Using Design Projects to Understand Youths’ Experiences with AI

Objectives . Connecting AI concepts to students’ lived experience can foster learning and engagement. However, many AI curriculum development efforts rely on adults’ understanding of what may be relevant to youth. This highlights the need for incorporating youth voices into curriculum development processes. This study developed a design project centered on student agency; where students envision and design AI-powered robots capable of addressing issues that they themselves experience and frame from their perspective. Implemented via flexible design modalities, this project aims to situate and assess students’ knowledge of AI within the context of their everyday lives. Participants . Over a three-year period, twelve teachers from urban, rural, and suburban middle schools, along with one instructor from a high school after-school program, implemented an autonomous robot ideation project as part of a middle school AI elective course in a southeastern state in the US. Study method . We thematically analyzed data collected from 301 student participant projects, teacher interviews, classroom observations, and student participant interviews. Findings . The robot ideation project proved to be an effective lens for understanding youth's experiences with AI. On one hand, it revealed the areas where youth envisioned AI as beneficial in their lives. Students conceptualized robots as tools for everyday tasks, with some preferences reflecting demographic differences. Students also imagined robots improving their socio-emotional well-being, addressing environmental challenges, and enhancing public safety. On the other hand, the project uncovered biases and misconceptions about AI, shaped by youth's daily experiences. In addition, we offered insights into the affordances and limitations of different design modalities to inform the creation of effective design projects. While low-tech modalities such as sketching were often employed in low-resource settings, we found that students were better able to apply AI concepts when using these approaches. In contrast, high-tech modalities such as Tinkercad tended to push students toward focusing on surface-level aesthetic details, making it more difficult to assess their conceptual understanding. Conclusions . Incorporating personally meaningful design projects into the AI curriculum can surface youth's experiences and inform curriculum development. Drawing from our findings about the relatable use cases of AI, this work suggests ways for curriculum developers to integrate them into AI, science and humanities curricula to make learning more meaningful and for developers to build more responsible conversational AI systems that mitigate youth overtrust and prioritize their well-being. Furthermore, this work shows that inclusive design projects should use low-tech and high-tech modalities and be organized into short and adaptable activities that teachers can flexibly integrate into their lessons.