DASME Start-up seminar

Demystifying the ‘Magic’: Teaching Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Secondary Education

Yannik Fleischer

Paderborn University

In this talk, I will introduce the project Data Science and Big Data in Schools (prodabi.de/en) and then focus on a subproject dedicated to teaching machine learning in secondary education through the example of data-based decision trees. As part of this subproject, we developed digital tools and teaching designs for grades 6, 9, and 11/12, and conducted empirical studies to evaluate their use in the classroom. The tools include Data Cards for structured unplugged data exploration and decision tree construction (prodabi.de/en/toolkit-datenkarten/), the browser-based data analysis platform CODAP (www.codap.concord.org) with its decision tree plug-in Arbor, and Jupyter Notebooks (JNB) for advanced computational work. We developed specific JNB that use a simplified version of professional decision tree learning algorithms, ranging from completely menu-based interactive versions to versions that allow students to access, understand and modify selected central code snippets to adapt to the diversity of coding skills of students.

I will explain what data-based decision trees are, why they can serve as an example of machine learning, present teaching materials, and share selected findings from the classroom studies (Fleischer et al., 2022, 2024; Fleischer & Biehler, 2025).

The talk is based on collaborative work with Rolf Biehler

References

Fleischer, Y., & Biehler, R. (2025). Exploring students’ constructions of data-based decision trees after an introductory teaching unit on machine learning. ZDM – Mathematics Education, 57(1), 153–173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-025-01663-6

Fleischer, Y., Biehler, R., & Schulte, C. (2022). Teaching and Learning Data-Driven Machine Learning with Educationally Designed Jupyter Notebooks. Statistics Education Research Journal, 21(2), 7. https://doi.org/10/gqv59w

Fleischer, Y., Podworny, S., & Biehler, R. (2024). Teaching and learning to construct data-based decision trees using data cards as the first introduction to machine learning in middle school. Statistics Education Research Journal, 23(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v23i1.450