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Vienna Elementary School is introducing students as young as kindergartners to the foundations of artificial intelligence, using hands-on robots, coding exercises and drones to explain how emerging technology works.

The effort is led by David Lee Reynolds Jr., who spent two decades teaching music before moving into technology education. When he made the transition, the Northern Virginia school did not have a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math lab.

As large language models began entering the mainstream, Reynolds decided students needed something more advanced first. He created the Vienna.i.Lab to help children understand technology before relying on it.

“This is the new stuff, and it’s here to stay,” Reynolds said. “But if you don’t know what it is, then it’s not helpful to you. So let’s fix that.”

The school’s parent-teacher association helped raise money for specialized tools that would move lessons beyond traditional laptops.

During a Friday afternoon class, first graders worked with KaiBots. Students scanned cards containing instructions for the robots, then watched as the devices either completed the requested movements or detected errors.

Reynolds said the exercise introduces concepts that can eventually lead students toward machine learning, large language models and an understanding of tools such as ChatGPT.

Students also get plenty of entertainment from the technology. First grader Nora Vazeen described the activity as different from most of her classes and called it “silly.” Her classmate Callum agreed, saying, “The robot does silly stuff.”

Once a week, students from kindergarten through sixth grade take part in hands-on activities during their technology special. Younger children use KaiBots, while older students learn to program drones.

The lessons are designed to strengthen coding, collaboration and problem-solving skills. Reynolds said understanding how a tool functions can help children use it creatively and avoid treating AI like a simple search engine that always provides correct information.

“For kids, if they understand how the tool works, they can do amazing things with the tool,” he said.

For now, the Vienna.i.Lab largely consists of a technology cart that Reynolds manages in a corner of the school library. He hopes it can eventually become a dedicated, environmentally conscious space built underground with geothermal heating and cooling.

“Let’s build a space, when you walk into it, you’re inspired to go and create,” Reynolds said.