Project

Primary School AI Education

Randi Williams

Groups

This Primary School AI curriculum introduces elementary school children to robotics and artificial intelligence. Throughout the curriculum, students have opportunities to reflect on their own thinking and their expectation of technology that “thinks.” We start by helping students solidify their thinking about what robots and AI are by identifying examples in their environment. Then, we develop children’s intuition about how technology works through powerful metaphors in the form of hands-on activities. Finally, we work with students to develop their understanding of how design choices impact others so that children can design their own intelligent robot solutions to various problems.

Examples of workshop activities:

  • Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
  • Simple Machines
  • Electricity and Electronics
  • Programming
  • Machine Learning
  • Chatbots
  • Robot Construction
  • Project Design

Acknowledgments

This work would not be possible without the contributions of the UROPs Alyda Huerta (S.B. '19) and Kyra Post (S.B. '19). We are also grateful to the students and coordinators of Parque la Libertad in San Jose, Costa Rica and Somerville Public School Afterschool Program for working with us to test these activities.