AI Explorers Grades 3-5
Train a paper AI, test it, find its blind spots, and learn to use AI wisely, with Nova as your guide.
Free, start to finish. No card. Every week opens without signing in.
- Grade
- Grades 3 to 5
- Length
- 12 weeks
- Pace
- 6 short lessons a week, about 15 minutes each
- Price
- Free, every week
About this course
AI Explorers Grades 3-5 is a 12-week AI literacy course guided by Nova, the crew's AI companion drone. Kids build a paper sorting model for the space station's mission photos: they turn pictures into numbers, pick features, train with examples, test for accuracy and fix one-sided data. Then they learn why AI tools can sound sure and still be wrong, how to protect private information, and what makes AI fair and trustworthy. Short daily lessons with checked answers, an unplugged Explorer Lab each week and a Saturday Explorer Quest for the family. No child ever uses a real AI tool in the course. 100% free, start to finish.
Kids will
- Describe AI as a system people build that makes predictions, recommendations or decisions
- Show how a computer stores a picture as numbers
- Compare hand-written rules with learning from examples
- Train and test a model on paper and measure its accuracy
- Spot one-sided training data and fix it
- Check AI answers, protect private information and judge whether an AI is fair
The 12 weeks
-
Week 1
What Is AI?
Guesses, suggestions and choices
CSTA 1B-IC-18
-
Week 2
Sensors and Perception
How computers sense the world
CSTA 1B-CS-02
-
Week 3
Pictures as Numbers
Pixels and color values
CSTA 1B-DA-06
-
Week 4
Features and Models
Clues, questions and trees
CSTA 1B-DA-06
-
Week 5
Rules or Learning?
Two ways to build a helper
CSTA 1B-AP-08
-
Week 6
Training Data
Learning from labeled examples
CSTA 1B-DA-07
-
Week 7
Test the Model
Keep some cards back
CSTA 1B-DA-07
-
Week 8
Fair Data
Find the gap, fill the gap
CSTA 1B-IC-19
-
Week 9
Talking Machines
Words without feelings
CSTA 1B-IC-18
-
Week 10
When AI Is Wrong
Sure is not the same as right
CSTA 1B-IC-18
-
Week 11
Private and Safe
Some things stay with you
CSTA 1B-NI-05
-
Week 12
Design a Fair Helper
Build trust, celebrate the journey
CSTA 1B-IC-19
Standards practiced. CSTA: 1B-AP-08, 1B-CS-02, 1B-DA-06, 1B-DA-07, 1B-IC-18, 1B-IC-19, 1B-NI-05. Each week has short lessons Monday to Friday, with an unplugged Explorer Lab on Wednesday and a family Explorer Quest on Saturday.
More in AI Explorers
Try Week 1 today.
Open the course, pick Day 1 and go. Make a free parent account when you want progress saved for each kid.