Are your children aware of the presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily lives? Whether they’re typing on their phones, browsing social media or playing esports on their desktop, AI is present. It takes note of the topics your children are searching for or measures how long they stay engaged on a certain video. XCL World Academy (XWA) aims to provide this awareness to children at an early age. At the same time, the school wants to prepare them for the future with technical and life skills. It’s doing so with a new 15-week AI course.
Artificial intelligence-focused curriculum
Called AI at XCL World Academy powered by SureStart, it aims to equip XWA students with essential AI knowledge and vital life skills for navigating success in their future careers. This programme will be integrated into the IB MYP curriculum for sixth grade, starting from the new academic year.
Grade six was chosen as it’s the beginning of the secondary year’s programme at XWA, says CEO of XCL Singapore Schools and XWA’s Head of School, Tammy Murphy. The school hopes that the AI course will expand throughout the school.
Here are some of the programme’s key features:
- Tech modules on AI foundations, exploration of generative AI and app development
- Power skills modules on leadership, collaboration, communication, AI-related ethics, innovation and entrepreneurship
- AI career pathway seminars with industry experts.
- Development of Innovation Capstone projects on app development to reinforce learning and practical application.
- Capstone project pitch at a Create-a-thon finale in front of judges
XWA students in this programme can also look forward to technical mentorship provided by students studying Computer Science or related fields at premier US universities such as Harvard, MIT and NYU.
AI at XCL World Academy powered by SureStart is a collaboration between XWA and SureStart. SureStart is a leading educational organisation headquartered in the US. It provides unique AI skills and innovation training programmes designed for students from middle school to college.
Leading the AI course at XWA is Dr Taniya Mishra, founder and CEO of SureStart. Leonardo Neves, a teaching fellow at Harvard University is leading the instruction. The XWA faculty teaching this programme are trained by SureStart.
Practical AI skills with ethics
Besides developing professional and life skills, AI at XCL World Academy powered by SureStart aims to equip students with an ethical component to the use of AI.
Explains Tanya, “This is a holistic programme where students build technical skills related to AI and gain hands-on knowledge of a variety of generative AI skills but with the scaffolding of an ethical lens. We teach them about artificial intelligence that adheres to ethical guidelines such as respect for the end users, fairness, privacy and non-discrimination.”
Students achieve this by learning how to identify the stakeholders of any kind of AI-related technology that they will be building. Next, they have to consider whether the technology they’re building is actually truly fair, just and non-discriminatory for all the stakeholders who are on the receiving end of the technology.
Tanya hopes that at the end of 15-weeks, XWA students will possess both knowledge of generative AI tools as well as an ethical evaluation of AI use that will empower them.
Nurturing students for the future
This isn’t the first time that XWA has introduced initiatives that prepare their students for jobs of the future.
An example is the school’s ESports Club, which was launched in September 2020. The school recognised that esports is a fast-growing industry, and it went on to became the only school in Singapore to provide dedicated esports facilities on-site for students to develop skills.
The ESports Club and AI at XCL World Academy powered by SureStart are the result of XWA constantly bringing new offerings to their students. This is in keeping with the school’s motto, Shaping Next Now.
Says Tammy, “One of the things about XWA is our strong academic focus. But we know that there’s more than one way to achieve that than rote lecturing and book study. There’s a lot of learning that comes from esports such as collaboration, teamwork and strategic thinking. We’re always looking at new ways because this engages our learners.”
Find out more: AI at XCL World Academy powered by SureStart
For more information about this new AI course, head to their website. Or book a tour to see the campus and get more information about enrolment.
XCL World Academy
2 Yishun Street 42
6230 4230 | xwa.edu.sg
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