NMSU partners with MIT, Boston College to launch NSF AI education study

Minerva Baumann, New Mexico State University

LAS CRUCES - A $2.5 million National Science Foundation award will fund New Mexico State University, MIT and Boston College researchers’ efforts to produce AI education materials that are age and developmentally appropriate for students in K-12 schools.

For the next three years, MIT, Boston College, NMSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and NMSU’s School of Teacher Preparation, Administration and Leadership will collaborate to design and pilot test learning activities and assessments to increase students’ understanding of artificial intelligence concepts.

The project called Learning Trajectories for AI (LTs4AI) falls under the NSF’s Discover Research in K-12 Learning program. It builds on a long-term collaboration between Enrico Pontelli, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Irene Lee, principal investigator of the project and research professor in NMSU’s College of Arts and Sciences. Amanda Peel, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in NMSU’s School of Teacher Preparation, Administration and Leadership, will work closely with Lee.

“Our overall goal is to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of AI so students can become critical consumers aware of how AI was created and how it works, informed citizens who can discuss privacy and security issues related to AI, as well as thoughtful stakeholders who participate in deciding when, how, and why AI should be integrated into our lives or not,” Lee said.

“This project is natural evolution of work that the team has conducted for several years, as part of an established collaboration and values around student success that we share,” said Pontelli. “I am particularly excited to work with Irene and the rest of the team on focusing our investigation on areas of New Mexico, which have been underserved and underrepresented in technical education. We will provide opportunities to teachers to provide their students with unique skills to make them competitive in their future endeavors.”

LTs4AI officially started Oct. 1 and partners with Las Cruces Public Schools, NMSU’s STEM Outreach Center in New Mexico and the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation and Waltham Public Schools in Massachusetts. Partners will assist with recruiting students to participate in studies and teachers to learn about AI and learn to teach about AI, specifically how AI works and its impacts on society through lessons aligned with the new learning trajectories.

“Learning trajectories are developmental paths that capture how students learn new concepts and develop specific understandings of content over time,” Lee said. “They are useful to teachers and curriculum designers to understand what knowledge students have, how students learn and how they can be assessed at different stages. The LTs4AI team will develop LTs that illustrate pathways for the learning of key AI concepts then design and pilot test learning activities and assessments targeting these concepts based on the LTs, offer teachers professional development on the LTs and related activities, and research the effectiveness of the LT-based activities when implemented by teachers during the regular school day.”

In the long term, this program seeks to contribute to the development of a diverse workforce with the knowledge and capability to work seamlessly with AI tools and prepare for careers in computationally intensive industries of the future.

The project’s research and resources will be disseminated through an awareness campaign aimed at researchers, practitioners, school administrators and teachers; a project website that includes lessons, activities, assessment tools, press releases, project reports and journal articles; and presentations and journal articles reaching both educators and researchers.

Minerva Baumann writes for New Mexico State University Marketing and Communications and can be reached at 575-646-7566, or by email at mbauma46@nmsu.edu.