So a new artificial intelligence program will seek to teach students AI fluency early on, regardless of their ZIP code.
The AI Fluency Pilot Project, spanning grades one through five across Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, was launched by Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab, the nonprofit STEM Coding Lab and the Valley School of Ligonier.
“Many existing approaches to AI education focus on how to use specific tools or prompt engineering,” said Illah Nourbakhsh, a professor in the Robotics Institute at CMU’s School of Computer Science, and director of the CREATE Lab, in an announcement Tuesday. “These are useful and necessary, but students want much more — they want to know how to navigate the AI future no matter how it evolves.”
With the implementation of 20 in-class AI modules, the project extends “beyond simple tool usage.”
The aim is for students to grasp AI’s ethical and societal implications, through a deep, foundational understanding of how the tech works. The Richard King Mellon Foundation funds the pilot project.
“AI fluency means students are thinking deeply about context, limitations and human-centered values,” Mr. Nourbakhsh said.
“We are asking, ‘How did we get here? Where are we going? And how do we prepare students to maintain human values in an ever-changing world?’”
Title I schools — or public schools that receive federal funding to support low-income, underserved communities — are a focus of the project and the mission of the STEM Coding Lab nonprofit that serves more than 4,300 K-8 students.
Melissa Fuller, CEO of the STEM Coding Lab, said the three organizations are designing the modules now, with plans to roll out the pilot in the fall. She said the key to the design and her lab’s work is “relatability.”
“Relatability is so critical in the communities that we serve,” Ms. Fuller said. “You can’t teach something that is not something they’re familiar with. For example, if you’re talking about Alexa, and families don’t have an Alexa at home, they don't understand what Alexa is or does.”
There is a gap, the announcement said, between the modern digital economy and Keystone state education. “With 92 percent of modern jobs [requiring] digital literacy, Code.org’s 2024 report shows that only 13 percent of Pennsylvania elementary schools offer computer science education.”
“By intervening early, the project ensures that students in Pittsburgh’s high-need communities won’t be structurally excluded from the economic and academic opportunities created by the AI evolution.”
While the STEM Coding Lab, which partners with 22 schools and institutions in Allegheny County, will pilot the program with the Valley School of Ligonier, the lab is also “currently identifying the schools where we will pilot this curriculum.”
CMU’s validation of the technology will be crucial, Ms. Fuller said. The STEM Coding Lab has plans to expand to more cities and reach 10,000 students by 2028, she said. If the pilot goes well, each of those students would get access to the program. She said the collaboration that makes this possible is exciting.
“Youth would not have this kind of access if it weren’t for STEM Coding Lab, if it weren’t for the support from the school districts, if it weren’t for the support from the university, if it weren’t for the support from the foundation, and that, I think, is what makes me most excited,” she said. “The impact and the work that we’re all doing to bring this to the students, who we feel need it the most, is truly the win.”
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