Project Profile

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by developing guidelines for teaching and learning about artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 school settings. Though AI is a quickly emerging field of research with broad applications in the STEM workforce and industry generally, there are few curriculum standards or educational guidelines for introducing pre-college students to fundamental knowledge and skills relating to the field of AI.  This project will address the emerging need for greater guidance in this field by bringing together specialists in AI from academia and industry with specialists representing K-12 education to draft guidelines for teaching and learning about AI across the grade bands of K-12 schools. The draft guidelines will then be reviewed by a larger interest group representing specialists in AI and computer science, as well as representatives of K-12 educators more broadly and the general public. Feedback from this larger interest group will be used to refine the guidelines for broader dissemination.  In addition to  developing initial guidelines for AI education at the pre-college level, the project will create an online directory of resources that can be used by K-12 teachers to develop instructional experiences in AI for their students.

The project team is working in association with the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) to model AI guidelines after CSTA's K-12 Computer Science Standards released in 2017. The project Steering Team includes members of AAAI and CSTA, as well as broad representation of AI scholars nationwide and experienced K-12 teachers across all grade bands.  Efforts are being made to ensure that culturally relevant resources are identified and readily available to support implementation of the forthcoming guidelines with all student populations nationwide.  The project team includes a Steering Committee that guides the project, and a larger Working Group consisting of experienced K-12 teachers at all grade levels and AI specialists representing academia and industry.  An Advisory Group representing AI education nationally and internationally will provide additional guidance to the project.  The project will employ mailing lists, a project website, and social media to engage the broader community of interested scholars, educators, researchers, and members of the general public.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.