Gaming Towards Understanding: Shifting AI Perceptions in High School StudentsK12
Students’ perceptions of AI are often shaped by commercialized and fictional depictions of AI, leading to misuse, underuse, and over-reliance on AI tools. Such preconceptions place additional burdens on K-12 AI curricula to not only educate students on foundational AI knowledge components, but also uncover and reshape students’ understanding of AI. To understand ways to uncover and address students’ AI misconceptions in formal learning settings, we conducted a study that taught foundational AI concepts using a formal AI curriculum, games, interactive activities, and scenario-based challenges to high school girls. We analyzed student dialog and survey responses data to observe shifts in their perceptions and understanding of AI. Our findings indicate that unstructured AI activities effectively scaffold student reflection and metacognition on AI topics, contributing to significant shifts in perception. This work provides insights for designing engaging and effective AI curricula that address students’ misunderstandings of AI.