Collaborative Research: AI4GA - Developing Artificial Intelligence Competencies, Career Awareness, and Interest in Georgia Middle School Teachers and Students

随着人工智能(AI)技术开始重塑现代社会，对年轻学生进行人工智能教育已成为美国及其竞争对手的国家优先事项。在K-12人工智能教育的早期，人们对不同的学生群体如何与人工智能相关，以及哪些教学策略最有可能让他们参与其中知之甚少。由于大多数K-12教师还不熟悉人工智能，因此也需要研究如何培养他们的人工智能流利性和自信心。该项目是人工智能和教育研究人员与佐治亚州教育部合作的项目，将通过为佐治亚州中学生开发和测试一门为期九周的选修课-人工智能生活和工作，以及配套的在线教师专业发展课程来调查这些问题。这门学生课程将提供一系列活动，包括动手演示、有指导的实验、在线研究、基于项目的学习以及探索人工智能职业。教师还可以选择将计算机编程活动包括在内。为了确保课程适应不同人口和文化的需求，研究人员将与服务于佐治亚州三个种族和地理不同人口的学区合作：农村、郊区和城市地区，以及分别拥有大量白人、拉丁裔或黑人学生的学区。这两门课程都将与来自这些地区的中学教师团队合作开发，他们将首先接受调查人员关于人工智能基础知识和文化响应式教学的培训。在试行课程时与这些教师合作，将使他们了解教/学方面的挑战、内容以及不同的教师和学习者成功所需的支持类型。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践、计划元素、背景和过程的理解的项目，这些项目有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。在为期三年的项目期间，来自6个学区的18名教师将接受人工智能和文化响应教学方面的培训，1800名学生将参加人工智能生活和工作课程。该项目将调查四个研究问题：(1)中学生和教师对人工智能技术和人工智能职业的知识、兴趣、舒适度和态度是什么？(2)哪些类型的技术驱动和创新的学习经历有效地提高了农村、黑人和拉丁裔/拉美裔中学生的人工智能兴趣、知识、技能、自我效能感和对人工智能职业的兴趣？(3)哪些人工智能知识和技能适合中学生发展？以及(4)哪些制度或文化障碍/加速器阻碍/促进了课程的实施？这项研究将使用混合方法设计，结合态度调查、课堂观察、主题访谈、学生反思和对学生文物的检查。在项目结束时，专业发展课程将通过佐治亚州教育部门户网站公开提供。其他可交付的项目包括中学课程材料、为支持中学课程而开发的人工智能演示软件、研究结果，以及中学教师在课堂上实施该课程时对不同学习群体的有效性的衡量。结果还将通过会议演讲、学术出版物和社交媒体传播。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies begin to reshape modern society, educating younger students about AI has become a national priority for both the United States and its competitors. In these early days of K-12 AI education, little is known about how diverse student populations relate to AI and which instructional strategies are most likely to engage them. Since most K-12 teachers are not yet familiar with AI, research is also needed on how to develop their AI fluency and confidence. This project, a collaboration between researchers in AI and education and the Georgia Department of Education, will investigate these questions by developing and testing a nine-week elective course for Georgia middle school students called Living and Working with Artificial Intelligence, and an accompanying online teacher professional development course. The student course will offer a mixture of activities including hands-on demonstrations, guided experimentation, online research, project-based learning, and exploration of AI-enabled careers. Teachers will also have the option of including computer programming activities. To ensure that the curriculum is adaptable to the needs of different populations and cultures, researchers will partner with school districts serving three ethnically and geographically diverse populations in Georgia: rural, suburban, and urban areas, and with large populations of white, Latinx, or Black students respectively. Both courses will be developed in collaboration with a team of middle school teachers from these districts who will first receive training from the investigators in the basics of AI and in culturally responsive teaching. Working with these teachers as they pilot the course will provide an understanding of the challenges in teaching/learning the content and the types of support needed for diverse teachers and learners to succeed. The project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.Over the three year project duration, 18 teachers drawn from 6 school districts will receive training in AI and culturally responsive instruction, and 1800 students will take the Living and Working with Artificial Intelligence course. The project will investigate four research questions: (1) What are middle school students' and teachers' knowledge of, interest in, comfort with, and attitudes towards AI technology and AI careers? (2) What types of technology-driven and innovative learning experiences are effective in increasing rural, Black, and Latinx/Hispanic middle school students' AI interest, knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and interest in AI careers? (3) What AI knowledge and skills are developmentally appropriate for middle school students? and (4) What institutional or cultural barriers/accelerators prevent/promote course implementation? The research will use a mixed-methods design combining attitudinal surveys, in-class observations, subject interviews, student reflections, and examination of student artifacts. At the conclusion of the project, the professional development course will be made publicly available through the Georgia Department of Education web portal. Additional project deliverables include the middle school course materials, AI demonstration software developed to support the middle school course, the research findings, and measurements of the effectiveness of the curriculum for diverse learner populations when implemented by middle school teachers in their classrooms. The results will also be disseminated through conference presentations, scholarly publications, and social media.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.