Missouri's Senate on Thursday sent the House a bill to increase students' interest in the STEM fields.
"Many jobs are going unfilled right now in the state of Missouri for lack of applicants with these skills," Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, told colleagues before they voted 31-0 for the bill.
"It requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to develop a high school graduation policy that allows a district-approved computer science course to count for any math, science or practical art credit required for high school graduation.
"This bill also establishes the statewide STEM Career Awareness Program."
The six-page proposed law says that program is "to increase STEM career awareness among students in grades six through eight;" STEM refers to science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
The law also requires DESE to promote the program during the 2019-20 school year, to "introduce students to a wide variety of STEM careers and technology through an online-based STEM curriculum."
And, before Jan. 1, DESE is to solicit proposals and select a provider for the online program.
Among other things, that online program is required, by the law, to include "a curriculum explicitly focused on more than (80) different careers and technologies," and be "organized around the concept of solving societal or human-centered problems, instead of focusing solely on scientific concepts. The curriculum shall have at least (10) different problems that emphasize different career clusters."
The online program also is required to be "designed for flexible implementation in a wide variety of classrooms, including science, math, English, and social studies, through lessons that emphasize the application of STEM careers in these contexts," and to demonstrate "how math and language skills appropriate to middle schools are used by STEM careers, making classroom instruction relevant to students interested in STEM careers."
The bill notes those requirements are subject to appropriation by lawmakers in future budgets.
The bill also creates a special STEM Career Awareness Program Fund in the state treasurer's office, to be used for the administration of the law's provisions.