Introducing AI
Robot Training
Put students in small groups and show them the collection of toys, learning supplies, kitchen implements, et cetera.
Tell them that each group is going to come up with a “robot” rule using the objects:
Pick four of the objects that are all alike in some way. Try to find a way in which they are alike that a person might not notice. The goal is to “stump” the other teams by making it hard to guess how they are alike.
(It has to be something that other people could guess: it can’t be “I have all of those in my house,” for instance.)
Leave the objects in a central space so that more than one group can use the same ones.
When the groups are all ready, have each group point out three of their objects. The rest of the class now tries to guess what the fourth one is, and to identify what makes them alike.
After each group’s fourth object and rule is explained, ask the class: How hard was the rule to figure out? Were there other ways the three things were alike that seemed more obvious?