Description of the project

Brief description

The goal of the project is to significantly increase the knowledge and decision-making skills of students about the future technology of AI. The aim is to counteract the alarmingly low level of knowledge among the general public with an interdisciplinary, highly attractive learning laboratory for students to touch, experiment, and participate in. The Learning Lab will be developed in collaboration with scientists and students and will be made available free of charge to schools and educational institutions in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region and beyond.
At the same time, it is intended to further develop FAU’s expertise in learning lab didactics – a highly effective learning tool that has been gaining importance in schools and universities for years. Finally, the project – the first of its kind – is intended to strengthen FAU’s pioneering role as an innovative location in Germany and to promote the university and the relevant fields of study: Among other things, the learning lab presents the AI research areas at FAU. It also aims to establish links between future employers and industrial partners in the field of artificial intelligence and to highlight the innovative power of this technology.

The project is a cooperation of the Nuremberg School Museum with the FAU Chair of Computer Science Education and the FAU Chair of Computer Science 3 (Computer Architecture).

Project Idea and Goal

A new type of learning laboratory, which will be available free of charge to schools and educational institutions in the Nuremberg metropolitan region and beyond, is intended to provide students with a particularly intensive and sustainable introduction to the subject of AI. The project aims to arouse interest and fascination in young people for the technology and especially for its future-oriented potential. At the same time, the pressing need for action concerning educational policy and ethical matters should be transferred.  Young people should acquire the skills they need to deal with AI, but also acquire skills for their future career decisions. The target group is the 7th to 13th grade, from middle school to high school. Moreover, the project offers the opportunity to promote relevant degree programs at the FAU with a wide reach (metropolitan region) – not least because of the pressing shortage of skilled workers and accelerated technological progress. At the same time, the FAU students involved also benefit – they are involved in the development and take on the pedagogical supervision – from the strengthened experience with learning labs, through the newly acquired AI expertise, and the reflective practical contact with students. The museum, department, and school staff have the opportunity to further develop an important learning format innovatively and to gain new expertise through joint development. All these effects among the schools, but also the FAU students, are also of particular importance because of the upcoming integration of the topic of “AI” into the curriculum and for the Hightech Agenda Bayern.

The focus of the learning lab will be on fundamental questions about AI – integrated into young people’s everyday topics: How long have AI systems been around and what is behind them? What can AI systems do – real and purely theoretical? What should we be afraid of? Are our jobs, data protection, and human rights at risk? What is a special opportunity? What is being researched (and produced) here in the region and at FAU, but also worldwide? Where in our everyday lives are AI systems already at work? How will the technology change our professional world?

In addition, the fundamental principles of artificial intelligence are introduced (including weak and strong AI, deep learning, etc.), as well as an overview of research conducted at FAU institutions and current applications in the economy is given. These include intelligent prostheses, algorithms that recognize musical taste, and the use of AI to defend against hacker attacks and combat pandemics. 

Twenty-five themed stations or learning arrangements are being developed, which can be attached to conventional school desks. It is sufficient to present the entire learning laboratory in an average classroom. The stations enable young people to investigate phenomena, questions, and the everyday applications of AI independently and experimentally. The learning arrangements are primarily analog and designed to be “hands-on” and only use media technology and electronic components in exceptional cases. The modules are constructed from robust, easily transportable boxes, which have been used with considerable success by the school museum for many years in the delivery of the “Mathelier” mathematics learning workshop to secondary schools.