Introducing AI Lesson Plan

Artificial intelligence
Authenticating Information
Digital Citizenship
Internet & Mobile

Level: Grades 1 to 3

Duration: 1 hour, plus time for the assessment activity

Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Overview

In this lesson, students learn that AI tools are computer programs that follow patterns instead of thinking like humans. They explore how this can lead AIs to make mistakes and importance of having humans supervise and correct them. Students practice creating “robot rules” and then design a "Trashbot" that will recognize and pick up trash in the classroom.

Learning Outcomes 

Essential knowledge: In this lesson, students will learn:

  • Reading Media: Students learn how AI tools are constructed by people and companies, discovering that these tools are computer programs rather than independent thinkers. They learn that the "intelligence" of an AI comes from its ability to look for patterns in the information its makers provide.
  • Ethics and Empathy: Students learn about the responsibility of humans to monitor and correct AI when it makes mistakes. They explore how an AI might incorrectly categorize objects and why it is important for people to provide better examples or direct corrections to ensure the technology functions fairly and accurately.
  • Key vocabulary: AI, trained, patterns, detect, t-chart.

Key concepts and big questions: After this lesson, students will understand:

  • Media are constructions: Students come to understand that AI is a product of human choice; creators at toy or app companies choose the AI's name, its words, and the training data that shapes its behavior.
  • Media have commercial implications: By comparing AI toys to cereal mascots, students understand that these tools are often created by companies to build brand recognition and encourage consumer behavior.
  • Digital media experiences are shaped by the tools we use: Students understand that an AI's "decisions" are constrained by the rules and patterns it identifies within the software. They see how an AI's behavior changes depending on whether its makers provided narrow or broad examples during its training.
  • Frequent misconceptions to correct: AIs think, feel and make decisions the way people do.

Performance tasks: In this lesson, students will demonstrate the ability to:

Use:

  • Interact with and observe the behavior of talking AI toys or applications.

Understand:

  • Identify the secret "rules" or patterns a "robot" might be following based on a set of examples.
  • Analyze and explain why an AI might give a wrong answer, such as misidentifying a fox as a cat because it was only trained on orange cats.

Engage:

  • Design a prototype for an AI robot (the "Trashbot"), including its physical parts for moving and collecting.
  • Create a training plan for an AI using a T-chart to categorize "trash" and "not trash" to help the robot find patterns.
  • Develop a method for users to intervene and correct the robot if it makes a mistake, such as trying to throw away a personal item.

Student-facing outcomes: We will learn that people build artificial intelligence and teach it how to act by showing it many different examples. We will think about why these tools sometimes make mistakes and why they need humans to help them learn the right way. We will practice being teachers for a robot by creating our own rules and patterns for it to follow.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit