Artificial Intelligence Academy — Bring Content-Area Standards Alive With Design Thinking

Purpose & objective

The participants will be able to

Develop an understanding of AI & its need in K-12 education
Understand the difference between AI and Machine Learning
Understand how machines problem-solve
Understand the future of AI and Machine Learning
Create a working prototype of an AI powered solution for a real world problem.
Create an artifact to develop an understanding of Machine Learning
Leave the session encouraged and empowered to develop a K-12 AI Academy in their school or district.

The global economic impact of AI is expected to reach nearly $16 trillion by 2030. Our students will enter a workforce increasingly powered by AI. From rideshare apps and social media feeds to video games anticipating next moves and online chatbots answering homework questions, both adults and kids use AI technology every day. Yet many students and teachers alike do not understand what AI is or how to talk about it, let alone teach it in the classroom. The growing use of AI will lead to the creation of new jobs and disciplines. It is imperative to prepare our students for these new jobs.

https://en.akinator.com/game Akinator is an AI powered video game that attempts to determine what fictional or real-life character the player is thinking of by asking a series of questions
https://experiments.withgoogle.com/thing-translator : lets you take a picture of something to hear how to say it in a different language. It’s just one example of what you can make using Google’s Machine Learning APIs
https://pictoblox.ai/ : PictoBlox is a graphical programming software based on the latest version of Scratch that allows text, face, and objects recognition, making of your own virtual assistant, training of models to make cool AI and Machine Learning projects
https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/ : This free tool introduces Machine Learning by providing hands-on experiences for training machine learning systems and building things with them

The presentation emulates the design thinking process in creating a working prototype of an AI-powered solution for a real world problem
Data collection (empathise)
Exploratory analysis (define)
Transformation (ideate)
Modelling (prototype)
Testing (test)

5 staff members of Redlands Unified School District (RUSD) successfully completed ISTE-GM AI Explorations in School Environment certification course and are part of the curriculum committee for the AI Academy at RUSD

Outline

The presentation is based on research that the Design Thinking process empowers students to identify problems and reframe them as actionable opportunities, and cultivates innovation .
The presentation will help educators develop an understanding of AI, AI4K12 initiative and the 5 Big Ideas in AI. Participants will share their experience/knowledge using Jamboard. (peer-to-peer interaction for 10 minutes)
Participants will then use an AI powered game Akinator (https://en.akinator.com/game) to understand that AI is a collection of technologies that excel in extracting insights and patterns from large sets of data and making predictions based on that data. The game Akinator allows players to think of a character, real or fictional. Akinator asks a series of questions until it is ready to guess the character. to understand the power of AI. (device based game-8 minutes)
Participants will learn the difference between AI and Machine Learning and how to train a machine using data
https://experiments.withgoogle.com/thing-translator. (device-based exploration-7 minutes)
Participants will explore NextGen Applications of AI & Machine Learning and how Artificial Intelligence could change the world in the near future (5 minutes)
The presentation will simulate a classroom that engages participants in leveraging Design Thinking to create a working prototype of an AI-powered solution for a real world problem using pictoblox https://pictoblox.ai/ . Student presenter will guide the audience through this process. (device-based activities-25 minutes)
Participants will then create an artifact to develop an understanding of Machine Learning. Student presenter will guide the audience through this process.
https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/ (device-based activities-20 minutes)
The presenters will share resources, content, format for the creation of Elementary, Middle and High School AI Academy that is designed to bring alive the appropriate grade level Common Core Math Standards, Next Generation Science Standards and Computer Science Standards. (10 minutes)
The presenters will answer questions and share resources to enable teachers to start an AI Academy at their schools/districts. (5 minutes)

Supporting research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOD3gCPmDQ
https://ai4k12.org/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13218-021-00734-6
https://raise.mit.edu/research.html