Everyday AI for Youth: Investigating Middle School Teacher Education, Classroom Implementation, and the Associated Student Learning Outcomes of an Innovative AI Curriculum

Everyday Artificial Intelligence for Youth（EdAI）解决了培养具有人工智能（AI）知识和技能的多元化劳动力的需求。人工智能技术在工业和日常生活中的普遍存在要求所有学习者都能获得适合年龄的人工智能准备。扩大对人工智能的参与对于确保未来的人工智能技术建立在包容性和公平性原则的基础上非常重要。在这个项目中，马萨诸塞州理工学院和波士顿学院的研究人员将从佛罗里达、伊利诺斯州和弗吉尼亚州的学区招募40名中学教师。通过与这些地区和四个青年服务组织STEAM Ahead、波士顿学院的College Bound、超级计算挑战赛和CodeVA的合作，该项目将吸引1200多名青年参与人工智能教育，并培养他们对未来人工智能密集型产业的兴趣。大多数年轻人来自黑人和拉丁裔家庭。该项目将建立在发展人工智能素养（DAILy）课程的基础上，该课程将人工智能概念，人工智能伦理和人工智能职业意识交织在一起。该课程此前已在一个暑期项目中在中学生中进行了试点测试。EdAI专业发展（PD）计划将采取多管齐下的方法，提供AI图书俱乐部，实习，教师网络和黑客。研究人员将调查这种PD模型如何支持教师在广泛的课堂环境中学习，采用，修改和教授日常课程，以及教师实施课程如何影响学生的学习。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，有助于增加学生对科学，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。在该项目中，将调查四个研究问题：1）：我们如何才能最好地为各种教师做好准备，以使用创新的AI课程？教师作为课程的学习者和实施者需要什么样的支持？2)什么样的教学实践可以有效地支持学生学习人工智能以及相关的道德和职业问题？3)教学实践和实施环境的变化对学生学习的影响是什么？以及4）教师主导的DAILy课程实施如何以及在多大程度上影响学生对AI和AI相关职业的知识和兴趣？一个基于设计的研究方法将被用来迭代地完善教师专业发展计划和相关的人工智能学习活动，无论是在人和在线环境。该项目还将开发和验证教师对人工智能的看法和态度，人工智能概念的学习以及人工智能教学中的自我效能的测量和评估。该研究将采用混合方法设计和收集定量数据，使用教师和学生对人工智能的态度调查和人工智能知识和技能评估，以及定性数据，包括对教学实践的观察和对教师进行人工智能教学经验的采访。调查结果将告知人工智能教育领域的具体问题，以扩大黑人和西班牙裔/拉丁裔参与以学校为基础的人工智能教育活动。该项目的成果包括EdAI项目模型、教师专业发展项目、教师的AI学习和教学研究成果以及中学教师在课堂上实施课程的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Everyday Artificial Intelligence for Youth (EdAI) addresses the need to develop a diverse workforce with the knowledge and skills to work with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The ubiquity of AI technologies in industry and in daily life calls for accessible and age-appropriate AI preparation of all learners. Broadening participation in AI is important in ensuring that AI technologies of the future are founded on principles of inclusivity and equitability. In this project researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College will recruit and prepare 40 middle school teachers from school districts across Florida, Illinois, and Virginia. Through partnerships with these districts and four youth serving organizations, STEAM Ahead, Boston College’s College Bound, Supercomputing Challenge, and CodeVA, the project will engage over 1200 youths in AI education and foster their interest in AI intensive industries of the future. The majority of the youths are from Black and Latinx families. The project will be built upon the Developing AI Literacy (DAILy) curriculum that interweaves AI concepts, ethics in AI, and AI career awareness. The curriculum has been previously pilot tested among middle schoolers in a summer program. The EdAI professional development (PD) program will take a multi-pronged approach offering an AI Book Club, Practicum, Teacher Network, and Hackathon. Researchers will investigate how this PD model supports teachers to learn, adopt, modify, and teach the DAILy curriculum in a wide range of classroom settings and how the teachers’ implementation of the curriculum impacts students’ learning. This 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.In this project, four research questions will be investigated: 1): How can we best prepare a variety of teachers to use an innovative AI curriculum? What supports are necessary for teachers as learners and implementers of the curriculum? 2) What teaching practices are effective in supporting students’ learning of AI and related ethics and career issues? 3) What is the impact of variation in teaching practices and implementation settings on student learning? and 4) How and to what extent do teacher-led implementations of the DAILy curriculum impact student knowledge and interest in AI and AI-related careers? A design-based research approach will be employed to iteratively refine the teacher professional development program and the associated AI learning activities for both in-person and online contexts. The project will also develop and validate measurements and assessments of teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards AI, learning of AI concepts, and self-efficacy in teaching AI. The research will utilize a mixed methods design and collect quantitative data using attitudes toward AI surveys and AI knowledge and skills assessments from teachers and students as well as qualitative data including observations of teaching practices and interviews of teachers about their experiences of teaching AI. The findings will inform the AI education field of issues specific to expanding Black and Hispanic/Latinx participation in school-based AI education activities. The deliverables from the project include the EdAI program model, the teacher professional development program, the research findings on teachers’ learning and teaching of AI, and the effectiveness of the curriculum when implemented by middle school teachers in classrooms.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.