🔍 Grades 3–5 AI Detectives Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives

• Understand how decision trees help computers classify information.
• Explain why training data must be complete and diverse to avoid bias.
• Identify unfair patterns in simple datasets and propose fixes.

Materials

• Digital games: Kai's Decision Tree Detective + AI Fairness Detective (pack)
• Printable activities: Decision Tree Cards, Bias Scenario Cards
• Optional: printed diverse face cards for the Fairness Test

Lesson Structure

1. Hook (5 min) – Show a simple decision tree on the board (e.g., "Is it an animal? Yes/No"). Ask: "How could we use this to sort animals?"
2. Digital play – Decision Tree (15 min) – Students play Kai's Decision Tree Detective in pairs. Discuss: "What happened when Kai met a whale?"
3. Fairness discussion (10 min) – Introduce the concept of training data bias. Use the Fairness Test unplugged activity: "Pick the teachers" from diverse photos.
4. Digital play – Bias (15 min) – Students play AI Fairness Detective. Ask: "What was missing in the training data? How did you fix it?"
5. Wrap‑up (5 min) – Hand out Bias Scenario Cards. Remind students: "If we only show AI cats and dogs, it won't know what a fox is."