AI Made by Youth: A Conversational AI Curriculum for Middle School Summer Camps
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i13.26882Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence Education, Summer Camp, AI Curriculum, Conversational AI, Middle School, Conversational Agents, Informal LearningAbstract
As artificial intelligence permeates our lives through various tools and services, there is an increasing need to consider how to teach young learners about AI in a relevant and engaging way. One way to do so is to leverage familiar and pervasive technologies such as conversational AIs. By learning about conversational AIs, learners are introduced to AI concepts such as computers’ perception of natural language, the need for training datasets, and the design of AI-human interactions. In this experience report, we describe a summer camp curriculum designed for middle school learners composed of general AI lessons, unplugged activities, conversational AI lessons, and project activities in which the campers develop their own conversational agents. The results show that this summer camp experience fostered significant increases in learners’ ability beliefs, willingness to share their learning experience, and intent to persist in AI learning. We conclude with a discussion of how conversational AI can be used as an entry point to K-12 AI education.Downloads
Published
2023-09-06
How to Cite
Song, Y., Ashiya Katuka, G., Barrett, J., Tian, X., Kumar, A., McKlin, T., Celepkolu, M., Boyer, K. E., & Israel, M. (2023). AI Made by Youth: A Conversational AI Curriculum for Middle School Summer Camps. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 37(13), 15851-15859. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i13.26882
Issue
Section
EAAI Symposium: Main Track