Decoding The Future: AI Lab At Vienna Elementary School Brings Innovative Tech To Students

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms the way many of us work and learn, School-Based Technology Specialist Dave Reynolds Jr. wants to make sure the students he teaches at Vienna Elementary School are ahead of the curve. Reynolds’ special project, two years in the making, is now operational: one corner of the library has been transformed into an innovative space where students learn how the emerging technology works.

The Vienna.i.Lab is a first-of-its-kind learning environment, which Reynolds originally envisioned as “the next level” of STEAM learning. All grades, kindergarten through sixth, receive instruction in the lab. Through hands-on lessons, students learn the fundamental concepts behind how AI and generative AI technologies work, as well as how to use the emerging technology ethically and responsibly.

In order to maintain student safety, many AI tools are blocked on Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) student laptops. However, Reynolds pointed out,  students interact with the technology outside of school.

“My biggest fear is the students will walk out of elementary school, and they’ll start using some of these generative AI tools, and they’ll just be using them like a Google search and not understanding what is happening or how they’re getting what they’re getting,” he explained.

Preparing Students for Real Life
In a recent lesson, sixth grade students programmed Ozobots, tiny robots no larger than a golf ball. Working in pairs, they linked blocks of code that instructed the tiny robots to move across their desks, make noise, and flash multicolored LED lights.

“Octave five,” muttered student Oscar Mineiro, as he used the most advanced programming tools on his computer to change the pitch of the sound his robot would make. Next, Oscar and his partner focused on movement. “We’re gonna need a higher speed,” he said. “First, it’s gonna go slow, and then fast, and then medium. Then we can add turns so we can rotate it.”

Oscar said programming a robot felt daunting at first. Now four months into the school year, he can add and modify code quickly: a skill that is preparing him for real life. “I think this is a great learning opportunity for the entire school,” he said. “It gives a chance for kids to learn more about programming and how the world actually works, because you’re going to need to do a lot of programming when you grow up.”

Creative and Critical Thinking
Next, Reynolds introduced a new challenge: programming the robots to complete a short maze made from wooden blocks. Student partners Eleanor Charnoff and Caroline Thayer approached the problem with a trial-and-error method.

“Wait, let’s just test it. We’re just gonna try this and see how it goes,” said Caroline. Eleanor set the robot’s travel distance to 20mm. It barely moved. “I want to see how high it can go,” said Eleanor, “do 40mm.”

After several minutes of tinkering with their code, the robot made it through the full maze. It’s an example of how the Vienna.i.Lab develops students’ creative and critical thinking skills, a pillar of FCPS’s Portrait of a Graduate. “If you walk out of here, but you’ve been practicing being resilient through challenges that were fun, you’re going to come out better on the other side,” Reynolds explained. “You’re going to have tools that you didn’t even realize you were developing.”

Expanding a Virtual Foundation
An activity like programming robots does not involve students directly interacting with a generative AI chatbot. Still, much like the “building blocks” of code the robots were programmed with, these lessons give students the mental building blocks to understand how AI works. “[AI is] just feeding out tokens and math and patterns,” Reynolds explained. “It doesn’t know that cats like to sleep at night, it just knows that, after ‘cat’ and ‘sleep’ usually comes ‘night.’ It just knows the most likely word based upon all of its data and pattern recognition.”

It’s a concept students are understanding more, thanks to Reynolds’ lessons. Caroline explained that “you have to be really detailed” to get the best results when writing AI prompts; also, the site you use is important. “You have to go to a trustworthy AI site so you know that the information you’re getting is correct,” explained Caroline.

The Vienna.i.Lab, which started with donations from the Vienna Elementary PTA, also directly supports Goal 5 of the FCPS 2023-30 Strategic Plan: Leading for Tomorrow’s Innovation. The lab is giving students a head start in pursuing future tech careers, and it’s getting them ready for the next phases of their education. Eleanor is already considering taking a tech elective class as she looks forward to her first year at Thoreau Middle School.

Reynolds’ next goal is to expand the Vienna.i.Lab out of the library and into its own classroom space. It’s an effort that is already paying off, and Reynolds hopes it will continue to do so. “The better prepared we can get students for what we don’t know is ahead by giving them some solid base level concepts, the better off they’re going to be,” he said.