Hi all!

At the CASL Spring Fling last night, I was asked to share information here about the GM-sponsored ISTE AI Explorations course I participated in this year. Kristine Emond at East Hartford High School and I, in addition to two East Hartford teachers, were part of a team for ISTE’s AI Explorations program this year.

We were able to go through the ISTE-led 8-week course to learn about artificial intelligence. We applied as a team to participate towards the end of January and the course ran from the beginning of March to the end of April. It taught about different AI, including its evolution, machine learning, AI perception, chatbots, generative AI, data mining, and a ton of other topics, with helpful information for people with all backgrounds and levels of experience. Some on our team had no experience at all with AI, other than what we use in daily life, and others taught it in their classes. The requirement for the course, beyond completing the material, was to create usable artifacts to instruct about one element of the AI. This could be for any grade level (there are examples for kindergarten classes), including adult learners (like in teacher prep programs or PD).

Working as a team, we designed an interdisciplinary series of lessons between the grade 9 science teacher, the grade 9 design technology teacher, and the librarians. In science, students would learn about plastic waste and water pollution. In design, students would learn about the design process, machine learning, and image recognition. The assessment for our interdisciplinary project would be for students to use information about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and Mr. Trash Wheel (a non-AI waste-pulling machine in the Baltimore Harbor) to design a technology that would use AI image recognition and machine learning to filter living organisms, regular waste, and recyclable plastics within the Connecticut River.

Our group’s project was selected by our ISTE coach to be featured in the AI Explorations course for future cohorts. We were asked if we would be willing to participate in an interview about our experience in this project for an ISTE-EdSurge Publication such as the EdSurge Online Journal, ISTE blog, or Empowered Learner Magazine.

Here is the link to the website we created that will be featured in future years: https://sites.google.com/easthartford.org/ehps-capstone-2023/home

If you have any questions about the program or how to connect with it, or if you are interested in potentially creating a team in the future, I’m happy to help!

Liz Wright (she/her/hers)

Connecticut IB Academy

East Hartford Public Schools

806-622-5591

Library Media Specialist

Pamoja Site-Based Coordinator

Extended Essay Coordinator