On the journey from the suburbs to the city, the tree canopy often decreases as skyscrapers rise. A group of New England Innovation Academy students wondered why this happens.
"Our friend Victoria noticed that in Marlborough, where we live, there are lots of trees in our backyards. But if you drive just 30 minutes to Boston, there are almost no trees," said high school junior Ileana Fournier. "We were struck by that difference."
This inspired Fournier and her classmates, Victoria Leeth and Jessie Magenyi, to create a prototype of a mobile app that shows deforestation trends in Massachusetts for Day of AI. This is a free, hands-on curriculum developed by the MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) initiative, based at the MIT Media Lab, in collaboration with the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and MIT Open Learning. They were part of a group of 20 students from New England Innovation Academy who presented their projects during the 2024 Day of AI global celebration hosted with the Museum of Science.
The Day of AI curriculum introduces K-12 students to artificial intelligence. Now in its third year, Day of AI helps students improve their communities and work on larger global challenges using AI. Fournier, Leeth, and Magenyi's TreeSavers app is part of the Telling Climate Stories with Data module, one of four new lessons focused on climate change.
“We want you to express yourselves creatively and use AI to solve problems with critical thinking skills,” said Cynthia Breazeal, director of MIT RAISE, dean for digital learning at MIT Open Learning, and professor of media arts and sciences, during this year’s Day of AI global celebration at the Museum of Science. “We want you to think about this powerful, cool, and exciting technology in an ethical and responsible way.”
From understanding to action
Day of AI encourages students to explore how AI connects with different subjects like history, civics, computer science, math, and climate change. With the curriculum available all year, more than 10,000 educators in 114 countries have introduced Day of AI activities to their classrooms and homes.
The curriculum empowers students to assess local issues and create meaningful solutions. “We’re thinking about how to develop tools that let kids directly access data and connect it to their personal experiences,” said Robert Parks, a curriculum developer at MIT RAISE, during the Day of AI global celebration.
Before this year, first-year student Jeremie Kwapong knew very little about AI. “I was very intrigued,” he said. “I started experimenting with ChatGPT to see how it responds. How close can I get it to human emotion? How does AI's knowledge compare to a human's?”
Besides sparking interest in AI literacy, teachers worldwide have told MIT RAISE they want to use data science lessons to engage students in discussions about climate change. Therefore, Day of AI’s new hands-on projects use weather and climate change to teach students the importance of understanding dataset design and collection when observing the world around them.
“There is a delay between cause and effect in everyday life,” said Parks. “Our goal is to clarify that and allow kids to access data so they can see the bigger picture.”