Summary

This assignment provides an opportunity for students to gain an understanding of data bias in an authentic way. The teacher and students work together to collect data and analyze the relationship between data and bias.  This assignment provides a captivating story and interactive lesson plan for students in third through fifth grade to explore the practical, real-life implications of data bias. To achieve such educational goals, the storyline revolves around a young female character who successfully runs a lemonade stand with the help of her data scientist mother and a diverse group of friends.

Topics

Data Bias, Data Literacy, Introduction to AI, Machine Learning, [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] (DE&I)

Audience

3rd-5th Grade Students

Difficulty

90 minutes (or 2 sessions of 45 minutes each) for beginners. 

10 minutes to read story and warm up

35 minutes to complete Candy Stand Activity

35 minutes to complete Selecting Pet for the Family activity 

10 minute to wrap up

No technical skills are needed, but knowledge of “5 Big Ideas in AI” or AI fundamentals is helpful. To prepare for the lesson, the teacher can read the story ahead of time, examine how data bias is identified in the story, and use Teachable Machine to label classes and train the model.

Strengths

·      A female lead character solves problems using data

·      A captivating story with vibrant characters and real-world problems

·      Multimedia teacher resources including a book, videos, online sites, and interactive quizzes

·      A comprehensive introduction into data bias for young students 

Weaknesses

·      American students relate most directly to the concept of a lemonade-stand 

·      Diverse neighborhood and friend group might seem unusual to some international students

Dependencies

No dependencies or prerequisite knowledge is required.

Web-based tools: Teaching Machine for creating machine learning models and Google Docs for data visualization.

Variants

The assignment introduces 3rd to 5th grade students to the concept of data bias. The story and lesson plans could be redesigned for high school or college level students utilizing the worksheet and online resources. While subsequent coursework in machine learning and data analytics will provide students with a clearer understanding, this assignment introduces students to data bias in an interactive, practical way.