Donald Elementary School To Be Lewisville ISD's First STEM Academy

FLOWER MOUND (CBSDFW.COM) - Donald Elementary School in Flower Mound is proving that people of all ages can be engineers. Students as young as 6 years old are creating and experimenting with robots, and that has led to a big honor for the Lewisville Independent School District campus.

First grade students at the school recently had a chance to code and program special 'Bee Bots' as part of a project. They are robotic bees that motor around on the floor. "You get to have these robots and get to control them," explained student Luke Elizkarde.

"It was really challenging," added student Lola Winkler. "We made a lot of mistakes at our table, [but] we just did it again."

The project was part of Donald Elementary School's weekly Designing Dolphins program. Kids from kindergarden through fifth grade come together to solve problems and design creations in the STEM arena -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

All of the hard work and collaboration that these students have been doing has now led to Donald Elementary School being named as the first STEM Academy in the Lewisville ISD. The honor begins next school year. "It's cool to see," added fourth grade student Grant Plasek.

"I've been here since kindergarten, and now they're taking a step up to be a STEM school, to design robots, build code. We already did that, but now we'll do it on an everyday basis," Plasek continued. The new designation will give young problem solvers more opportunities to become the engineers of tomorrow.

"It's just an opportunity to engage these kids at a very young age," explained Donald Elementary School principal Michelle Wooten about the focus on STEM learning, "because, as you can see, they're more than capable. And, as adults, I think we sometimes underestimate that."