AIQ
AIQ
Part of the Step-by-Step Instructions lesson guide. Teaching a different grade? 🔧 Builder (8–10) · 💻 Hacker (11–14) · ⚡ Architect (15–18)
Gather students on the rug or have them turn to face you. Hold up both hands like a robot and speak in a flat, robot-y voice for the first line — Explorer kids love this and it sets up the whole lesson.
Say, in your robot voice: "Can you teach a ROBOT to make a sandwich? 🥪🤖" (Drop the robot voice here.) "You have to tell it EVERY step! Like: 'Pick up the bread. Open the jar.' If you forget one step... oh no! Let's find out what happens!"
Ask: "Who here has made a peanut butter sandwich before?" Most hands will go up. Say: "Easy, right? Now — what if I told a ROBOT to make one, and the robot doesn't know ANYTHING except exactly what I say? Let's try it together."
This is the whole warm-up — it should take under two minutes. The goal is just to get them grinning at the idea of a literal-minded robot before you open the app. Keep your energy big and playful here; the "robot voice" bit is doing real work, because it signals to five-, six-, and seven-year-olds that the robot in the story is a character, not a scary or mean thing — nobody is being tested or judged yet, they're just about to play a game.
Open the lesson on the shared screen or have students open it on their own devices. Read the scenes aloud together rather than letting them tap through silently — at this age the story lands better spoken than read. Plan for the whole activity, all three parts, to run about 10–15 minutes; the sandwich role-play in Part 2 is the part worth slowing down for, since that's where the actual learning happens.
Explain simply: "An algorithm is just a fancy word for 'the steps you do, in order.'" Then connect it to things they already know:
This is the heart of the lesson. Tell students you are going to be the robot, and they have to give you instructions to "make a sandwich" using only what they say — nothing you already know how to do.
Ask for instructions one step at a time, and follow them exactly and only as literally as spoken — this is the whole trick. If a student says "put peanut butter on the bread" and no one has said "open the jar," mime spreading a knife on the closed jar lid with a confused robot face. The class will immediately shout "no, open it first!"
Example exchange:
Student: "Pick up the bread!" — You pick up one imaginary slice.
Student: "Put peanut butter on it!" — You mime pressing a closed jar against the bread, then freeze, robot-confused. "ERROR. JAR. IS. CLOSED."
Class: laughs, shouts "open the jar first!"
You: "Ohh! You have to tell the robot EVERY step, even the ones that seem obvious to you!"
A second exchange, a little later, once the jar is open:
Student: "Now put the peanut butter on!" — You dip an imaginary whole hand into the jar and smear it across the bread with your palm. Freeze again, robot-confused.
Class: laughs, shouts "use the KNIFE, not your hand!"
You: "See? I only used what you told me to use. You said 'put peanut butter on' — you didn't say 'with the knife.' Let's add that!"
This second round matters because it shows the same lesson twice with a different kind of gap — the first was a missing step (open the jar), and the second is a missing detail (which tool to use). Both count as "not specific enough," and seeing both helps students generalize the idea instead of thinking the whole lesson was only ever about jars.
Let two or three more "gotcha" moments happen (forgetting to remove the crust wrapper, stacking the second bread slice sideways because no one said "on top"). Each time, ask: "What did we forget to say?" and add the missing step to the list on the board. By the end you should have a full, numbered list of every tiny step it actually took — usually many more than the class expected at the start.
If a group gets frustrated that the "robot" (you) keeps failing, that's a good moment to use age-appropriate framing rather than calling anything "wrong": "The robot isn't being silly, and you didn't mess up — we just found a step we forgot to say. Let's add it!" This keeps the mood playful and matches how AIQ talks about mistakes everywhere else in the app — nothing here is framed as a failure, only as a step still waiting to be found.
For a shyer class, or one where only a few voices tend to dominate, try going around the circle so every child gets to contribute exactly one step, in turn, rather than taking volunteers. This naturally slows the pace down too, which usually makes the missing-step moments even more visible and satisfying when they happen.
Briefly point out one or two examples without going deep: "A traffic light is an algorithm too — green, then yellow, then red, then it starts over, forever, like a pattern that never stops." You can add one more if the class still has energy: "Even the game on your tablet uses steps — like 'if the bad guy gets close, run away!'" If devices are open, let students tap through the "Real Algorithms" scene themselves for one minute while you circulate and answer questions.
Keep this part short and light — the goal is only to plant the idea that "steps in order" show up outside of sandwiches and shoelaces too, not to explain how any of these systems actually work. A single sentence per example is enough at this age; the deeper "how it works" conversation belongs to the Builder and Hacker versions of this same lesson.
Keep this discussion short — five questions read one at a time, with a few volunteers answering each, is plenty for this age group. Sitting on the rug in a circle for this part, rather than staying at desks, tends to get more hands up.
Close with: "Today you learned that an algorithm is just the steps, in order, and every single step matters — even the ones that feel too obvious to say out loud. You gave a robot instructions, and you found the missing steps together!"
Extension activity (10–15 minutes): In pairs, have one student be the "robot" and the other give spoken step-by-step instructions for a simple everyday task — washing hands, packing a school bag, or drawing a house. The "robot" partner must follow the instructions exactly as said, doing nothing that wasn't stated. Swap roles halfway through. Bring the class back together and ask a few pairs to share the funniest "robot moment" where a missing step caused something silly to happen.
If you have extra time: Draw a simple three-step picture algorithm on the board (for example: draw a circle → draw two dot eyes → draw a smile) and ask the class to follow it exactly, step by step, on their own paper. Then scramble the order (smile → circle → eyes) and have them try again, so they can see for themselves that the same three steps, done out of order, make something that doesn't look like a face at all.
Send this idea home if you can: encourage students to notice one "recipe" or "set of steps" at home that night — brushing teeth, feeding a pet, setting the table — and be ready to share it the next day. This turns "algorithm" from a word they heard once in class into something they start noticing on their own, which is exactly the habit this whole world of lessons is building toward.