This lesson is part of the curricular unit “Exploring AI in Primary School”, which consists of 7 moments: Moment 1, Moment 2, Moment 3, Moment 4, Moment 5, Moment 6, and Moment 7.
Overview of the curricular unit
Moment 2: Lessons 4 and 5
Teacher Cláudia Meirinhos leads students to take their first steps towards a clear understanding of what AI is. Students will be challenged to think and learn as if they were a computer. To do this, they will create a simple initial training data set by writing a list of classifications of the characteristics that distinguish dogs from cats.
In this lesson, students will watch educational videos and participate in group discussions. The main goal is for students to gain a clear notion of what AI is and discover some of its fascinating applications – all videos have Portuguese subtitles that can be activated.
Video Watching
Students will have the opportunity to watch a selection of videos specially chosen for this lesson. The videos cover topics such as artificial intelligence, Machine Learning (ML), AI in everyday life, and the vast potentials of AI.
Group Discussions
After watching each video, the class participates in a group discussion facilitated by the teacher. This will be a moment to share their impressions, ask questions, and deepen their understanding of key concepts: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning (ML), and the increasingly significant presence of AI in our daily lives.
This lesson challenges students to experience how to create a data set. A simple activity on paper with two images, one of a dog and the other of a cat. Challenged to think as if they were a computer, students will have to list the characteristics that distinguish the two animals by filling out the worksheet.
The worksheet helps to address the concepts of Machine Learning and training data set. The goal is for students to:
- Reflect on the importance of data sets for training AI
- Understand that ML makes predictions through the recognition of patterns and classifications
- Acquire the notion of “data set” and “Big Data”.
Worksheets are in the ebook and can be consulted here (in Portuguese only. Please use an image translator to help you, or read the translated text below the images of the worksheet).
The following text translates from the original worksheet:
Attachment C – Work sheet: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WORKS
Artificial intelligence
Name Date: _________
Objective: How Artificial Intelligence works
Have you ever thought about how Artificial Intelligence solves problems? How do you make decisions? When searching for images about dogs and cats, the computer is never wrong.
Artificial intelligence is trained to distinguish dogs from cats through classifying their differences. Can you do it too?
What are the characteristics that distinguish this dog from the cat?
(insert two pictures, one of a dog and one of a cat. Choose different looking animals)
The following text translates from the original worksheet:
And now what differences do you find?
(insert two pictures, one of a dog and one of a cat. Choose similar looking animals)
Was this second task easier or more difficult? Why?
_________
How many images does a computer have to analyze before it can distinguish dogs and cats?
_________
Learn:
To be able to distinguish dogs from cats, Artificial Intelligence analyzes a huge amount of data that is called “data set”. Artificial Intelligence is trained to organize and classify this data and then can decide whether the image is a dog or a cat.
