Results of the pilot test in the Netherlands

The University of Groningen has finished the pilot phase of their lesson plan “Can AI harm us?” and “Is AI always ethical?”. The goal of the pilot phase was to answer the following three questions:

• What are the experiences of teachers in implementing the lesson plans in their classrooms?
• What are the experiences of students in following the AI lesson?
• What can be changed to optimize the AI lesson?

In total three teachers from two different schools participated in the pilot phase. The teachers taught grades 3, 4, 6, and 8. In total 72 students were taught during the implementation phase. Of the 72 students, 29 students consented to participate in a brief evaluation.

This evaluation included a survey for teachers, a survey for students, and interviews with the teachers.

Overall, both teachers and students were enthusiastic about the lesson plans. Teachers thought it was easy to implement, with almost no preparation time. Moreover, they noticed all students were highly engaged with the learning materials. The hands-on learning activities were extremely well received by students.

Moreover, the content was described to have a high-quality, appealing graphical design, and helped both students and teachers to develop a basic understanding of what Artificial Intelligence is.  

Two feedback points were given. The first one is that the tool Machine Learning for Kids was a bit too abstract for most students. The second one was a remark from one student saying that they would have liked a group assignment or something they could work on with the whole class.

Overall, the University of Groningen is happy with the results of the pilot phase. It showed that teachers can use the lesson plans as they are right now, without needing to spend a lot of time preparing the lesson and that students are happy to be taught the lesson plan.