History of Computers Lesson 18: Machines That Learn (perceptron, ImageNet, AlexNet, AlphaGo) - printable lesson, ages 11-14

A ready-to-teach lesson that follows our free video, step by step.

Watch a part. Pause. Talk. Try it. Then press play again.

The story: a machine from 1958 that learned to sort cards, the lean years that followed, a chess computer built on brute force as the contrast, a huge library of labelled pictures, a network trained on two graphics cards, a game-playing program, and the awards that followed.

What you get (13-page printable PDF):

- A one-page guide for the grown-up, with the exact times to pause the video

- Key words, and a "think first" question

- Four pupil pages, one for each part of the video: what we just heard, two questions to talk about, and something to try

- Two worksheets: a paper "sorter" that changes one number after each wrong answer (our own model), counting games, sharing work between graphics cards, a matching task, and a cut-out timeline. Nothing in the lesson needs a computer or an AI tool.

- The story in four pictures, and an 8-question quiz

- All the answers, teaching notes, and the sources for every fact

For ages 11 to 14 (works from 9 with help). About 45 minutes. You need a pencil, a rubber, scissors, plain paper and 12 counters.

Every drawing and every word is our own. The free video is at kitson-workshop.pages.dev/#history

Want to try one first? Lesson 1 (the abacus) is free: payhip.com/b/nmZIE

Pay once, use it for ever: one purchase covers one teacher or one family. Use it as often as you like with your own classes, and print as many copies as your own pupils need. Please do not resell it or pass the file on.

For educational purposes only. Not affiliated with any company or organisation named in the lesson.