Are you looking for fun and engaging ways to teach your students how to use AI?
Many educators believe that students should be allowed to use AI in order to learn how to use it - and the best way to learn AI is to practice using it.
Here are over a dozen fun AI activities for students to assist you in showing just how powerful this technology can be.
Note: With each activity, you can use your preferred AI tool. ChatGPT works well in most cases, and in others, we’ll suggest an AI tool to use such as Plus AI, Google, and others.
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1. Create a class story
Get your class involved in a funny or themed story. You or your students can instruct the AI to create a story using specific student names (first names only please!) and then read the story to the class.
This is also a great way to go if your class is currently studying a certain topic that you can work into the storyline.
Here’s an example prompt: Create a funny classroom story set in Victorian times and use Susan, Bill, Carol, and Jim as the main characters.
And courtesy of ChatGPT, here’s a snapshot of our story:
2. Guess the person, place, or thing
Similar to “20 Questions,” you can ask your chatbot to choose a person, place, or thing and have your students ask yes or no questions until someone guesses correctly.
Like the story above, you can gear the chosen person, place, or thing around your current class topic.
Here’s an example prompt: Pick a familiar person, place, or thing in Europe. I’ll ask students for yes or no questions to guess correctly. Provide clues if requested.
From ChatGPT again, here’s an image of the chat:
3. Make a quiz game
Quizzes are a good way to see how well your students retain what you teach. But, quizzes and tests can be boring, right? You can liven up the learning with AI-generated games!
Along with reinforcing what you’ve taught, you can combine fun with a bit of friendly competition.
Here’s an example prompt: Create a trivia game with five categories and five questions in each category. Theme the game around biology for middle school students.
From Plus AI, an AI presentation maker for Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint, we created a slideshow trivia game:
4. Play charades
If you want to get your students moving around, how about a rousing game of Charades? Using your chatbot, you can ask for prompts to provide your students to act out for their fellow classmates.
Here’s an example prompt: Create 10 prompts for a game of Charades for grade school students.
And, this is a screenshot of the response from ChatGPT:
5. Draw a picture
You can have your students interact directly with AI using the Quick, Draw game through Google Experiments. Students visit the Quick, Draw game site, draw each item requested, and continue drawing as the AI bot tries to guess the picture.
You receive six simple items to draw with a time limit for the bot to guess. So, the better the drawing, the better the guesses!
6. True or false
Another cool way to test your students’ knowledge of a topic is with true or false statements. Ask your chatbot for a number of questions that are either true or false and have your students guess which are correct.
Here’s an example prompt: Create a list of statements about fractions that are either true or false. I’ll ask my high school students for their answers.
ChatGPT complies once again with this terrific response:
7. Face sensing
For an interesting way to use AI, check out the Scratch Lab Face Sensing site from MIT. Students can learn about coding while creating games and costumes that interact with their face. By dragging code blocks to the workspace, students use hats, cats, glasses, and other items to follow their face.
Head to the Scratch Lab website to watch how face sensing works and then get your class started!
8. Learn a language
Another unique way to see AI in action is with the Thing Translator, a Google Experiment. Students point their device camera at an object and then learn how to say the object’s name in a different language.
Check out the video below for how Thing Translator works right from the mouth of the developer.
A.I. Experiments: Thing Translator
9. Classroom scavenger hunt
Have your students find items in the classroom using prompts from your chatbot. Rather than just a list of items to find, the bot can make it more entertaining with clues in the form of limericks, riddles, or jokes.
Here’s an example prompt: Create a list of five riddles that lead to different objects in a grade school classroom.
Using ChatGPT, below is the list we received:
10. Emoji scavenger hunt
One more way to use a device camera for some AI action is with the Emoji Scavenger Hunt. You are given an emoji, more like an object, and point your camera at that item in your room. It could be a computer mouse, envelope, book, or similar item.
AI recognizes when you find the correct item in your room, and you score points for each one you find.
11. Create art and images
With an AI image generator, you can get a picture of just about anything. Have your students make suggestions for creating images or art that they wouldn’t normally find anywhere else.
A frog wearing a cowboy hat while riding a camel? A pirate ship sailing through the sky? A snow-covered mountain in the middle of the ocean? Let your students get creative and see what they can make!
There are many generators you can use, such as Picsart and Freepik. You can also use ChatGPT by selecting Picture in the View Tools menu for the output. Then, just enter the prompt.
12. Sing a song
One more prebuilt AI tool you can have your students try is the FreddieMeter from YouTube. Although a younger student class may not remember the band Queen, older students might enjoy singing like Freddie Mercury.
You pick a Queen song, start singing to it with the onscreen lyrics, and score for how well you do with pitch, melody, and timbre.
Bonus: AI activities for Alexa and Siri devices
Along with the above activities, you can encourage students to continue learning about AI outside the classroom using tools on their devices, with their parents’ permission of course. Using smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, students can play games, ask questions, test their memory, hear jokes, and more.
If you prompt Alexa for “classroom games,” you’ll receive a large variety of options (skills) like those below:
- SimonSays: Follow directions given by Alexa, like touch your nose or raise your arms, but be sure to say “Simon says” first.
- Animal Game: Pick an animal and let Alexa figure out what you choose by asking you a series of questions.
- Memory Game: Repeat the word Alexa says, then repeat that word with the next word Alexa says, until you can repeat the entire list.
While not as robust with games as Alexa, you can still entertain yourself with Siri and the following:
- Flip a Coin: Have Siri respond with “heads” or “tails” to make a decision for you.
- Roll a Die: Guess the number Siri rolls with one die.
- Hear a Joke: Ask Siri to tell you a joke; you can even make it themed.
Conclusion
By providing your class with activities like these, they can better comprehend the concept and capabilities of AI. And be sure to check out these AI tools for teachers for ways you can use AI to help you tackle your daily tasks.
