Introducing Reinforcement Learning to K-12 Students with Robots and Augmented Reality

As artificial intelligence (AI) plays a more prominent role in our everyday lives, it becomes increasingly important to introduce basic AI concepts to K-12 students. To help do this, we combined physical robots and an augmented reality (AR) software to help students learn some of the fundamental concepts of reinforcement learning (RL). We chose RL because it is conceptually easy to understand but has received the least attention in previous research on teaching AI to K-12 students. We designed a series of activities in which students can design their own robots and train them with RL to finish a variety of tasks. We tested our platform with a pilot study conducted with 14 high school students in a rural city. Students’ engagement and learning were assessed through a qualitative analysis of students’ behavior and discussions. The result showed that students were able to understand both high-level AI concepts and specific RL terms through our activities. Also, our approach of combining virtual platforms and physical robots engaged students and inspired their curiosity to self-explore more about RL.