Teacher Cecília Tomás explores philosophical reflection on Artificial Intelligence and emotions with her elementary school students. Inspired by the book “The If Machine” by the author Peter Worley, she proposes a set of 7 philosophy sessions with children, adapted from the activities in the book. In each session, students listen to a story about the adventures of human children and their robot friend Ceebie, and reflect on philosophy concepts in a simple and fun way.
All the sessions can be worked on with students age 7 to 10.
The teacher recommends organizing one session per month:
Teacher preparation
For teacher Cecília, philosophy is a long-standing passion that goes back to her degree in Philosophy and PhD in Education. As a primary school teacher, she brings this passion into the classroom and explores deep themes in a light-hearted way.
She has prepared these lessons in such a way as to ensure that any teacher, with or without a background in philosophy, can successfully apply them. If you have never worked with philosophy, she recommends that you:
- Consult the pedagogical suggestions created by teacher Cecília, the page she coordinates with Open Educational Resources for and for Elementary School teachers (available in Portuguese. Please automatically translate the webpage to your preferred language)
- Consult the 7 detailed sessions on the webpage she coordinates Open Educational Resources for and for Primary School teachers.
- Consult the book “The If Machine” by the author Peter Worley, which offers all the necessary support for preparing and applying the sessions in the classroom.
Classroom preparation
Teacher Cecília’s lessons were prepared for a synchronous online teaching environment, but can easily be adapted for the face-to-face classroom using the same digital resources. All digital resources were created in Portuguese language.
Applied to the reality of the face-to-face classroom, the set of sessions can make exclusive use of the paper book if there are internet constraints.
For face-to-face teaching, the teacher recommends arranging the room with the chairs in a circle or U-shape, so that all the students can see each other and participate more easily in the dialogue.
A collaborative atmosphere is essential, and the rules that students must follow are simple:
- Raise your hand to speak.
- Respect the speaker.
- Only help if asked.
- Encourage students to distinguish between questioning, exemplifying or arguing, as they progress through the discussions.
These lessons promote critical thinking, without the teacher having to point out what is right or wrong. The idea is that the children build their own conclusions together.
Applied to the reality of the classroom, the set of lessons explained here can make exclusive use of the paper book if there are internet constraints.
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 144).
The teacher begins the lesson by talking to the students about what is going to happen in this session and what rules they have to follow. This session introduces the human characters and the little robot Ceebie, adding a reflection on what it’s like to be a friend and who can be a friend. Start by projecting the slide with the image and audio where you hear the story – Access the document here to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese (PT). You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 144.
Story: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read in book p.144)
The teacher shows Ceebie’s story on the screen, visible to everyone, and clicks on the audio to listen together. The class listens to the story “Ceebie: the friend.”
Reflection:
The students reflect on the question:
- What is a real friend?
The teacher creates a mind map of students answers, using MindMup.
Reflection: (Click on 2 and 3, listen in PT and reflect. Or read in book p.144)
The students are invited to continue the reflection:
-
Can an object be a friend?
-
If a teddy bear has a button that says I love you when you press it, does the bear love you?
Extra Activity:
The teacher listens to part 3 of the story with the students. She asks everyone to imagine that they are going to build a robot that will be their real friend, and also asks them to:
- Draw what their real friend’s robot would look like.
- Think of an adjective that characterizes the robot and share it on the Padlet created for reflections on “Human Beings and Artificial Intelligence.”
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 149).
To start the lesson, the teacher begins by projecting the slide with the image and audio where the story is heard – access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 149.
Story 1: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read book page 149)
The students listen to the story “Ceebie: Anthony’s test”.
Reflection 1:
The class begins to reflect on the story, using the image of the test as a visual aid so that the students better understand what “António’s test” will be like (a simulation of the Turing Test).
Story 2: (Watch video 2, click on 3 and listen in PT. Or read book page 149)
Next, the class watches video 2, which shows a simulation of 3 Turing tests that the students have to read for themselves. The teacher doesn’t read the tests out loud, as the voice could lead them to choose an answer. If the students can’t read or don’t have reading skills, the activity should be adapted to their needs. At the end of each test, listen to audio 3 in PT.
Reflection 2:
At the end of each test (a total of 3 tests are written) the students listen to audio 3 and make their own dialogical reflections in response to the questions:
- Who do you think Jaime is talking to in each test?
- A computer or a mystery person? Why?
- Can a computer think?
There is a natural tendency for the students to want to know what the teacher thinks about who writes the messages. When this happens, the teacher reminds the students that there are no correct answers, and the most important thing is the path of reflection, not the conclusion reached.
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 155)
In this session, the teacher brings the part of the story of “Ceebie: the robbery” that involves two parts to reflect on programming a robot and on concepts such as truth, lies, guilt or friendship. Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 155).
Part 1
In the first part of the session, the students listen to the part of the story that tells how a child character manages to program his robot Ceebie to do some chores around the house and also to do fun things like dancing. Until one day, someone steals the robot and they children try to find out who did it!
Story 1: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read book page 155)
The students listen to the story about how Ceebie was programmed to do fun tasks, but then he was stolen.
Reflection 1: (click on 2, listen in PT and reflect, or read book page 155)
Students engage in a reflective dialog about who they think the robot’s thief is.
Story 2: (Click on 3 and listen in PT or read book page 155)
The students continue listening to the story on audio 3.
Reflection 2: (click on 4, listen in PT and reflect, or read book page 155)
The teacher presents the question that leads the students into a dialogical reflection.
- Does Jaime know who stole the robot?
- Did he prove it?
During the students’ reflection, the teacher uses Jamboard or Google Docs to record the students’ ideas about the concepts of truth and lies.
Part 2
Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 155).
Story 1: (Click on 5 and listen in PT, or read book page 155)
The students listen to the continuation of the story which tells how they try to find out who stole the robot Ceebie and who programmed the robot to carry out a robbery.
Reflection 1:
Students reflect on whose responsibility a robot’s actions are, and the power to program various actions including a friendship.
Story 2: (Click on 6 and listen in PT, or read book page 155)
The story continues.
Reflection 2:
Students reflect on responsibility (and associated concepts such as truth, lies or guilt).
Story 3: (Click on 7 and listen in PT, or read book page 155)
Students listen to the audio where the teacher recalls details of the story.
Reflection 3:
The students reflect on what they have heard and the final question:
- Who could be responsible for the theft?
Story 4: (Click on 8 and listen in PT, or read book page 155)
The story continues to present some questions posed by the child in the story about Ceebie’s friendship and the doubts he has about this feeling. Because the robot was programmed to be his friend, the child questions whether Ceebie is really his friend.
Reflection 4:
The students reflect on the following questions:
- Is Ceebie a real friend?
- Can Ceebie be a real friend?
Extra activity:
The teacher suggests that the students draw either who is responsible for the theft or what a real friend is to them. They can write a sentence about their drawing and share it on the PADLET created for reflections on “Human beings and artificial intelligence”.
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 162)
The story of this session involves reflecting on what happens when a robot resembles a human, and when it imitates the behaviour of a human. Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 162.
Story: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read book page 162)
Ceebie’s story continues to focus on the evolution of Ceebie’s robot appearance and behaviours that simulate a human.
Reflection: (Click on 2 or read book page 162, and listen in PT)
Students reflect on questions such as:
- If a robot acts like a human, is it a human?
- What does it take to be human?
Optional:
The reflection can be continued with other questions such as the one below (and in audio 3):
- What does it take to be a human being?
- Can a computer think and have feelings?
- What kind of robot will it be? Or is it genderless?
Extra activity:
The teacher asks the students to write a short message or reflection about “The android” in the PADLET created for reflections on “Human beings and Artificial Intelligence.”
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 166)
This session explores the story “Ceebie: the lie”. In this lesson, in two different moments, the students are progressively accompanied to reflect on the decision to tell a lie, on the context in which the lie is told and on its consequences. Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 166.
Part 1
Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 155).
Story 1: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read book page 166)
The story tells of friends getting together to create a club and setting an important rule. They can’t tell lies under any circumstances.
Reflection 1:
The students reflect and discuss the question:
- Is this a good rule?
Story 2: (Click on 2 or read book page 166, and listen)
Students listen to the continuation of the story in which the child characters are faced with a situation in which they have to decide whether or not to lie in a given situation.
Reflection 2:
In a synchronous session, we reflect on the story, discussing working question 2 related to the decision to tell the truth in a context where the child characters know that the consequences will not be positive.
- What do you think the characters in the story should do in the following situation?
If the children tell the truth about the whereabouts of a friend, they are afraid that another child bully will beat up their friend. But if they lie, they will be breaking the rule of not telling lies under any circumstances.
Optional: (Click on 3 and 4, listen and reflect, or read book page 166)
Students are invited to reflect on the questions asked.
- Are there any situations in which you might not follow the rules?
- Are there any rules that shouldn’t be broken, whatever the consequences?
- And if the characters remain silent, are they lying?
Part 2
The teacher suggests a second part for this lesson. Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 166).
Story: (Click on 5 and listen)
The story continues. The characters in the story all behave differently at this stage of the story. The robot tells the truth; a child character tells a lie but to protect a friend from a bad consequence; another child character tells a lie but as a prank. The outline presented here serves to give an idea of what is being told here. It will be important to go through the path shown in the diagram again with the students to get a better idea of what happened.
Reflection: (Click on 6 to listen in PT and reflect, or read book page 166)
Students are invited to reflect together on working question 4:
- What is a lie?
- Is it possible to do a good thing or a bad thing without meaning to?
Reflection: (Click on 7 to listen in PT and reflect, or read book page 166)
Students are invited to reflect together on working question 5:
- Is there a difference between a prank or a joke and a lie? If so, what is it?
- Does a lie have to be deliberate?
- If you say something you think is true and it turns out not to be, does that mean you lied?
Extra activity:
You can write a short message or reflection on “the lie” in the PADLET created for reflections on “Human beings and Artificial Intelligence.”
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 172)
In this part of the story “Ceebie’s rebuild”, the child character, who considers the robot to be his real friend, is faced with a situation in which the robot is accidentally destroyed, but will be replaced by another robot that will have the same body as the previous one and will also have his memories. The reflection takes place around questions that lead to reflection on the similarities and differences between a robot and a human.
Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 172.
Story: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read book page 172)
The story goes that the robot Ceebie’s memories were stored on an external disk. After an accident caused Cebbie to be destroyed, they decided to rebuild the robot and reintegrate the stored memories.
Reflection:
The students reflect on the question:
- Is the new Ceebie the same as the old one?
Reflection: (Click on 2 and 3, listen in PT and reflect, or read book page 172)
The students are invited to reflect on other options on the subject of rebuilding the robot:
- Imagine we built a robot with the same parts, is it the same?
- Imagine we built a robot with different parts but following the same plan. Is the new robot the same as the old one?
Extra activity:
Integrating the mind map in the collective PADLET created for reflections on “Human beings and Artificial Intelligence.”
Adapted from “The If Machine” by Peter Worley (page 176)
The focus of the story “Ceebie: finally human?” and reflection in this lesson is around the definition of what it means to be human. Access the document to listen to the stories only available in Portuguese. You can read the stories to your students in the book “The If Machine” by Peter Worley, page 176.
Story: (Click on 1 and listen in PT, or read book page 176)
In this part of the story, the robot wanted to be considered human, so it is reprogrammed to believe that it is human, and given a human name to make it more believable.
Reflection: (click on 2 and listen in PT and reflect, or read book page 176)
The students reflect on the story and the working question:
- Now that the robot in the story looks human, believes he is human and everyone treats him as human, is he finally human?
Extra activity:
Imagine, after all these stories, what Ceebie… or Carlos Barros (the human name given to the robot) will be like in the future? You can draw a picture (click on the pencil to access shapes for your drawing sheet) and write a short reflection, message or simply a sentence on this topic and leave your testimony in the PADLET created for reflections on “Human beings and artificial intelligence.”
