Shaping AI Interest in Rural Middle Schools with Unplugged Learning: Gender Differences and Teacher Insights

Source publication / research team or educational organization described in paper

USA, United States

Researchers, educators, instructors, or facilitators as described in the source publication

• In-school (K-12)

Classroom, course, or resource-based AI education activity

Not specified in extracted text

ina’s 100 coun- ties, 80 are identified as rural and they serve over 500,000 K- 12 students, more than half of whom are of color, live in low wealth communities, and attend under-performing schools where there a; the class- rooms of two rural middle school teachers, reaching approx- imately 90 students. In this paper, we provide an overview of the game, as well as report on the professional development offered to our pa; ng the enhancement of creative thinking and the fostering of motivation among K-12 students (Walter 2024; Wang et al. 2023). This has led to a surge in scholarly efforts aimed at developing and refining effectiv

AI literacy / AI concepts

• Teacher readiness, time, support, and classroom integration may affect implementation quality.
• Use with minors requires attention to privacy, consent, data minimization, and adult supervision.

6-8

Mixed or not explicitly specified; infer from target learner group and intervention design.

Varies by intervention; not specified unless the paper explicitly describes prerequisites.

• Document the AI education intervention, course, tool, or resource described in the source publication.
• Extract the learner context, AI role, pedagogy, outcomes, and constraints for AAB registry comparison.
• Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is at an inflection point.

• Support AAB comparison across AI literacy, AI education, teacher training, higher education, and workforce contexts.
• Capture evidence maturity, transferability, and limitations rather than treating the publication as product endorsement.

• Not an AAB endorsement of the tool, curriculum, provider, or result.
• Not a direct replication record unless the source paper reports implementation details sufficient for replication.

AI literacy / AI concepts

Not specified in extracted text

• Learning object / concept model

• Primary interaction pattern inferred from publication: Teacher professional development.
• AI capability focus: AI literacy / AI concepts.

• Use age-appropriate framing and teacher/facilitator oversight for any classroom deployment.

• Review the publication’s reported context, learner group, AI tool or curriculum, implementation process, and outcome evidence.
• Map the case to AAB registry fields for comparison across educational levels and AI capability types.
• Use the source publication and PDF for any manual verification before public registry release.

• Human educators/researchers remain responsible for instructional design, supervision, interpretation, and ethical safeguards.
• AI systems or AI concepts provide the learning object, support tool, evaluator, simulator, or automation context depending on the paper.

• Unplugged learning, Game-based learning
• Registry extraction emphasizes explicit learning goals, observed outcomes, constraints, and safety limitations.

• Teacher readiness, time, support, and classroom integration may affect implementation quality.
• Use with minors requires attention to privacy, consent, data minimization, and adult supervision.

• Case classified under: Published curriculum / implementation paper.
• Pedagogical pattern: Unplugged learning, Game-based learning.
• Any additional adaptations should be verified against the full paper before public-facing publication.

• Engagement evidence should be interpreted according to the source paper’s reported method and sample.
• In this paper, we report on our expe- rience introducing foundational AI concepts to rural middle school students using an unplugged game-based learning ac- tivity.

• In this paper, we report on our expe- rience introducing foundational AI concepts to rural middle school students using an unplugged game-based learning ac- tivity.
• By providing engaging learning experiences to rural populations, we hope to broaden interest in and understand- ing of AI technologies.

Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is at an inflection point. With daily use of AI escalating due to widely avail- able software tools, educators, researchers, and policymak- ers must adapt swiftly to changing educational needs.

• Use age-appropriate framing and teacher/facilitator oversight for any classroom deployment.

• Survey
• Activity documentation

• Can be used as an AAB evidence record for cross-case comparison, standards drafting, and evidence-maturity mapping.
• Supports identification of recurring patterns in AI literacy, AI education implementation, teacher preparation, assessment, and responsible AI learning.

• Conceptual understanding
• Engagement / motivation
• Teacher readiness
• Teacher professional development
• AI literacy / AI concepts

• Completed

6-8

In-school (K-12)

AI literacy / AI concepts

Unplugged learning, Game-based learning

Low to Medium

Medium

Shaping AI Interest in Rural Middle Schools with Unplugged Learning: Gender Differences and Teacher Insights

• Hansol Lim
• Danielle Boulden
• Jessica Vandenberg
• Veronica Cateté
• Wookhee Min
• Bradford Mott

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 39 No. 28, EAAI-25

2025

10.1609/aaai.v39i28.35188

https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AAAI/article/view/35188

https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AAAI/article/view/35188/37343

025_Shaping AI Interest in Rural Middle Schools with Unplugged Learning_ Gender Differences and Teacher Insights.pdf

9

Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is at an inflection point. With daily use of AI escalating due to widely avail- able software tools, educators, researchers, and policymak- ers must adapt swiftly to changing educational needs. While think tanks and Big Tech companies often promote the notion that AI serves as a powerful tool for democratizing access to knowledge and opportunities, our work in rural communi- ties underscores the disparity in access to AI education and related opportunities. In this paper, we report on our expe- rience introducing foundational AI concepts to rural middle school students using an unplugged game-based learning ac- tivity. By providing engaging learning experiences to rural populations, we hope to broaden interest in and understand- ing of AI technologies. To this end, we conducted a classroom study in which two middle school teachers implemented our unplugged AI learning activity with their students. Analyzing survey data from 60 of the participating students, we explore the impact of the activity on their interest in AI, their concep- tual understanding, and examine potential gender differences. Additionally, we share insights from the teachers who partici- pated in our professional development sessions in preparation for the classroom implementations.

• In-school (K-12)

• Teacher readiness, time, support, and classroom integration may affect implementation quality.
• Use with minors requires attention to privacy, consent, data minimization, and adult supervision.

Not specified in extracted text unless noted in duration field.

Requires educators/researchers/facilitators with sufficient AI literacy and pedagogy knowledge for the target learners.

Infrastructure depends on AI tool type, learner devices, data access, and institutional policy context.

High

• duration

This entry was automatically extracted from the PDF text and manifest metadata. Fields should be manually verified before public registry publication, especially group size, location, duration, and outcome claims.