except that such term also includes preschools, after-
        school programs, and summer programs.
            (5) STEM.--The term ``STEM'' has the meaning given the term 
        in section 2 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 
        2010 (42 U.S.C. 6621 note).
            (6) Young girls.--The term ``young girls'' means female 
        individuals who have not attained the age of 11.

SEC. 4. SUPPORTING STEM RESEARCH ON EARLY CHILDHOOD.

    In awarding grants under the Discovery Research PreK-12 program, 
the Director shall consider age distribution in order to more equitably 
allocate funding for research studies with a focus on early childhood.

SEC. 5. SUPPORTING GIRLS IN STEM EDUCATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE.

    (a) Research Grants.--
            (1) In general.--The Director shall award grants, on a 
        competitive basis, to institutions of higher education or 
        nonprofit organizations (or consortia of such institutions or 
        organizations), to accelerate research efforts to increase 
        understanding of the factors that contribute to the 
        participation of young girls in STEM activities.
            (2) Research areas.--Research areas funded by a grant under 
        this subsection may include--
                    (A) the role of teacher training and professional 
                development, including effective incentive structures 
                to encourage teachers to participate in such training 
                and professional development, in encouraging or 
                discouraging young girls from participating in STEM 
                activities;
                    (B) the role of teachers in shaping young girls' 
                perceptions of STEM and discouraging such girls from 
                participating in STEM activities;
                    (C) the role of other facets of the learning 
                environment on the willingness of young girls to 
                participate in STEM activities, including learning 
                materials and textbooks, classroom decorations, seating 
                arrangements, use of media and technology, classroom 
                culture, and gender composition of students during 
                group work;
                    (D) the role of parents and other caregivers in 
                encouraging or discouraging young girls from 
                participating in STEM activities;
                    (E) the types of STEM activities that elicit 
                greater participation by young girls;
                    (F) the role of mentorship and best practices in 
                finding and utilizing mentors;
                    (G) the role of informal and out-of-school STEM 
                learning opportunities on girls' perception of and 
                participation in STEM activities; and
                    (H) any other activity the Director determines will 
                accomplish the goals of this subsection.
            (3) Grant recipient report.--An entity awarded a grant 
        under this subsection shall report to the Director, at such 
        time and in such manner as the Director may require, on the 
        activities carried out and materials developed using such grant 
        funds.
    (b) Development and Testing of Scalable Models for Increased 
Engagement.--
            (1) In general.--The Director shall award grants, on a 
        competitive basis, to institutions of higher education or 
        nonprofit organizations (or consortia of such institutions or 
        organizations), to develop and evaluate interventions in pre-K 
        and elementary school classrooms that increase participation of 
        young girls in computer science activities.
            (2) Partnerships.--In order to be eligible to receive a 
        grant under this subsection, an institution of higher 
        education, nonprofit organization, or consortium, shall enter 
        into a partnership with one or more local educational agency or 
        State in carrying out the activities funded by such grant.
            (3) Uses of funds.--Grants awarded under this subsection 
        shall be used for activities that draw upon the expertise of 
        the partner entities described in paragraph (2) to increase 
        participation of young girls in computer science activities, 
        including--
                    (A) offering training and professional development 
                programs, including summer or academic year institutes 
                or workshops, designed to strengthen the capabilities 
                of pre-K and elementary school teachers and to 
                familiarize such teachers with the role of gender bias 
                in the classroom;
                    (B) offering innovative preservice and in-service 
                programs that instruct teachers on gender-inclusive 
                practices for teaching computing concepts;
                    (C) developing distance learning programs for 
                teachers or students, including developing curricular 
                materials, play-based computing activities, and other 
                resources for the in-service professional development 
                of teachers that are made available to teachers through 
                the Internet;
                    (D) developing a cadre of master teachers who will 
                promote reform and the adoption of gender-inclusive 
                practices in teaching computer science concepts in 
                early childhood education;
                    (E) developing tools to evaluate activities 
                conducted under this subsection;
                    (F) developing or adapting pre-K and elementary 
                school computer science curricular materials that 
                incorporate contemporary research on the science of 
                learning, particularly with respect to gender 
                inclusion;
                    (G) developing and offering gender-inclusive 
                computer science enrichment programs for students, 
                including after-school and summer programs;
                    (H) providing mentors for girls in person and 
                through the Internet to support such girls in 
                participating in computer science activities;
                    (I) engaging parents of girls about the 
                difficulties faced by girls to maintain an interest and 
                desire to participate in computer science activities, 
                and enlisting the help of parents in overcoming these 
                difficulties;
                    (J) acquainting girls with careers in computer 
                science and encouraging girls to consider careers in 
                such field; and
                    (K) any other activities the Director determines 
                will accomplish the goals of this subsection.
            (4) Grant recipient report.--An entity awarded a grant 
        under this subsection shall report to the Director, at such 
        time and in such manner as the Director may require, on the 
        activities carried out, materials developed using such grant 
        funds, and the outcomes for students served by such grant.
            (5) Evaluation required.--Not later than 4 years after the 
        date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall evaluate the 
        grant program under this subsection. At a minimum, such 
        evaluation shall--
                    (A) use a common set of benchmarks and assessment 
                tools to identify best practices and materials 
                developed and demonstrated by the partnerships 
                described in paragraph (2); and
                    (B) to the extent practicable, compare the 
                effectiveness of practices and materials developed and 
                demonstrated by such partnerships with those of 
                partnerships funded by other local or State government 
                or Federal Government programs.
            (6) Dissemination of results.--
                    (A) Evaluation results.--The Director shall make 
                publicly available free of charge on an Internet 
                website and shall submit to Congress the results of the 
                evaluation required under paragraph (5).
                    (B) Materials.--The Director shall ensure that 
                materials developed under a program funded by a grant 
                under this subsection, that are demonstrated to be 
                effective in achieving the goals of this subsection (as 
                determined by the Director), are made publicly 
                available free of charge on an Internet website, 
                including through an arrangement with an outside 
                entity.
            (7) Annual meeting.--The Director may convene an annual 
        meeting of the partnerships participating in a program funded 
        by a grant under this subsection, for the purpose of fostering 
        greater national collaboration.
            (8) Technical assistance.--At the request of a partnership 
        seeking a grant under this subsection, the Director shall 
        provide the partnership with technical assistance in meeting 
        any requirement of this subsection.

SEC. 6. COMPUTER SCIENCE IN THE ROBERT NOYCE TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP 
              PROGRAM.

    Section 10 of the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 
2002 (42 U.S.C. 1862n-1) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``and mathematics'' each place it appears 
        and inserting ``mathematics, informatics, and computer 
        science'';
            (2) in subsection (a)(3)(B), by striking ``or mathematics'' 
        and inserting ``mathematics, informatics, and computer 
        science''; and
            (3) in subsections (b)(1)(D)(i), (c)(1)(A), and (d)(1), by 
        striking ``or mathematics'' each place it appears and inserting 
        ``mathematics, informatics, or computer science''.
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