Exploring AI Through Play and Peer Mentorship

Date: July 31, 2026

Theme: AI Education, Digital Creativity, and Youth Leadership

On July 31, 2026, SparkMind AI members Mia Cao participated in a youth learning activity held in partnership with North Star Special Needs’ Buddy Up series program together with other young volunteers.

Rather than introducing AI only through technical explanations, the session encouraged participants to learn through games, challenges, exploration, and peer support.

One of the digital learning experiences featured an interactive AI-themed platform with activities such as the Robot Factory: Grand Challenge. Participants worked through logic-based tasks involving patterns, sequencing, problem-solving, and basic computational thinking. These activities helped students explore some of the ideas behind programming and artificial intelligence without requiring previous coding experience.

The workshop demonstrated that AI education can begin with foundational skills such as:

• Recognizing patterns

• Following and creating logical sequences

• Testing different solutions

• Learning from mistakes and trying again

• Understanding how instructions affect outcomes

• Applying creative thinking to technology-based challenges

The session also included a hands-on Spaghetti Tower Challenge. Although the activity did not involve a computer, it reinforced many of the same skills used in technology and engineering: planning, testing, collaboration, structural thinking, and iterative problem-solving.

By combining digital activities, physical challenges, and youth mentorship, the workshop created an environment in which participants could explore technology actively rather than passively.

SparkMind AI will continue developing opportunities that help young people understand AI through creativity, collaboration, and real-world problem-solving - while encouraging them to become responsible creators of technology, not simply consumers of it.