The following story originally appeared on the Raymond A. Mason School of Business website. – Edited
In a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, the Raymond A. Mason School of Business team is making progress in making seemingly complex technology easier to understand for young learners. The group, led by Clinical Associate Professor Ching (Rachel) Chong, is publishing a groundbreaking children's book, “AI: The Magic Box.”
Scheduled to be released on Amazon on October 15th, the book aims to introduce middle school students to the mathematical foundations of AI and machine learning in a fun and engaging way, changing what many find in an intimidating and enjoyable learning experience.
“Everyone is talking about AI today, but few people really understand what's on a basic level,” Chung said. “I think it's confusing a lot of people, but it's actually very simple. It's just a mathematical equation.”
The origins of the magic box
The idea for this creative project came into being early in the Covid-19 pandemic. Jung's sister, Baegy Chung, was stuck in Taiwan due to travel restrictions after visiting his family for the Chinese New Year. With her career on hold, Peggy searched for ways to spend more meaningful time with her daughter, and explored various paths in her child's education.
“She's always been interested in educating her children, but she didn't become a teacher. The timing was perfect,” Jung said of her sister.
Together, the sisters brainstormed ways to teach their children about data science. This is a field that I felt was underestimated in early childhood education compared to the booming trends in coding classes.
“At the time, many programming classes were related to robotics, but it's difficult to teach someone how to program physical devices remotely during a pandemic,” she explained. “So we suggested instead to see teaching kids about data science.”
Inspired by her own teaching methods in William & Mary's Masters in Business Administration, she proposed to explain important ideas in her Masters in Science in Business Analytics Program using everyday objects such as chocolate and sticky notes. This led to the creation of “Data Scientist Junior,” an online program that allows children to learn about data science through fun and interactive exercises. The program was also a collaboration with former MSBA student Rani Banjarian MS '20. A former mathematics teacher and creative writing enthusiast, Banjalian joined forces with the Chong Sisters to develop content for children. Their efforts were successful, with two of the younger students winning the highest award in the national data visualization race.
“We sent two of our best students to the American Statistics Association's 2021 Visualization Competition, where they won first and second place nationwide. We couldn't believe our little elementary school students had gone well.”
From online classes to written words
Once the pandemic is eased and online classes collapse, the team realized the possibility of reaching even more audiences through the book. “AI: The Magic Box” was born from lessons learned in the Data Scientist Junior Program. This has been repackaged in an activity book format that makes AI accessible and enjoyable for kids.
“When people moved past Covid and restrictions, we began to relax our junior data scientists programmes, but we also knew there was a lot of valuable content in the curriculum. It was a natural progression to reuse that content and turn it into a book,” she explained.
The book follows the story of Connor, named after Chung's son and his sister Athena, and is named after Peggy's daughter. They are on a mission to find a hypoallergenic dog for Connor's birthday. Young readers will introduce the basics of AI, including three main parts: classification algorithms and the AI process.
As the siblings navigate the challenge set up by the data scientist mom, they encounter a friendly AI device called a Magic Box in their local library. With the help of Magic Box, Connor and Athena learn how to break down complex data into manageable parts, train AI and use it to make decisions. In this case, we will identify the perfect puppy breed that suits the needs of the family.
The book not only simplifies big terms like machine learning and AI models, but also incorporates practical activity worksheets to reinforce important principles, allowing children to practice what they have learned and mimics what Chung adopts in William & Mary's classes.
“Our goal was to teach in graduate-level AI and machine learning courses and distill it into a form that children could grasp,” Chung said. “We want to remove the mysticism and terminology that often make AI look like a 'black box' for beginners. In this book, middle school students can see that AI is not magic. It's just mathematics and something they can understand. ”
Navigate the publishing world
The journey from concept to publishing was not without its hurdles. The team initially faced difficulties in finding an illustrator who could secure funds and realize his vision. The Kickstarter campaign, launched for fundraising, did not reach its goal, but with its persistence and wit, the team ultimately achieved its goal.
Also, with the help of the William & Mary community, talented undergraduates Alisa Yang '25 and Daniel Shiiy '25 were funded through the university's Hughes Scholarship, with illustrations and designs for the book being completed in-house.
“I didn't know how challenging the self-publishing process was, especially when I could find the right illustrator,” retorted Jung. “But the support from the William and Mary community made all the difference. Alisa convinced her friend Daniel to join the team as an illustrator. This project is truly a tribal family effort.”
Next-generation AI
“AI: The Magic Box” is designed not only as a book but as a learning tool. This aims to promote early interest among middle school students in AI, data science and STEM fields by showing that these subjects are within their reach. The book's activities simplify AI concepts such as neural networks and model training. They often use playful analogies and clear visuals to explain how AI works.
Chung's approach to teaching AI emphasizes the importance of real applications and removes the barriers of intimidating jargon. The Mason School courses have developed tools such as Excel-based simulators that enable students to understand AI by manipulating approaches reflected in the book.
“We use analogues that can be relevant for younger readers, such as learning to bike,” she said. “It shows that all the AI models do is add numbers and multiply them. That's something junior high school students can do easily. The idea is to create something that isn't scary about AI, but you can play with it and learn.”
The publication of this book presents important steps to making AI education more comprehensive and accessible. Chung will promote the book under the title “AI: The Magic Box Workshops” at two events hosted by the Williamsburg Regional Library on October 26th and October 30th. She will also present it as part of the 1918 Alumni Event held in Washington, DC on November 20th.
Chung will also continue to identify and seek opportunities to fill market gaps with material to educate students of all ages of technology. Most recently, she secured a book agreement with a well-known higher education publisher in an AI textbook written by Steven Hojnicki, an online auxiliary professor at Mason School.
As AI continues to shape the future, it is more important than ever to equip the next generation with the knowledge to understand and engage with this technology. Chung and her team hope that “AI: The Magic Box” will be a small but shocking contribution to that cause.
“AI is not just about adults and computer scientists. It's for everyone and we need to start that education early,” she added. “We look forward to seeing where this journey will take us. We hope this book will inspire both children and parents to explore the fascinating world of AI.”
Kristine Hojnicki, Raymond A. Mason School of Business
