AI Education for K-12 and in particular AI literacy gained huge interest recently due to the significantly influence in daily life, society, and economy. In this paper we discuss this topic of early AI education along four dimensions: (1) formal versus informal education, (2) cooperation of researchers in AI and education, (3) the level of education, and (4) concepts and tools.

Low income Hispanic families experience multiple barriers to accessing evidence-based information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study utilized a mixed-strategy intervention to create access to information in published bio-medical research articles on ASD by distilling the content into parent-friendly English- and Spanish-language ASD Science Briefs and presenting them to participants using two socially-oriented dissemination methods. There was a main effect for short-term knowledge gains associated with the Science Briefs but no effect for the dissemination method. After 5 months, participants reported utilizing the information learned and 90% wanted to read more Science Briefs. These preliminary findings highlight the potential benefits of distilling biomedical research articles on ASD into parent-friendly educational products for currently underserved Hispanic parents.

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This article talks about Iridescent’s “Engineers as Teachers” program that has been designed to teach professional and student engineers how to share their research with the public. Iridescent is a nonprofit educational organization operating since July 2006. Iridescent's mission is to inspire girls and minorities to pursue careers in science and engineering, to lift up their communities, and to tackle some of the world's biggest problems. In the past 12 years, Iridescent has delivered more than 120 multisession courses on real-world topics that reached more than 4000 under-served children and their parents. The courses are made possible by volunteer engineers who worked with Iridescent to develop their communication and curricular skills so they could teach and inspire children. Through Iridescent’s training program, engineers learn how to communicate complex principles in engaging, simple ways. This not only helps them inspire children, but also improves the ability of engineers to communicate the essence of their work to nontechnical professionals.

Amy Kim is the Sr. Director of Content Development at Iridescent, a science and engineering education nonprofit. She is trained in physical chemistry (Ph.D. University of Chicago) with a strong passion for improving STEM education in informal settings. In graduate school, she chose to pursue a career path where scientists can give back to their communities. She was a science policy fellow at the National Academy of Sciences where she learned how to effectively communicate science. She believes that the critical thinking skills acquired through STEM education are essential, and wants to inspire the next generation to always query the unknown. Amy is passionate about connecting scientists and engineers with students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to connect one-on-one with STEM professionals. Ms. Tara Chklovski, IridescentMs. Chklovski is the Founder and CEO of Iridescent, a science, engineering and technology education nonprofit. Before starting Iridescent, she worked as the principal at a 300 student K-6 school in India. She has founded and grown Iridescent from a one-woman effort to an organization reaching 30,000 underserved students globally. With the help of a passionate team of 21 people, she has consistently and cost-effectively doubled Iridescent's impact every year by relying on technology, synergistic partnerships, rigorous evaluation and volunteers. One of Iridescent's programs, is now the world's largest program teaching girls to become technology entrepreneurs, with a presence in 45 countries. She has a B.Sc in Physics and a M.S in Aerospace from Boston University. Engineering students teaching hands on engineering design challenges to underserved community families ABSTRACT This paper discusses the implementation of a 5year longitudinal study called "Be A Scientist!" (BAS). T his project has been funded through an NSF AISL grant with the title "Be a Scientist!"(BAS). BAS is designed to connect underserved families directly to scientists and engineers with the aim of inspiring families to see themselves as innovators and inventors, while also encouraging the development of key 21st century skills (curiosity, creativity, and persistence). BAS uses a "trainthetrainer" model, where engineering students are trained to develop and teach handson projects to local students and their families over the course of a 5week Family Science Course held at a local school. This model consists of 5 steps:• Engineering students are trained to develop (hands on) openended engineering design challenges that are inspired by and illustrate a key concept from their own work/current research.• Engineering students test out their designs with local families during Family Science course • The best designs are published on an online engineering curriculum platform (which is funded by another NSFAISL grant) • We then train local teachers, afterschool educators and parents to use this curriculum to engage more families • Trained engineering students continue to mentor families online Over the past eight yearsfour sp...