The multipurpose room at Mitchell Community School in Canyon Country was packed full of students proudly displaying their skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics on Tuesday.

“We have all of our children provide examples of the hard work that is taking place in the classrooms that really focuses on the science and technology, engineering and mathematic standards in our classes,” said Dr. Catherine Kawaguchi, superintendent of the Sulphur Springs Union School District.

The students were so proud of their work, in fact, they started displaying their “school projects” — eagerly experimenting and having fun with robotics — about an hour before the event began.

The expo featured numerous examples of how complex practices like coding and robotics can be accessible for grade school students.

“Bee-Bots” were a very popular tool for getting kindergarten through 2nd-grade students involved in coding. Bee-Bots are small robots in the design of a bee with buttons on their back that let the students input a series of commands and then watch as the “bots” execute the commands.

One particular group of kindergarten through 2nd-grade students at Mitchell took their passion for science to another level, forming their own independent after-school science club called “The Chemical Reactors.”

“They come up with science projects, and they build things after school,” said Mitchell Community School Principal Julie McBride. “They are so excited about science, this is what they work on in their own time.”

Not only showcasing elementary school students, the expo also featured representatives from the district’s junior high schools, La Mesa and Sierra Vista.

Proudly displaying their trophies, the “Lobotics” from La Mesa Junior High explained how they are able to use Lego’s to learn more about robotics and coding while competing in various competitions.

“The way the tournament works, there is the programming of the robot to do certain tasks and there is core values. They have to demonstrate things like teamwork and gracious professionalism,” said Michelle Krantz, principal at La Mesa.

“We just went to Legoland (where) we took home third place in the Robot Games and first place in Core Values,” said Rowen Hicks, a 7th grader and member of the La Mesa Lobotics Team.