Machine vision. Data wrangling. Reinforcement learning. What do these terms even mean? In AI 101, MIT researcher Brandon Leshchinskiy offers an introduction to artificial intelligence that‚Äôs designed specifically for those with little to no background in the subject. The workshop starts with a summary of key concepts in AI, followed by an interactive exercise where participants train their own algorithm. Finally, it closes with a summary of key takeaways and Q/A. All are welcome!

This resource includes a set of activities, teacher guides, assessments, materials, and more to assist educators in teaching about the ethics of artificial intelligence. These activities were developed at the MIT Media Lab to meet a growing need for children to understand artificial intelligence, its impact on society, and how they might shape the future of AI.



This curriculum was designed and tested for middle school students (approximately grades 5th-8th). Most activities are unplugged and only require the materials included in this document, although unplugged modifications are suggested for the activities which require computer access.

Overview: This learning video uses a simple analog setup to explore why earthquakes are so unpredictable. The setup is simple enough that students should be able to assemble and operate it on their own with a teacher's supervision. The teaching approach used in this module is known as the 5E approach, which stands for Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. Over the course of this lesson, the basic mechanisms that give rise to the behavior of the simple analog system are explained, and further elaboration helps the students to apply their understanding of the analog system to complex fault systems that cause earthquakes

This resource is to support teachers and educators to run Day of AI activities in their classrooms through curriculum packages and teacher training, all of which is available at no cost to participants.
Developed by leading faculty and educators from MIT RAISE, the curriculum features up to four hours of hands-on activities that engage kids in creative discovery, discussion, and play as they learn the fundamentals of AI, investigate the societal impact of these technologies, and bring artificial intelligence to life through lessons and activities that are accessible to all, even those with no computer science or technical background.

This video aims to delve into the human problems brought out by issues in artificial intelligence, specifically with respect to bias. It is suitable for classroom use or as a standalone video for those who wish to understand the issue more deeply than is conventionally covered. For classroom use, we recommend watching the chapterized version of the video and working through the teaching materials provided for each chapter.

The emergence of transformer architectures in 2017 triggered a breakthrough in machine learning that today lets anyone create computer-generated essays, stories, pictures, music, videos, and programs from high-level prompts in natural language, all without the need to code. That has stimulated fervent discussion among educators about the implications of generative AI systems for curricula and teaching methods across a broad range of subjects. It has also raised questions of how to understand both these systems and the at times overstated claims made for them. This class will introduce the foundations of generative AI technology, and participants will explore new opportunities it enables for K–12 education. It will also describe and explore how an analytical frame of mind can help make clear the core issues underlying both the successes and failures of these systems. Much of the work will be project-based, involving implementing innovative teaching and learning tools and testing these with K–12 students and teachers.

Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes aims to equip students with the critical skills to better understand the past and contemporary threat of misinformation. Students will learn about different ways to analyze emerging forms of misinformation such as “deepfake” videos as well as how new technologies can be used to create a more just and equitable society. This module consists of three interconnected sections. We begin by defining and contextualizing some key terms related to misinformation. We then focus on the proliferation of deepfakes within our media environment. Lastly, we explore synthetic media for the civic good, including AI-enabled projects geared towards satire, investigative documentary, and public history. In Event of Moon Disaster, an award-winning deepfake art installation about the “failed” Apollo 11 moon landing, serves as a central case study.
This learning module also includes a suite of educator resources that consists of a syllabus, bibliography, and design prompts. We encourage teachers to draw on and adapt these resources for the purposes of their own classes.
Visit Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes to access the learning module and educator resources. A sample of some of these materials can be found on OCW.
This course was produced by the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality, with support from the J-WEL: Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab.

In “Disappearing Hot Dogs,” Yana thinks picking up her fork makes hot dogs magically disappear.Families are encouraged to play along as she,Egbert, and Izzie discover the surprising (four legged)cause of the disappearing hotdogs—and the difference between confounded evidence and isolating variables.

“Mystery Box” teaches children about experiments. Yana and Egbert explore the distinction between“just guessing” and “hypotheses.” They abandon wild guesses about what is inside a mysterious box when Izzie the Ostrich points out a potential experiment. Can they find out what’s really inside?

"Picnic Panic" helps kids understand the difference between rare and common causes. Egbert Finds his picnic ruined. Who did it? They find some hairs at the crime scene and get side-tracked by half remembered stories and scary worries until the learn to focus on common causes rather than rare ones and realize that "things that happen most of the time, cause most of the things that happen."

"Sneezing Aardvarks” begins with two bands of aardvarks fighting over whether white pepper or black pepper is sneezier. Yana and Egbert create a contest to see who is right. Children can see intuitively how randomly distributed differences between groups don’t affect our ability to decide whether systematic differences between groups affect outcomes.

In “Suspicious Gumballs” a string of gum balls all the same color mysteriously fall out of a gum ball machine, and Yana and Egbert discover who’s responsible. This episode encourages families to explore the relationship between samples and populations, and random versus selective sampling processes.