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Course · Grades 5–8

Intro to Artificial Intelligence

A six-week course where students in grades 5–8 learn what AI really is, how data trains a model, where AI makes mistakes, and how to use it responsibly.

  • Grades 5-8
  • 6 weeks
  • About 7-9 hours
  • No coding required
  • Browser-based
  • No camera or microphone
  • Built-in datasets
Begin Course
The course in four steps: label example data, split it into training and testing, read a prediction, and find and fix a mistake.LabelTrain / TestPredictFix mistakesA hands-on path through how AI systems really work

What you'll do

  • Identify what AI is and is not
  • Organize data and train simple models
  • Test image-classification systems
  • Build a rule-based chatbot and a recommendation system
  • Investigate bias, privacy, and misinformation
  • Design a responsible AI helper

What you'll be able to do

  • Tell artificial intelligence apart from ordinary software and automation.
  • Explain how examples, labels, and features train a model, and why balanced, correctly-labeled data matters.
  • Read a model's accuracy and confidence, and interpret false positives, false negatives, and a confusion matrix.
  • Describe how chatbots, language models, and recommendation systems work — and where they go wrong.
  • Check AI for bias, protect privacy, verify information, and know when humans must stay in charge.
  • Design, prototype, test, and present a responsible AI solution to a real problem.

Six-week roadmap

Every week is open — jump ahead to preview, or follow the path in order.

  1. Week 1: What AI Is and Is NotNot startedTell artificial intelligence apart from ordinary software, and spot the AI already around you.2.5-3 hours · 3 lessons · 3 activities
  2. Week 2: How Data Teaches a ModelNot startedSee how examples, labels, and features become the data a model learns from — and why clean, balanced data matters.2.5-3 hours · 3 lessons · 3 activities
  3. Week 3: Image Recognition and Model MistakesNot startedSee how an image classifier turns pixels into predictions, measure how well it works, and find and fix the mistakes it makes.2.5-3 hours · 3 lessons · 3 activities
  4. Week 4: Text AI, Chatbots, and RecommendationsNot startedSee how AI handles language and suggestions — from keyword chatbots to text prediction to the feeds that shape what you see.2.5-3 hours · 3 lessons · 3 activities
  5. Week 5: Fairness, Privacy, and Reliable InformationNot startedAudit AI for bias, protect people's data, and check whether the content you see can be trusted.2.5-3 hours · 3 lessons · 3 activities
  6. Week 6: AI Design StudioNot startedBring it all together: define a real problem, decide if AI fits, design and test a prototype, and present it responsibly.2.5-3 hours · 3 lessons · 3 activities

Final project preview

Open the project studio

Working from what you learned all six weeks, design an AI tool that helps a real group of people. You will define the problem, decide whether AI actually fits, plan the inputs, outputs, labels, features, or rules, sketch a prototype, write test cases, and explain how you would keep it fair, private, and under human oversight. This is a design and planning project — you will not train a real model.

You can preview the project any time — you'll build it in Week 6.

Your project will include

  • Clear user need
  • AI suitability decision
  • Inputs and outputs designed
  • Prototype and test cases
  • Responsible-use plan
  • Clear presentation

Choose a direction

  • Helpful sorter — A group struggles to sort many items quickly — like a library sorting returned books or a club organizing photos.
  • Question helper — People keep asking the same questions and a small team can't keep up — like a school office or a game's help desk.
  • Fair recommender — A community wants suggestions — books, activities, or recipes — without trapping people in a filter bubble.
  • Your own idea — You have a problem in your school or community that you think AI could help with.

What you need

  • A web browser — on a school Chromebook, tablet, or laptop
  • A keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen
  • A notebook or printed worksheet — optional
  • Built-in fictional datasets — included — no downloads
  • A camera or image upload — optional, only in some later activities
  • No microphone required
  • No external AI account required

Vocabulary reference

Every key term from the course, with kid-friendly definitions.

Group by:

Notes & reflections

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For teachers