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Unplugged K-12 AI Learning: Exploring Representation and Reasoning with a Facial Recognition Game
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Designs and pilots "Guess Whose Face," an unplugged board game teaching AI4K12 Representation and Reasoning through facial recognition, tested with four graduate students and ten rural middle schoolers.
Problem
K-12 educators need effective, age-appropriate, engaging instructional resources for teaching AI concepts, particularly Representation and Reasoning from the AI4K12 5 Big Ideas.
Approach
An unplugged board game in which one player traces facial features onto tracing paper and teammates guess the hidden celebrity or cartoon face, mapping feature extraction to Representation and database search to Reasoning, with noise injection to teach data robustness.
Key results
- In a pilot with ten rural middle school students, average enjoyment rating was 4.625 out of 5.
- Average self-reported learning rating was 4.375 out of 5.
- Students' exit-ticket explanations (e.g., AI captures dots around the face and relies on a database) suggested the facial recognition concept was largely grasped.
Measured effects reported in the paper
| What was changed | Where | Measured | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use the Guess Whose Face board game activity | rural middle school students · Summer camp | enjoyment rating: 4.625 | Helped |
| Use the Guess Whose Face board game activity | rural middle school students · Summer camp | perceived learning rating: 4.375 | Helped |
Surprising findings
- Some teams needed 30 to 40 features for a definitive guess while others identified faces with only 3 salient features, reflecting varied extraction strategies.
Limitations
- Pilot sample was small (ten students) at a single summer camp, with no controlled comparison.
- Guesser comparison of visual features differs from how real AI systems operate on encoded numeric values.
- Spinner balance between feature extraction and noise was difficult to control, and some students mostly drew noise.
Experimental setup
Metrics: exit ticket enjoyment rating (1-5) exit ticket learning rating (1-5) student explanations of facial recognition
Builds on: CS Unplugged Guess Who? AI4K12 5 Big Ideas
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