AI Academy · Ages 14–18
AI Foundations for School Students
A hands-on AI foundations course for students aged 14–18: how AI actually works, how to build with it responsibly, and a real project shipped by every student. In-person in Kochi, capped at 20 students per cohort so nobody hides at the back.
- Duration
- 4–6 weeks
- Format
- In-person, Kochi campus
- Cohort size
- Max 20 students
- Next start
- Summer 2026
Why AI literacy at 14, not 24
Today’s 14-year-olds will spend their entire working lives alongside AI systems. The question is whether they meet those systems as passive consumers — or as people who understand what’s inside the box, what it’s good for, and where it fails. Most schools aren’t equipped to teach this yet; most online courses aimed at teenagers are either toy-level or thinly disguised university material.
This course is built specifically for the 14–18 window: rigorous enough to build real understanding, practical enough that every student leaves having built something, and honest about the messy parts — bias, misinformation, academic integrity — that adults too often skip.
What students actually do
This is a building course, not a lecture series. From the first session students run experiments that reveal how models learn and fail. By week three they’re constructing chatbots and classifiers; by the final fortnight each student ships a capstone project of their own choosing — past ideas have ranged from a Malayalam homework helper to a plant-disease identifier for a family farm — and demos it at a showcase attended by parents and peers.
Classes are capped at 20 with two instructors, which means every student gets unstuck within minutes and nobody coasts invisibly at the back. Instructors are practitioners from our consulting team — the same people who build the production systems in our case studies — plus trained education staff.
What parents should know
Sessions run in-person at our Kochi campus (Globesta, Vyttila) with structured schedules around school terms. Devices are provided in the lab; nothing needs to be bought. Every student’s account usage is supervised, and our safeguarding policies are available to parents on request. The course ends with a certificate, a portfolio project, and — more durable than either — a documented, demonstrated skill.
For students considering computer science, engineering or design at university, the capstone project doubles as application-portfolio material. For students headed anywhere else, the AI-literacy layer is the point: every field they enter will assume it. See how this track connects to our college and professional programmes — several school-track alumni have returned for both.
Cohorts start from Summer 2026 and seats are capped at 20. Contact us to enrol or ask about the next cohort’s dates and fees.
Week by week
Week 1
How AI actually works
Demystifying models: pattern learning, training data, why AI makes mistakes. Hands-on experiments that build real intuition, not buzzwords.
Week 2
Working with AI tools
Prompting as a thinking skill, evaluating AI output critically, and where AI helps versus harms schoolwork — used honestly.
Week 3
Building with AI
First projects: chatbots, image classifiers and small automations built with no-code and beginner Python tools.
Week 4
Data, ethics and safety
Bias, privacy, deepfakes and academic integrity — the judgement layer every young AI user needs.
Weeks 5–6
Capstone project
Each student scopes, builds and demos their own AI project to parents and peers on showcase day.
Questions families and participants ask
Does my child need coding experience?
No. The course starts from zero and uses visual tools before introducing beginner-friendly Python. Students who already code get stretch tracks within the same projects, so mixed experience levels work well in practice.
How does this fit around school?
Cohorts run in the summer break and on weekend schedules during term, with 2–3 sessions per week at the Kochi campus. Total commitment is around 36 contact hours plus optional project time.
What does the course cost?
Fees are published per cohort — contact us for the current schedule and early-enrolment discounts. Need-based scholarships are available in every cohort as part of our Accessible to All commitment.