Video by Halie Cook | SCVTV

As hundreds flocked Tuesday night to the Mitchell Community Elementary School, the electronic whir of tiny electronics made to move by even tinier hands seemed as ubiquitous as the smiles and excitement about education.

Kindergartner Tyler Do dashed around a 3-by-3 mat on the ground covered with numbers that made it look like a multiplication table.

Dalia Cruz shows her app to SCV Youth Project Director Kim Goldman

As school board member Ken Chase looked on, district Superintendent Catherine Kawaguchi playfully quizzed Tyler on how he would get the “Bee-Bot” to find the number on the mat that could be added to “3,” to make 10.

“That’s easy, I know that one,” Tyler exclaimed, as he raced around the mat and punched in a couple of direction-arrow buttons on the top of the Bee-Bot, and the plastic, black-and-yellow, snow globe-sized bee landed on “7.”

The Sulphur Springs Union School District showed off its brightest engineers — some as young as 5 — who are learning to program through online instructional software, such “Scratch” and “Scratch Junior,”  as well as using “Bee Bots,” to teach the basics, at the STEAM Expo.

Kindergartner Tyler Do dashed around a 3-by-3 mat on the ground covered with numbers that made it look like a multiplication table at Mitchell Community Elementary School for the STEAM Expo.

“I love the program,” said Tyler’s mom, Piper Do. “He talks about the Bee-bots all the time. He can’t wait to do the programming.”

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, and as Valley View sixth-grader Dalia Cruz used the iPad to explain how the app she created works to SCV Youth Project Director Kim Goldman, it was easy to see how the program intermingles all five disciplines.

But this wasn’t just a show for the parents and guests.

Fifth-graders Nate Groves and Dante Arelano were beaming about the programs they made with their respective teams at Fair Oaks.

“You learn how to program,” said Nate Groves, 11, as his game “Pixel Arcade with Squarey the Square,” was demo’ed during the fair, “and what you can do with the site.”

Arelano used “Scratch” — software pioneered at MIT and managed by Stanford, created to teach children the basics of programming online — to create “Sky Arena Fighting Realm” with classmates Rowen Hicks and Joshua Salcedo. “Scratch Junior” is a version for slightly younger students.

Their inspired efforts led them to create a model similar to the one of their favorite Nintendo games, Dante said.

“We were thinking of an Army game, and then we thought that might be too hard,” he said, “so we thought maybe a game like ‘Smash Bros.’”

It can be a one- or two-player game, he added.

“Everyone (in their group) had a little part,” said Dante’s mom, Norma Khouri, “and that’s the great thing about them working in a group.”

And, of course, they seem to have a good time doing it.

District Superintendent Catherine Kawaguchi interacts with first-graders at the science fair.

“You learn how to program,” said Nate Groves, 11, as his game “Pixel Arcade with Squarey the Square,” was demo’ed during the fair, “and what you can do with the site.”

The school district initially planned for a smaller rollout of the program due to resources, but the school board saw the demand and stepped up the offering to five classes with 25 students each, said Josh Randall, director of professional development/instructional technological and categorical programs. All of the courses have remained at capacity all year, he added.

The value isn’t just in the familiarity students are getting with technology and programming, Randall said, it’s about the creative process, too.

“It’s amazing to see what they’ve come up with,” Randall said, looking around the room, “but also getting them to think it’s their responsibility to come up with a solution.”