AI Exploratorium: A Gamified Interactive Exhibition for Developing Critical AI Literacy

The AI Exploratorium presents a gamified, exhibition-style learning environment designed to build critical AI literacy among high-school students. Its central proposition is that hands-on engagement with AI concepts, through four "AI puzzle" challenges, reflection quizzes, and a gradually revealed "black box" visualization, can deepen understanding of how AI systems are trained while encouraging reflection on their ethical implications. The authors position the design as a reproducible, low-cost model adaptable to varied learning settings.

The empirical basis is a small pilot involving seven boys aged 12 to 14, evaluated through observation, short interviews, and a 12-item Likert questionnaire completed by six participants. Participants reported that the self-directed, collaborative, and gamified challenges were engaging and helped them grasp AI training processes, deepfake risks, and ethical questions. Preliminary findings thus suggest gains in conceptual understanding and critical reflection, though these results are tentative.

The study's limitations are substantial and openly acknowledged. The sample was small, all-male, and self-selected, and the evaluation included no objective measures of competence, precluding generalizable conclusions about learning outcomes. The pilot's scope is therefore best understood as an exploratory feasibility test rather than an established evidence base. The work is grounded in existing scholarship on critical AI literacy and K-12 AI education design, though the supporting reference material available for this summary does not allow a detailed assessment of how those frameworks were applied.