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K-6 AI club

Prof. Anh Nguyen (CSSE department, Auburn University) is creating an AI Club for children around elementary-school age (K-6) to learn math, coding, robotics, and artificial intelligence. This is a completely FREE, voluntary, educational event, supported by Auburn University and an NSF CAREER award. Anh decided to create this club after finding no such clubs exist for K-6 that meet weekly in Auburn (and also in Alabama). We hope to educate and inspire the next generations with the amazing feat of AI, software, and robots.

  • In Spring 2023, we meet weekly, Thursdays 5-6pm in Shelby 2122 (345 W Magnolia Ave).

  • First meeting: Thur, Jan 19, 2023              Last meeting: Thur, April 27, 2023

In each meeting, Anh and a group of Computer Science students at Auburn University will work with your students directly. This is the first club of its kind in Auburn (and also Alabama). We organized this club for two semesters (Fall 2022 and Spring 2023) for a group of  ~15-20 kids (see our club in the news).

Activities In each 1-hr meeting, we will introduce a cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence application or a core AI concept to students for 15 minutes. For the remaining 45 mins, they will work on creating and solving coding challenges using robots/computers (see a sample video of the club meeting or some of the coding challenges we did). See the examples below.

Our team

Robot activities are designed and created by Kazybek Mizam and Rebecca Sanchez.

The club would have not been possible without a team of passionate, volunteer Computer Science students/researchers who each sits down with one student (1-on-1) in every meeting: Elliott Baker, Leo Hernandez-Rivera, Thang Pham, Pooyan Rahmanzadehgervi, Prashamsa Pandey, Mary Beth Cassity, Kazybek Mizam, Rebecca Sanchez, Tin Nguyen, Rafael Bidese, Will Bao, and Peijie Chen.

Resources

Currently, we are using Edison, Sphero Mini, Sphero BOLT, and mBot to teach kids coding. The programming languages used are: EdBlock/EdPy (for Edison), Block (Sphero Mini, Sphero BOLT, mBot), and Python (Sphero BOLT, mBot). In the future, we can also incorporate other more complex robots, e.g., Sphero RVR+, depending on the students’ progress. Students can work with these robots or online coding platforms and simulations (if they want). There are 25+ Windows machines in the lab for kids to use.

See this playlist for sample demo challenges and sample robot programs created by our volunteer teachers.

Curriculum

We design all robotics activities ourselves (led by Kazybek Mizam). For AI activities, we use some tutorials from ai4k12.org, Scratch, and machinelearningforkids.co.uk and create the rest.

Date Image Activity File
09/07/22 Maze Navigation: Code a Sphero/Edison/Makebot robot that solves mazes the fastest Video
09/14/22 Maze Navigation: Code a Sphero/Edison/Makebot robot that solves one maze at a time by pre-defining the trajectory Video
09/21/22 Maze Navigation: Code a Sphero/Edison/Makebot robot that solves two mazes using the same code
10/05/22 Sumo Wrestling: Code an Edison robot to play sumo wrestling against another opponent. Code & Video
10/12/22 Train and Gate: Code up two robots: one Edison robot to act as a train that carries weight. Another Edison robot controls the automatic gate. The train needs to stay on a black-taped track and stops in front of obstacles and ask the gate open (via Bluetooth). Guides & Code & Video
10/19/22 Face Recognition: Use TeachableMachines to train AIs to recognize a student’s face or recognize your Edison robot and makes sound when Edison passes by. Guide
10/26/22 F1 racing: Code Edison to race (using EdPy) on a black-taped track in a similar fashion to F1 racing. The car has to stay inside a double-sided track to race. Video
11/02/22 F1 racing: Code Edison to race in EdScratch
11/09/22 FaceLock: Train a Machine Learning model that recognizes your face and then use it to make a Scratch program that will perform a task (e.g. unlock a phone) if your face is present. Guides
11/16/22 FlashMob: Code a team of Edison to perform Flashmob dance Guides &
Video
11/30/22 Augmented Reality: Code in Scratch a program that will detect your eyes and nose using a pre-trained facial keypoint detector and then put on a funny (virtual) mask or glasses on your face in the camera feed. Guides
01/24/23 Finding Fruits: Code an Edison robot that goes find fruit-shaped black stickers on the ground and memorizes the total number of stickers found. Guides & Video
02/09/23 Shoot the bug: Train a Machine Learning model that plays the game of bug shooting (i.e. it needs to guess which angle to shoot the ball based on where the bug is) Guides
02/16/23 Mouse avoiding light: Code an Edison-robot “mouse” that avoids light and hides in the dark. Guides & Code
02/23/23 Pong using hands: Code a Pong game in Scratch but that detects user’s hands in the camera and uses hands as the paddle. Video & Guides
02/23/23 Block movers: Code an Edison-robot mover that finds Mega-Lego blocks and move them off the field. Video & Guides
03/02/23 Probabilities: Introduce kids to probabilities, sequence of events, and the law of large numbers using three Scratch games: Pig, Dice, Coin Flip, and Law of Large Numbers. Guides
03/23/23 Robo Truck: You are the Robo Truck with cargo; your goal is to reach the destination. During the transportation, you will encounter other Robo Trucks on the way to deliver their cargo! You should avoid them to protect your cargo. Multiple paths are available, and you should try another direction if you encounter other Robo Trucks. If you drop your cargo, you have to start again from the beginning. Video & Guides
03/30/23 Flying superheroes: Code a game in Scratch where the user can control a flying superhero cat to catch objects. Guides
04/06/23 AI playing Pacman: Train a Machine Learning agent to play Pacman by imitating human movement patterns (up, right, left, down) given the position of Pacman and the ghost. Guides
04/13/23 Walkable 2-legged Edison: Edison is a 2-wheeled robot. In this activity, we will build a walkable 2-legged robot out of an Edison motor and its extra parts. Video & Guides
04/20/23 Train a chatbot and test GPT-4: Train a chatbot that answers questions about a certain topic (e.g. dogs). Compare that Scratch-based chatbot with GPT-4. Guides

Join the club

  1. Complete the application form
  2. We will respond ASAP via email when there is an available spot for your child. To maximize our chance to help your children, we will admit students based on your description of their (1) needs, (2) interests, and (3) ability to attend regularly.
  3. After you receive an email confirmation that your child has a seat, please complete this consent form and send it to anh.ng8@gmail.com by the subsequent club meeting.

We plan to run the club again in Fall 2023 and will invite applications again near that time.

Volunteers

If you are experienced with coding and enjoy being around kids, please feel free to send me an email with your resume. We’d love to have your help!

Tangible benefits for volunteers:

  • By helping with this mission, you are performing charity work (donating your valuable time) to help the next generations learn the essential skills of coding and problem-solving.
  • Have “Computer Science Teachers for K-6” activity on your resume
  • Obtain a reference letter from me
  • Gain hands-on experience on how to run a robotics/coding club (one day you may create one for your own children/neighborhood /community down the road)

Donation

This is a free, voluntary, educational activity for the community. Thus, we would greatly appreciate donations and gifts in any form that you could support (e.g., robots, iPad, fund). Please email Anh if you are interested in helping.

Donation checks are to be made payable to “Auburn University Foundations” and mailed to [ Anh Nguyen at the Computer Science and Software Engineering department at Auburn University ].

Press articles about our club