Not every child will grow up to attend MIT, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get a jump start on its curriculum. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced millions of students to learn from home, MIT Media Lab associate professor Cynthia Breazeal has released a website for K-12 students to learn about one of the most important topics in STEM: artificial intelligence.
The site is, admittedly, a lot to take in, and you will have to dig a bit to find what you’re looking for. (Here’s some help to get you started: Lesson plans are here. The list of good interactive links is here.) The design feels more enterprise-focused than parent- or student-focused, with as much real estate given to the team and sponsors behind the project as to curriculum links. We’d love to see a more user-friendly design, which might let you start with a student’s grade, then shuttle you to the applicable lesson plans and experiments. But for now, there is still plenty of work awaiting your child. And by that I mean, please, do put them to work at solving the shortcomings of AI. Our future depends on it.