Extension Activities

Lesson 2: Teaching Machines - The AI Training Game

Evolve AI Institute LLC

Student Information

Name:

Date:

Extension Activity 1: Design Your Own Training Set Beginner

Challenge

Create your own set of categories and training cards for a new round of the AI Training Game!

Your Tasks:

  1. Choose 3-4 NEW categories (different from Animals, Vehicles, Food, Sports)
  2. List 15 items for each category
  3. Identify the key patterns that make each category unique
  4. Test your categories with a partner to see if they can learn them

Category 1:

Key Patterns:

15 Items in this category:

1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________

6. __________ 7. __________ 8. __________ 9. __________ 10. __________

11. __________ 12. __________ 13. __________ 14. __________ 15. __________

Category 2:

Key Patterns:

15 Items in this category:

1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________

6. __________ 7. __________ 8. __________ 9. __________ 10. __________

11. __________ 12. __________ 13. __________ 14. __________ 15. __________

Reflection Questions:

1. Are your categories easy or hard to distinguish? Why?

2. Do any of your categories have overlapping features? How might that confuse the AI?

Extension Activity 2: Algorithm Design - How the AI Thinks Intermediate

Challenge

Write a detailed step-by-step algorithm showing how your AI made decisions during the game.

Your Tasks:

  1. Break down the AI's decision-making process into clear steps
  2. Include decision points (IF/THEN statements)
  3. Show how the AI uses patterns from training to make predictions
  4. Create a flowchart showing this process

Part 1: Write Your Algorithm

Example start:

Step 1: Listen to the description of the new test item

Step 2: Identify the key features mentioned in the description

Step 3: Compare these features to the patterns I learned during training...

Continue writing your algorithm here:

Part 2: Create a Flowchart

Instructions: Use the space below to draw a flowchart of your algorithm. Include:

Challenge Question:

How would your algorithm change if the AI had 1,000 training examples instead of 15? Would it need more steps? Different steps?

Extension Activity 3: Real AI Research Project Advanced

Challenge

Choose a real-world AI application and research how it uses machine learning!

AI Application Options:

  • Facial recognition (Face ID, photo tagging)
  • Voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant)
  • Recommendation systems (Netflix, YouTube, Spotify)
  • Spam email filters
  • Self-driving cars
  • Medical diagnosis AI
  • Language translation (Google Translate)
  • Other (get teacher approval first)

Your chosen AI application:

Research Questions

1. What type of data does this AI system use for training? (images, text, audio, video, etc.)

2. Approximately how many training examples does it need to work well? (hundreds, thousands, millions?)

3. How accurate is this AI? What's its error rate? (Find specific statistics if possible)

4. What happens when this AI makes mistakes? (Give real examples you found)

5. How might biased or incomplete training data affect this AI's performance?

Sources Used

List at least 3 reliable sources where you found your information:

1.

2.

3.

Extension Activity 4: Data Analysis Challenge Intermediate

Challenge

Analyze the class data to find patterns and make predictions!

Your Tasks:

  1. Collect Round 1 and Round 2 accuracy data from all groups
  2. Calculate statistics (mean, range, improvement)
  3. Create graphs comparing all groups
  4. Identify which training strategies worked best

Data Collection

Group Round 1 Accuracy (%) Round 2 Accuracy (%) Improvement (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6

Statistical Analysis

Class Average Round 1: %

Class Average Round 2: %

Average Improvement: %

Highest Improvement: % (Group )

Lowest Improvement: % (Group )

Range of Improvement: % (Highest - Lowest)

Analysis Questions

1. Why do you think some groups improved more than others? What made them successful?

2. If the class did Round 3 with 50 examples per category, predict what would happen. Would improvement continue at the same rate?

3. Interview the group with the highest improvement. What was their training strategy? Why did it work so well?

Extension Activity 5: AI Ethics - The Training Data Dilemma Advanced

Challenge

Explore the ethical issues around AI training data through case studies and critical thinking.

Scenario to Consider:

A company is developing an AI system to recognize faces for security purposes. They need millions of training examples to make it accurate. However, they're considering using photos from social media without asking permission from the people in the photos.

Part 1: Stakeholder Analysis

Who is affected by this decision? List all stakeholders and how they're affected:

Part 2: Ethical Arguments

Arguments FOR using social media photos without permission:

Arguments AGAINST using social media photos without permission:

Part 3: Your Position

What do YOU think the company should do? Explain your reasoning with specific ethical principles.

Part 4: Real-World Connections

Research: Has this ethical dilemma happened in real life? Find one news article about AI training data ethics and summarize it.

Article Title:

Source:

Summary:

Discussion Question:

If an AI makes a harmful decision because it was trained on biased data, who is responsible? The AI? The programmers? The company? The people who provided the data?

Extension Activity 6: Creative Writing - Diary of an AI Beginner

Challenge

Write a creative story from the perspective of an AI system learning from training data!

Writing Guidelines:

  • Write in first person ("I") from the AI's point of view
  • Show how the AI's understanding changes with more training data
  • Include at least 5 "diary entries" showing progression over time
  • Use lesson vocabulary: training data, patterns, accuracy, machine learning
  • Be creative but show real concepts we learned!

Example Start:

Day 1 - My First Training Session

Today was my first day of existence! My trainers showed me pictures of something called a "cat." It had four legs, pointy ears, and whiskers. I don't know what any of those things mean yet, but I'm trying my best to learn. They said I'll see many more examples. I hope I get better at this...

Your Story:

Write your creative AI diary entries here. Include dates showing progression over time (Day 1, Day 5, Day 10, Day 50, Day 100, etc.)

Author's Note:

Explain how your story shows the machine learning concepts we learned in class:

© 2025 Evolve AI Institute LLC. All rights reserved.

Free AI Education for All - www.evolveaiinstitute.com