In our latest edition of the Year 6 Interdisciplinary Unit on Artificial Intelligence, held last year, students explored AI through questions that were close to their own lives and concerns. In one classroom, they trained a simple bot using information about their own ancestors and quickly discovered how the choice of data shapes outcomes. In another, they recreated archaeological remains and reflected on how technology can help us understand the past, but also change how it is interpreted.
Across the unit, students watched and discussed films that present different visions of the future of humanity. They explored how artificial intelligence is applied in medicine, examined how machine learning works through mathematical algorithms, and even composed a song by hand, word by word, before using any technology. This last activity helped them understand how prediction and context work in natural language models.
This is what AI education in the Middle Years looks like at St PETER’S SCHOOL. It is not about learning to use tools, but about understanding how artificial intelligence works, how it affects people, and why human values and choices are always part of technological systems. We are happy to share that this project has received external recognition with the Observa AI Prize, awarded by Edutech Cluster.
And yes, there is something we still smile about: this project started back in March 2022, before ChatGPT became part of everyday conversations. That first edition set the tone for everything that followed.
Here is the link to the first edition.
None of this would be possible without the people behind it. We would like to thank our teachers for their motivation, commitment and passion. The 2025 edition was led by Dr. Nikolay Taran, with the involvement of teachers from different subject areas and the valuable support of our student Irina Kireeva, who specialises in artificial intelligence and helped make the project possible.
The Observa AI Prize: why this recognition matters
The Observa AI Prize recognises educational projects that help students observe and interpret artificial intelligence with depth and responsibility. The focus is not on technical skill alone, but on how learning supports critical thinking, ethical awareness and agency.
For St PETER’S, this recognition confirms a clear educational choice. AI education in the Middle Years is understood as an opportunity to help students ask questions, reflect on consequences and engage with complexity. It also shows that students at this age are ready to explore these topics when learning is grounded in real experiences and thoughtful dialogue.
AI education beyond tools: learning through experience
In the first year of the IB Middle Years Programme, students are developing abstract thinking and beginning to question how the world works. The interdisciplinary AI unit is designed to respond to this stage of development.
Students do not begin by using AI applications. They begin by understanding how systems are trained and how decisions are made. Training a bot with family histories helps them see how bias can appear through data selection. Recreating archaeological remains leads to conversations about authenticity, interpretation and responsibility.
Film analysis opens space to discuss ethics and different visions of the future. Medical examples show how AI can support diagnosis, while also highlighting the importance of human judgement. Mathematical work with algorithms helps students understand how machine learning relies on patterns and probability. Creating a song manually before introducing automation allows them to grasp how natural language models depend on prediction and context.
Across all these experiences, students come to a shared understanding. Technology is never neutral. It always reflects choices made by people.
An interdisciplinary unit rooted in real-world questions
One of the strengths recognised by the Observa AI Prize is the interdisciplinary design of the unit. Artificial intelligence is not treated as a separate subject. It connects science, mathematics, humanities and the arts.
This reflects how AI exists in the real world. It shapes healthcare, culture, history and creativity at the same time. Students learn to move between disciplines and to understand that complex questions rarely belong to one area of knowledge only.
Earlier editions of this learning journey are documented in the article “Year 6 Students Complete the Third Edition of Our Interdisciplinary Unit on Artificial Intelligence”, which shows how the project has evolved over time.
