Here we are, back in fourth grade. The students have just finished learning about animal groups - there are molluscs, birds, we also have mammals, and so on. In their previous lesson, they were given a bunch of pictures of different animals, and for each of them, they needed to fill out a little questionnaire, indicating if the animal is slimy, if it flies (even a little), if it has ears, and other things. They were also asked to write down the animal’s name and which group it belongs to.

In this lesson, though, we took this information and saw how based on such cues, a computer can learn to identify these main groups of animals on its own. If you want to find out all the fun things we did, check the activity description. But let us just say: it was awesome!

The students showed a surprisingly good understanding of how a tree works. While some got curious, asking hypothetical questions like “what would happen if…”, others were quick to answer them. Instinctively, they immediately understood that having no prior knowledge of birds, a computer simply has no means to identify them accurately. (Thankfully, no one suggested, “Why doesn’t it just Google it?”) They also really tried to outdo each other in who could come up with the most unusual animal.

Without a shred of doubt we can say the lesson also brought extra value to the school subject it was integrated in: the students engaged in serious discussions whether elephants are in fact slimy, whether penguins can really be considered birds and if they are covered in hair or feathers. (One student was adamant it was hair, since otherwise they would obviously feel cold in the water, to which others replied she should also try putting on some extra clothes too next time she goes swimming.) In case you were wondering, they obviously also had all the facts on platypuses too, no big deal.

The lesson definitely served as a perfect inspiration to completely rewrite the activity description. This is exactly why we do these test lessons in the first place.

But the main thing: as we were leaving, one of the students declared: “This was the best lesson ever!” Yes!