Second Graders Are Making Robots Dance at Island Park

Mercer Island, WA, April 24, 2025 - Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” filled the library. A class of second graders sitting “on their pockets,” a phrase instructional technology coach Kara Millsap used, shrieked with excitement as blue and orange Dash robots swiveled, and nodded, and spun around. At least one Dash trumpeted like an elephant. The robots were dancing, following the steps laid out for them by the second graders who had programmed each move and made up trademark dances like “Dancing Dash” and “Disco Dash.” 

Millsap had just taught them all about functions, or routines, in coding. Each week for five weeks every school year, the second graders at Island Park Elementary School learn basic coding techniques to manipulate a small robot, the Dash. The lessons are part of Washington State’s Educational Technology Standards. Millsap instructs kindergarten through second grade, building up the curriculum each year. Her counterpart, Julie Hovind, works with third through fifth grade on coding. 

Second grade is when she can really see the students getting the coding curriculum—and enjoying it. 

“My hope is they’ll want to sign up for some of those [coding] elective classes in middle school and not think that coding is this scary thing that is unattainable for the basic person,” Millsap said.

Second grade teacher Samantha Moseley thinks the Dash lessons are helpful in making coding tangible, especially for students who may not be natural spatial thinkers. 

“Because they have a robot and they're able to program it and then let it go, those of us who are spatially challenged have the opportunity to be like, ‘Oh, I need to go further’ or ‘I need to go shorter, or turn this way.’ It really helps in visualizing the coding part.”

Each class starts with a lesson. The second graders learn concepts ranging from loops to conditionals in the five-week program.

“They learn just the commands of making things go,” Millsap said. 

They do that on an app on the iPad Millsap provides each group of three students after the lesson. Then, the students figure out how to program the robot themselves. Usually, Millsap has three tasks the group must make the robot do. Only one student controls the iPad at a time. If a student in the group isn’t the one on the iPad, they can’t touch the iPad or tell their classmate what to do. 

“There's really a beautiful system set up so that every child participates, every voice is heard, and there's equal participation,” second grade teacher Lori deStwolinski said. “It's not one person taking over. So they are certainly learning coding. They're also learning incredibly valuable skills of sharing the workload.”

The students love the lessons, according to deStwolinski. 

“Kids like physically doing things and testing it out,” deStwolinski said. “They're getting access to a new thing to touch and feel and play and explore with, and then it just taps into their natural curiosity and playfulness and problem solving.”

The kids say they love it, too. Why?

“I like it because I think it’s fun programming and figuring out what the robot can do,” Hadyen said.

For Cash, playing with the robots helps him realize a life-long dream.

“I like it because at my old school, in pre-k, there would be a pom-pom party if the jars were filled up but I always asked if people would bring robots to school and we could play with them, but no one ever chose me and now I get to do it in class,” Cash said. He did not clarify what a pom-pom party was nor what the jars were that he was talking about. 

“I really like trying to program stuff,” Ryan said. “I like doing this cause I have one at my house.”

Lucas, one of Ryan’s groupmates, chimed in, “I like doing it, too, but I don’t have one at my house.”

The students also think learning to code could benefit them in the future, depending on their chosen career paths. 

“If you want to become a computer programmer, you’ll have a head start [because of this class],” Monica said. 

When asked if she wanted to become a computer programmer, Monica said, “Maybe. Or, I can ski.” Then, she started talking about the complex slopes she skis. 

Her groupmate Evan piped up that he skied, too. “I can ski double black diamonds,” Evan said. 

Another student, Elin, said the class was good for future computer scientists. She said it could help kids prepare for other hobbies, too, like robotics competitions. 

“My brother is in a robot competition,” she said. “He left on Wednesday and he went somewhere because he has a competition for robotics.”

Liam, a member of Elin’s group, already builds robots, he said. He uses them to fight his brother’s remote-controlled car. 

“My brother’s two years older,” Liam said. “But he’s only one inch taller.”

Scarlett also thinks the class is helpful for students with computational aspirations. 

“If you want to be programmers some day you have to start at the basics, so it would be good if any of us want to grow up to be programmers,” Scarlett said. She added that her dad designs apps at Amazon. 

But, Scarlett doesn’t want to be a programmer. 

“I already had thoughts on being a teacher right at this school,” she said. 

Even having a coding program for students so young is special, though. 

“I have a sense of gratitude that our small district does have two elementary tech coaches, and gratitude that they are the people that they are, that they want to get in and work with kids, and gratitude that they are first classroom teachers, gratitude that they kind of do it all,” deStwolinski said. 

In the class, the robots danced. One group complained that another group copied them, but was reminded that there are only so many moves to choose from on their iPads. At the end of a very long routine, one Dash robot squeaked, “Ta-Da!” exactly as programmed. The students cheered.

Nathalie Graham is a freelance writer based in Seattle. She regularly works with the Seattle Times, GeekWire, and The Stranger. She is highlighting MISD students, schools, and staff during the 2024-2025 school year. You can read more of her writing here. Read Nathalie’s Lakeridge, Crest, West Mercer, IMS, and MISD stories.