Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 18, 2018
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.
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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.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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