During the Sept. 14 Missouri Senate special session, House Bill 3 - a STEM education bill - was passed and is awaiting the signature of Governor Mike Parson.
Its focus is statewide career awareness in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. If signed, it will go into effect after 90 days.
A push to create programing for sixth-eighth grade students to increase awareness and potentially encourage more youth to pursue those career paths is part of the bill.
"I think the most important thing we need to remember is that school districts were already doing this," Russellville Superintendent Perry Gorrell said.
The Russellville school district's summer school had a STEM emphasis this year. Students of every grade participated in STEM-based activities on the literature they were reading. The summer school will continue the theme next year.
"We all know that we put an emphasis on English and math and we forget the STEM activities and most of them are just hands-on problem solving problem solving and creating things, that's very important when it comes to an employer," Gorrell said.
And, at California High School, efforts have been made to increase enrollment in upper-level math and science courses, teacher Jamie Johnston said.
"This bill will complement our efforts by exposing middle school students to STEM career opportunities. We hope to see an even greater interest in this area for our students," she said.
Last year, this issue took the form of Senate Bill 894. The governor vetoed this version because it was narrowly tailored to one provider. The revised version by Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, asks the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to solicit proposals and develop policy allowing high school students to replace a math class with a computer science course.
"For Latham Elementary, having more attention to STEM programs and careers would be very beneficial to many of our students," Principal Jennifer Fletcher said. "Funding will be a concern of course, but we are always open to benefiting as many students as we can."
Parson has said he wants to prepare students now for the jobs of tomorrow.
"I do STEM activities with my kindergarteners now and I think it's important to start it now, because young children learn best by putting their hands on it," Julie Wingate, teacher at Jamestown, said.
Part of the bill says by the 2019-20 school year, computer science academic performance standards will be adopted for grades K-12.