AIQ
AIQ
Part of the AI & the Environment lesson guide. Teaching a different grade? 🔧 Builder (8–10) · 💻 Hacker (11–14) · ⚡ Architect (15–18)
Gather everyone where they can see the screen. Before you open the lesson, ask a quick warm-up question: "Who left a light on in a room they weren't even in today?" Let two or three kids answer — someone always has a story. Nod along, then say:
"AI uses a LOT of electricity — like leaving every light in your whole house on for a YEAR! ⚡"
Pause there and let that land — most 5–7 year-olds have a very concrete sense of "a whole year" as an enormous amount of time, so this comparison usually gets a real reaction ("a YEAR?!"). Then soften it with the good news, which is the actual point of the lesson:
"But AI also helps protect our planet! Today we're going to look at BOTH sides — the part where AI uses a lot of power, and the part where AI helps the Earth."
Keep the tone playful, not alarming — this is not a lesson about AI being scary or bad. Explorer mode never uses "wrong" or failure language, and the same spirit applies to the environment topic: AI isn't a villain here, it's something big that has both a cost and a benefit, like a car that helps you get places but also needs gas. If your class has met Pixel, the Explorer-mode mascot, you can say Pixel is going to help you sort things into two piles today: things that help the Earth, and things that use a lot of power. That framing sets up the sorting activity that follows.
Before tapping into the app, do one 60-second physical warm-up: ask everyone to stand up and pretend to flick on every light switch in their imaginary house — kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, hallway — while you count "1 house!" Then ask them to imagine 1,000 kids all doing that at once, for a whole year, without ever turning a single light off. That physical, silly moment of "flicking switches" gives their bodies something to attach the abstract number to before you show them the actual lesson screen, which matters a great deal at this age — a number like "1,000 homes for a year" means very little until it's been turned into something they can act out.
Open the lesson and let the app's scenes play, but slow down and add your own concrete comparisons at each stop — that's what makes the numbers mean something to a 6-year-old. The lesson moves through three stops: AI's cost, AI helping the planet, and finding the balance. You don't need to explain every fact on screen; pick the ones below and lean on them.
Stop 1 — AI's Carbon Cost. When the "Training Energy" card comes up, say: "Teaching one big AI took as much electricity as 1,000 houses use in a whole year!" Ask the class to imagine their whole street, or a street bigger than theirs, with every single house's lights, TV, and fan running non-stop for a year — that's the size of the number. Expect some kids to ask "why does it need so much power just to learn?" — a simple, honest answer for this age is: "It's not learning the way you learn one thing at a time. It's looking at an enormous, enormous pile of examples — more than anyone could count — and that takes a lot of computer work." When the "Candle" card comes up (this one is not AI — flag that clearly), explain simply: "A candle makes light by burning wax. Most of what it makes is actually heat, not light — only a tiny bit is light you can see." This is a nice contrast because a candle feels tiny and AI training feels huge, even though both "use energy to make something happen." For "Data Centers," you can add: "All the computers that run AI for the whole world live together in big buildings, and together they use as much electricity as some entire countries!" For "Water Usage," say: "The computers that run AI get hot, just like your body gets hot when you run around — and just like you might want a cold drink or a fan, those computers need water to cool down. A LOT of water."
Stop 2 — AI Helping the Planet. This is the "good news" half, and Explorer-mode students respond well to hero framing here. For "Energy Grids," say: "AI helps make sure a whole city's electricity isn't wasted — like a really good traffic cop for electricity!" For "Smart Farming," say: "AI drones can look down at a farmer's plants from the sky and tell exactly which plants are thirsty or sick — so the farmer doesn't have to spray the whole field with bug spray, just the parts that need it." For "Composting" (not AI — flag it), say: "You don't need any computer at all to help the Earth this way — just put food scraps in the right bin, and they turn into dirt that helps new plants grow!" For "Ocean Cleanup," say: "AI can look at pictures taken from space and spot plastic floating in the ocean, so cleanup boats know exactly where to go."
Stop 3 — The Balance. Keep this short and concrete for this age band: "So AI uses a lot of power, AND AI helps the Earth. Grown-up scientists are still trying to figure out if the helping part is bigger than the using part! What do you think?" Take a few hands, and accept any answer — there is no wrong guess here, because even the scientists don't fully agree yet. When "Green AI" appears on screen, this is the moment to plant the seed for the quiz question on it: "Some scientists are working really hard to build AI that does the same job while using a lot LESS power — kind of like finding a car that goes just as fast but uses way less gas. That's called 'Green AI.' It's not about the color green at all!"
Sorting activity. If time allows, use the lesson's own "AI or not AI" pairs as a quick standing/sitting game instead of just clicking through the app: call out an item — AI model training, a candle, AI grid optimization, composting, AI crop monitoring, a solar panel, an AI data center, a ruler — and have kids stand up if they think it's AI, stay seated if not. Reveal the answer each time and cheer either way. Expect a few kids to stand for "solar panel" because it sounds high-tech and Earth-friendly at the same time — that's a good, gentle teaching moment: a solar panel is a real, helpful piece of technology, but it isn't AI. It doesn't think, learn, or make decisions — it just turns sunlight into electricity, the same way every time. Compare it to the "ruler" example: both are simple, useful tools with no "thinking" involved, which is exactly what makes something not AI in this lesson's sorting game.
Expect the "candle" example to also trip a few kids up in the other direction — because it involves fire and heat, some will guess it's somehow "high-tech" too. Gently redirect: "A candle is very old — people have used candles for thousands of years, long before computers existed. It doesn't sense anything or make any choices, it just burns." This contrast (candle vs. AI training) is actually the most useful pairing in the whole lesson for this age group, because both examples involve "using energy to make something happen," which is the actual concept you're teaching — not "AI is a computer" but "using energy to do something has a cost, whether it's old technology or new."
Close with: "AI is like a big helper that also needs a lot of power to run — just like a big truck can carry a lot of things, but also needs a lot of gas. Today you learned AI uses electricity and water, AND AI helps watch over farms, forests, and oceans. Both things are true at the same time!"
Extension activity (10–15 minutes): Hand out paper folded in half. On one side, have students draw "AI using a lot of power" (a big building with lights, a computer that's hot). On the other side, have them draw "AI helping the Earth" (a farm, a forest with no fire, a clean ocean). While they draw, walk around and ask each child to tell you one thing about their drawing — this doubles as an informal check that the two-sided idea landed.
As a bonus real-world tie-in, challenge the class to be "energy detectives" for the rest of the day: spot one light, fan, or screen that's on but nobody's using, and turn it off. At the end of the day, ask everyone who caught something to raise their hand and briefly share what they found — a light in the hallway, a TV left on in another room, a computer nobody was sitting at. This turns the abstract "AI uses electricity" idea into a habit they can practice immediately, with electricity they can actually see and touch, rather than something that only happens inside a faraway data center.
If your class has extra time, a simple follow-up the next day works well too: bring in one small potted plant or a cup of soil with compost mixed in, and let students take turns feeling the difference between compost-enriched soil and plain soil. Tie it back with one sentence: "Remember — this is something that helps the Earth and doesn't need any AI at all!"