Playful Explorations in Artificial Intelligence for K-12 STEAM

Purpose & objective

Teachers across subjects and grades are being called upon to build and support digitally-driven competencies among students; however, resources and training to support this learning, specifically for understanding new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), is often inadequate. AI in particular represents a critical growth area for professional development programs for K-12 teachers. While AI is increasingly being recognized as having critical implications on the way we live, learn, do business and interact with each other and the world around us, this is not reflected in classroom curricula. Teachers need support in building foundational AI literacy, identifying appropriate entry points for students to explore AI principles, integrating both unplugged and technology-based approaches for instruction on AI, and making connections beyond computer science into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), English language arts and the arts, with opportunities to explore how AI education supports real-world problem solving.

This session will presents key components of Actua’s AI for Education project, which is a professional development initiative to prepare educators to teach youth to be responsible digital citizens, and to ultimately become the creative and responsible producers of new technologies. Elements include Actua’s AI for Education Framework, which presents six themes for exploration of AI from various angles, coupled with relevant investigations, curriculum connections, and diverse activities for classroom implementation. This Framework is a key component of the AI Teacher Handbook, which is widely available at actua.ca/ai.

Through this session, attendees will understand practical ways in which AI concepts can be integrated across subjects and grades, know a multitude of online and offline ways in which to explore AI with students, and be equipped with skills and knowledge to continue their professional explorations into AI education.

Supporting research

Organizations such as The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI, aaai.org) and The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA, csteachers.org) have begun to develop national guidelines for AI education; in Canada, no similar guidelines exist to support teachers in understanding a scope and sequence for AI instruction beginning in elementary school and continuing through to graduation. As such, this work builds on the research of these organizations as well as Google's Applied Digital Skills Team, Google Brain, AI4K12.org, Microsoft, AI4ALL, and K-12 educators working in AI in order to fill a critical need for AI embedded across subjects and grades.

The teacher training presented here is based on the five big ideas in AI developed by AI for K-12 (AI4K12.org); their five big ideas (perception, representation and reasoning, learning, natural interaction, and societal impacts) are reflected in the themes for this project, with the addition of a data module to introduce data science and its connections to AI.

A curated digital library of AI resources (including background information, online interactives, and other materials to support AI in K-12 education) has been created as a foundational piece for this project, which can be viewed in English at actua.ca/ai and in French at actua.ca/ia.