The ninth grade English class embarked on a two-month book club project that reached its apex with an artificial intelligence (AI) integrated presentation accompanied by coded robots on April 3. Inspired by technology-focused science-fiction books, students learned in an atypical fashion on a futuristic journey.

Inspired by en vogue topics of automation and future job scarcity, secondary English teacher Ms. Loustch planned a project that featured robotics. Freshman chose from the following books: “Feed” by M. T. Anderson, “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline, “Catfishing on CatNet: A Novel” by Naomi Kritzer, “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer. 

“I wanted them to be able to have what a lot of jobs and companies are looking for, which is that teamwork aspect where there are different experts on a team, and you’re asked to design or create something. … I wanted them to have that experience as well — trying to walk through the design process, fixing their so-called prototypes that they presented to their peers, and adjusting it for the audience,” Ms. Loustch said 

The first half of the presentation required groups to stand in front of a crowd and share their knowledge. “AI is the newest kind of technology that everyone’s been talking about. The usage of AI in their presentation can make their presentation really interactive and come alive,” Ms. Loustch added. 

Yujun Piao, Jayden Hayward, Haydn Mangione, and Lucy Kim read the book “Klara and the Sun” — a world where people can purchase artificial friends (AF). In the book, Josie’s mother buys an AF — Klara — for her sick child. For their demonstration, they produced not only a video that narrates the details and real-life incorporation of an AF, but also a virtual reality (VR) game with Klara’s AI avatar in it. 

“We created this AI avatar of Klara through the [Unreal Engine platform], where we put background knowledge, everything that has to do with Klara’s personality, and her prior knowledge or memory. Then you can actually use the VR to talk with Klara,” Piao said. 

For the final portion, the freshmen staged a demo by Kamibots. “Mr. Jolly sent out an email [for optional training with Kamibots]. I know the value coding has, so I did [it], and we actually had to tell a brief story in the training. I thought about how I could bring storytelling into this project since it is already revolved around technology. I added a second component to the project in which students had to make a skit of their books — like a book trailer or hook — for the sixth graders using bots,” Ms. Loutsch said. 

Over three to four weeks, the students were the guinea pigs of the Kamibots project. They built their code from scratch and navigated through difficulties connecting between the bots and their algorithms.

“I was developing new technology that didn’t exist before. We learned resilience, agility, and the mindset [of perseverance]. Even though it doesn’t work [after] five times, try it ten times, and then you’ll get to the stage where you developed a lot of knowledge about that kind of platform or new technology,” said Piao, the “coder” of his group. 

Despite difficulties, the final results proved fruitful as the audience showed approval. “This is not an easy project because I was asking for a lot — not just being able to talk about the book, but also tying it to research and artificial intelligence … Overall, I’m proud of the students. They worked hard on it and brought their skit to life. The first time you do anything, it can be rocky,” Ms. Loustch said. 

Through two months of hyper-fixation on their books, the students left with an in-depth understanding of future technology and the ability to write code for Kamibots. Despite serving as guinea pigs for this pilot project, the freshmen built resilience and presentation skills that brought smiles to their audience. Ms. Loustch thanks Mr. Pierog for his assistance with the bots and Ms. Nagy and her sixth-grade English class for their attendance and participation. 

Gallery • 9 Photos

Selina Son

Beatrice Lee, Jio Kim, and Reina Li showcase the miniature set-up of their project. Jio holds the groups' main centerpiece, a rocket.