A board game for AI conquers the Class Room
"I couldn’t imagine that we would be able to find out something about machine learning with the help of board games. I’m grateful to having received the possibility to learn more about it during class." (Incilay, high school jstudent)
More than 2.000 schools and educational institutions have already ordered teaching materials and the board game in the Science Year 2019 about the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). The quintessence of the campaign is the game "Gosh, Machine!", which helps the teenagers to understand how machine learning processes function. The high numbers of orders and the continuing interest are a sign for the success of the campaign and emphasise the need of educational offers about the AI. Within a press meeting the Federal Minister Anja Karliczek and Dr. Ekkehard Winter, manager of the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung exchanged with high school students from the high school Tiergarten in Berlin. Due to a Youth Campaign Incilay, who is a high school student of the qualification level and is excited about the game and intends to deal with topics of AI in more detail.
Federal Minister Karliczek emphasises: "In our world which becomes more and more digital artificial intelligence (AI) is a future technology. Therefore is important to not only explain AI to children and teenagers, but also to fascinate them for it. It works out perfectly with the game ‘Gosh, Machine!’". Especially due to its analog form the board game makes it possible to present the highly complex machine learning in an understandable way. Therefore we will produce 150 more copies, so more schools in Germany can profit from this offer. It is clear that one has to deal with AI interdisciplinary at high school.
Dr. Ekkehard Winter, the manager of the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung, is excited: "The game is an excellent component in order to introduce teenagers at high schools, as well as elsewhere, to Artificial Intelligence. The idea has convinced us immediately. It makes us even more happy that this campaign has been so successfull. From this project will surely evolve more offers."
Prof. Dr. Carsten Schulte from the professorial chair of Computer Science Didactics at the University of Paderborn, who has developed the game with his collegues, also participated in the exchange with the Federal Minister. The present teachers and teenagers emphasise the unique selling point of the campaign: the easy entry into the complex topic of the AI has immediately woken the interest of the teenagers. Teaching materials of the Youth Campaign have been developed by the University of Paderborn within the project Data Science which has been promoted by the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung. The publication of the game is made in ccoperation with the Federal Ministery for Education and Research. The Youth Campaign is part of the Science Year of 2019 which deals with questions about the AI.
More information: www.wissenschaftsjahr.de/jugendaktion
