Rachel G. Salas is Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA. Her work also focuses on issues of race, culture, and language in the classroom, academic environments, and children's literature. She has over thirty years of experience working with underrepresented, culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their families. Her university teaching career began at a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in south Texas and has taken her to universities and schools in North Carolina, California, and Nevada.

• 1. Education Access and the STEM Divide.- 2. The Importance of Early STEM Exposure for Racially and Linguistically Marginalized Children.- 3. The Role of Out-of-School Time Programs in STEM Education.- 4. FIRST LEGO League: Building Democratic Learning Communities Through STEM.- 5. Disciplinary Literacy in STEM.- 6. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Strategies for Enhancing Robotics Programs.- 7. Case Study of a FIRST LEGO League Challenge OST Program.- 8. A Brief look at STEM Education Policy in the United States 1957 to 2025.- 9. The Future Landscape of STEM Education in the United States.- 10. Closing Thoughts: The Promise of a Diverse STEM Future.

Rachel G. Salas is Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA. Her work also focuses on issues of race, culture, and language in the classroom, academic environments, and children's literature. She has over thirty years of experience working with underrepresented, culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their families. Her university teaching career began at a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in south Texas and has taken her to universities and schools in North Carolina, California, and Nevada.

• 1. Education Access and the STEM Divide.- 2. The Importance of Early STEM Exposure for Racially and Linguistically Marginalized Children.- 3. The Role of Out-of-School Time Programs in STEM Education.- 4. FIRST LEGO League: Building Democratic Learning Communities Through STEM.- 5. Disciplinary Literacy in STEM.- 6. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Strategies for Enhancing Robotics Programs.- 7. Case Study of a FIRST LEGO League Challenge OST Program.- 8. A Brief look at STEM Education Policy in the United States 1957 to 2025.- 9. The Future Landscape of STEM Education in the United States.- 10. Closing Thoughts: The Promise of a Diverse STEM Future.

Rachel G. Salas is Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA. Her work also focuses on issues of race, culture, and language in the classroom, academic environments, and children's literature. She has over thirty years of experience working with underrepresented, culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their families. Her university teaching career began at a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in south Texas and has taken her to universities and schools in North Carolina, California, and Nevada.

• 1. Education Access and the STEM Divide.- 2. The Importance of Early STEM Exposure for Racially and Linguistically Marginalized Children.- 3. The Role of Out-of-School Time Programs in STEM Education.- 4. FIRST LEGO League: Building Democratic Learning Communities Through STEM.- 5. Disciplinary Literacy in STEM.- 6. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Strategies for Enhancing Robotics Programs.- 7. Case Study of a FIRST LEGO League Challenge OST Program.- 8. A Brief look at STEM Education Policy in the United States 1957 to 2025.- 9. The Future Landscape of STEM Education in the United States.- 10. Closing Thoughts: The Promise of a Diverse STEM Future.