Exploring Machine Learning

Explain to students that they are going to be exploring a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) called machine learning.

To see an example of machine learning in action, have students navigate to the online activity called Quick, Draw.

When they click the “Let’s Draw!” button, they will be asked to draw an object. As they draw, the program will try to predict what they are drawing. There are six simple drawings for them to complete. If they wish, they can click on an image to understand how the program determined what they were drawing and to see examples submitted by other people.

Technology

Quick Draw is an online game developed by Google. It uses a form of machine learning called neural networks and data from over 50 million drawings to guess what users are drawing in real time.

Students with motor skill challenges could be partnered up with a buddy to play the game.

Students who are blind or have low vision could do a similar activity by acting out a word and having other students guess the word.

Afterwards, have students watch the video explanation of the game A.I. Experiments: Quick, Draw! They can access it themselves by clicking on the pink question mark button at the upper left side of the main Quick, Draw page.

Have students share their thoughts about the activity using discussion prompts such as the ones on the right.

After the discussion, help students to understand that what the computer game was doing was making predictions. The student gave the computer program an input (their drawing) and the computer tried to predict what they were drawing. The prediction was given in the form of a word, which was the output.

Discussions

Discussion prompts can include:

• “How well did the game do with your drawings?”
• “Which drawings did it have trouble with? Why do you think that was?”
• “What did the program use as its input? What did it provide as its output?”
• “What other tasks do computers do that are like this?”

Lead a class discussion about examples of when AI is used to make predictions.

Student examples may include voice assistants, real-time driving directions, translation programs, shopping recommendations, video viewing recommendations and auto correct features.

Community Connections

Students could be challenged to think about all the local businesses that utilize technology to make predictions. For example, how could predictions be used to make things better in a community?

Have students read the Let’s Talk Science Backgrounder What is Machine Learning? 

Alternatively, have students watch the video Supervised vs Unsupervised vs Reinforcement Learning (6:26 min.).

Divide students into groups of three and have each member of the group complete one of the pages (supervised, unsupervised, self-supervised) of the Machine Learning Concept Definition Web reproducible [Google doc] [Word doc] [PDF].

Did you know?

Self-supervised machine learning is also known as Reinforcement machine learning.

Language

To assist students in understanding the text they could use a learning strategy such as Marking Text or work together in pairs.

Have a class discussion about the three types of machines learning using discussion prompts such as the ones on the right.

Discussions

Discussion prompts can include:

• “What sort of data does each type of machine learning use?”
• “What is each type of machine learning good for?”
• “What role do people play in each type of machine learning?”
• “What type of machine learning was used in the Quick Draw game? Why?”

Explain to students that they will be doing an unsupervised machine learning activity. In this activity they will focus on a common unsupervised machine learning task called clustering.

Provide each group of students with an assortment of objects, such as:

• Building blocks in different shapes, colours and sizes
• Fasteners of different shapes, sizes and types (e.g., nails, screws, nuts, bolts)
• Rocks of different shapes, sizes, colours, textures, hardness, etc.
• Other natural or recycled materials (e.g., sticks, egg cartons, etc.)
• Writing tools of different types and colours (e.g., pens, pencils, colour pencils, crayons, etc.)

The objects represent a set of data. Instruct the students to sort the objects into groups of their choice. There are no right or wrong ways to sort the objects.

Idea

If you wish you could have students use a Sorting Mats learning strategy.

Afterwards, based on how the students sorted their objects, have them identify sorting rules or algorithms that could be used to put new objects into the correct groupings.

For example, group 1 above sorted their shapes by colour. They could then set up a sorting rule that when a new shape was presented, the rule would put the shape into a cluster according to its colour.

Technology

Students could use the block coding program Scratch to test and show their algorithm to others.

Idea

Students could get other groups to sort the objects using only their algorithm.

Lead a class discussion about examples of when machine learning is used in clustering.

Clustering is used in fraud detection, marketing campaigns, user personas, medical imaging and more. For example:

• Scientists could use it to group stars by brightness or to group organisms by genetic information into a taxonomy.

Discussions

Discussion prompts can include:

• “How could clustering help keep bad products from leaving a factory?”
• “How could clustering keep your online purchases safe?”
• “How could clustering help scientists understand data?”

Idea

Students could look for other examples of clustering used in everyday life.

Students will consolidate and extend their knowledge using a Silent Discussion/Graffiti learning strategy.

As part of this activity, students will walk around the room and answer questions related to how machine learning can be used to help solve real world problems.

How could machine learning be used to reduce hunger? (SDG2)

How could machine learning be used to improve human health? (SDG3)

How could machine learning be used to improve education? (SDG4)

How could machine learning be used to provide the world with clean energy? (SDG7)

Afterwards, read out and discuss the responses on the sheets.

Idea

Post the papers around the room in locations that will be accessible to all students.

Idea

Four question prompts are provided, but you may wish to choose others depending on your unit of study.