Introduction to AI in elementary school

9 – 10 years

Summary

How does a computer make decisions independently? Classification processes are  a frequent application of AI. In this activity, students have the opportunity to create their  own classification model using a decision tree. In the end, the best model is selected for further classification tasks.

Steps

Requirements

• Two sets of pictures from two different categories.
• Blackboard with magnets or pinboard.

Students examine how a series of sample elements (training data) belongs to a category. To do this, they develop criteria that can be used to classify new elements. Subsequently, the resulting models are tested with new examples (test  data) and the accuracy of the prediction is determined.

Discussion

What are the reasons for wrong predictions.

What needs to be done to train an agent in order to avoid false predictions.

Why is this relevenat

Students learn about biasis and how discrimination of certain groups could be avoided. They will learn that an AI can only be as smart as the people who designed it.

As a plugged activity the exercise with cognimates and clarifai would be a suitable compliment for this unplugged exercise.