Dr. Dustin Nadler knows why some students give up on science before finishing elementary school, and it has nothing to do with intelligence. It’s nearly the same reason he stopped playing soccer as a kid.
“I tried to play soccer; the first year I broke my arm, the second year I broke my foot, and I never played soccer again,” says Nadler, associate professor of psychology and associate director of the Center for Access and Achievement at Maryville University. “If I try soccer and get hurt and I don’t get positive feedback, eventually I de-identify with soccer. It’s the same kind of concept [with STEM].”
To build students’ self-efficacy, Nadler and his fellow researchers deployed custom Smart Motors—a user-friendly system that makes learning about AI and engineering more accessible—to some of St. Louis’s most under-resourced classrooms. The goal: to shift students from being passive users of technology to active inventors.
The motors don’t require Wi-Fi and are designed for “novel engineering,” where students use low-cost or recycled materials such as hot glue, cardboard, and popsicle sticks to build machines that react to the environment.
The initiative, which is funded by a three-year National Science Foundation grant, prioritizes districts that are traditionally underrepresented in high-tech fields, Nadler explains.
Meanwhile, the debate over whether to introduce AI at the elementary level continues. Last month, Norway, one of the first countries to ban smartphones in schools, imposed a near-total ban on AI in elementary schools, PC Mag reports.
In May, the American Federation of Teachers President called for policies prohibiting student-facing AI in elementary schools and banning “social companion” chatbots until age 16.
Nadler argues that timing is critical. District leaders interested in introducing AI in younger grades should keep it simple.
“Teaching a student how to code something in AI in kindergarten makes very little sense because by the time they get to college, it’ll change a hundred or more times,” he says.
Instead, his research is helping students understand the “math and the logic and the probability” behind tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, enabling them to be “critical consumers” of the tech-dominated world around them.
Results from the project’s third year show that this approach is working. Elementary students have improved in self-efficacy and their ability to engage in the “design thinking process,” a human-centered approach to innovation and problem-solving.
By building their own AI solutions to problems, students gain the confidence needed for their future careers, Nadler concludes.
“Interest within a field is only going to potentially grow when they have opportunities to do so younger and younger.”
From DA+: 50 district-level leaders co-produced the K-12 Leadership Field Guide for the AI Era, a 12-page in-depth guide to help districts establish strong foundations in AI. View the guide for free here alongside a 14-day trial of DA+.
