Exploring AI in Year 5 for Safer Internet Day

We kicked off the morning by joining the BBC Live Lesson, which was broadcast straight from a safari park. The lesson tackled some big questions: Is AI a person? Can it be my friend? Should I trust everything it says?

The children were quick to spot the difference. While a chatbot might use friendly language or even tell a joke, the students learned that it doesn't have feelings, a heartbeat, or a conscience.

'AI can tell 'lies' you can't always trust it and you can never trust it with your emotions.' - Yana 

'Not all things you see online are true - it's important to double check information.' - Elodie 

'It can replicate anything and it is only as good as the coder.' - Isabella 

To see how AI "thinks," we turned our classroom into a science lab using Google’s Teachable Machine. The children learned that AI is essentially a "teachable machine"—it only knows what we tell it through data inputs.

The challenge was simple: teach the computer to tell the difference between two objects using the webcam. However, the results were a perfect lesson in why we need to be careful with AI.

Many groups found that their AI models were surprisingly successful, but some had a "lightbulb moment" when the machine failed. One group was baffled when the AI insisted a pencil was a ruler!

What went wrong? We went back to our "training data" (the sample images we took) to investigate. We discovered a few "bugs" in our teaching:

1. Too many similarities: Both the pencil and ruler were long and thin.

2. Background noise: Sometimes the machine was looking at the color of the table or the student's sleeve instead of the object itself!

3. Lack of variety: If we only showed the pencil from one angle, the machine didn't recognize it when it was turned around.

 Our Conclusion: Humans are the Boss!

The most important lesson of the day was that AI is only as good as the information we give it. If the inputs are messy or wrong, the "facts" the AI gives us will be wrong too.

By the end of the day, Year 5 felt much more confident. They aren't just users of technology anymore; they are critical thinkers who know that in the world of AI, human intelligence and fact-checking are the most powerful tools we have.