Artificial intelligence has emerged as a technology that is profoundly reshaping society and enabling rapid improvements in science, engineering, and mathematics, as well as information technology itself. This has generated increased demand for fostering an AI-literate populace as well as a growing recognition of the importance of promoting K-12 students’ awareness and interest in AI. Although efforts are be-ginning to incorporate AI learning within K-12 education, there is little research exploring how to introduce students to AI and how to support teachers to integrate AI learning experiences in their classrooms. This is especially true at the elementary school level. A particularly promising approach for providing effective and engaging AI learning experiences for elementary students is game-based learning. In this paper, we explore how to introduce AI-infused collaborative inquiry learning into upper elementary school (student ages 8 to 11) using game-based learning. To ground the work in the realities of elementary school classrooms, we present insights from interviews with elementary school teachers to under-stand how best to support them in integrating AI into their classrooms. We then present the design of PrimaryAI, a game-based learning environment that supports rich problem-based learning activities within upper elementary classrooms centered on AI applied toward solving life-science problems. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges we face in bringing AI-infused collaborative inquiry learning to upper elementary students.

Recent years have seen increasing awareness of the need for all students in primary and secondary education to learn computer science (CS) concepts and skills. Educational games hold significant potential to serve as a platform for CS education because they integrate engaging problem solving with effective pedagogical strategies. This potential is especially high for narrative-centered educational games that embed learning activities within rich interactive stories. In this paper, we present an educational game featuring block-based programming challenges contextualized within an engaging narrative, designed to promote CS learning for middle school students (ages 11 to 13). In the game, students undertake problem-solving challenges that are aligned with the K-12 Computer Science Framework. Results from a classroom implementation of the game with middle grade students suggest that their perceived game control ratings are positively correlated with their progress in the game, which suggests the need for adaptively supporting students' game-based learning activities. Building on these findings, we discuss design implications for creating student-adaptive CS learning experiences in educational games that incorporate block-based programming enriched narrative-centered gameplay.

Recent years have seen growing recognition of the importance of enabling K-12 students to learn computer science. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence has emerged as a technology with the potential to profoundly reshape society. This has generated increasing demand for fostering an AI-literate populace. However, there is little work exploring how to introduce K-12 students to AI and how to support K-12 teachers in integrating AI into their classrooms. In this work, we explore introducing AI learning experiences into upper elementary classrooms (student ages 8 to 11). With a focus on integrating AI and life science, we present initial work on a collaborative game-based learning environment that features rich problem-based learning scenarios. This will enable students to gain experience with AI as it applies to solving real-world life-science problems.

Recent years have seen a growing recognition of the importance of enabling K-12 students to engage in computational thinking, particularly in elementary grades where students' dispositions toward STEM are developing. Block-based programming has emerged as an effective tool for engaging these novice learners in computational thinking. At the same time, digital storytelling has emerged as a promising avenue for creating motivating problem-solving scenarios that engage students in science investigations. Although block-based programming and digital storytelling are in many ways synergistic, there is a lingering question of how to design block-based languages at an age-appropriate level to enable effective and engaging storytelling. In this work, we review design principles from prior block-based and digital storytelling systems as well as propose the design of block-based programming language features to enable the creation of rich, interactive science narratives by upper elementary students.