UMSI students earn top awards in campus-wide James A. Kelly Learning Lever Prize

A photo of the Learning Lever Prize winners posing beside a Marsal Family School of Education banner

Friday, 04/12/2024

The sixth annual James A. Kelly Learning Lever Prize competition was held at the University of Michigan on April 4. Hosted by the Marsal Family School of Education and co-sponsored by the School of Information, the competition challenges U-M students to invent tools with the potential to significantly improve student learning.

Three teams of UMSI students pitched digital learning tools to a panel of judges, taking the top three prizes.

A photo of Jessica Browning presenting her platform, KidsAI, at the Learning Lever competition — Jessica Browning pitches her generative AI literacy platform, KidsAI. (Photo: Jose Juarez, Michigan Photography)

The James A. Kelly Learning Lever Prize winner — receiving a $10,000 award to support scalability and dissemination — is Jessica Browning, a dual degree Master of Science in Information and Master of Education student.

Browning’s mobile-friendly platform, KidsAI, aims to teach K-12 students generative AI literacy. As generative AI revolutionizes society, KidsAI empowers kids with the skills necessary to navigate AI responsibly.

MSI students Chiao Lin and Tara Dorje were awarded $4,000 for further development of their mixed reality application CodeBloc, which harnesses the power of immersive technology to teach foundational programming concepts to K-12 students. CodeBloc invites users to assemble interactive 3D code blocks and generate output in an immersive MR programming environment, effectively converting a child's room into a dynamic coding playground.

MSI student Aleena Qaiser was awarded $4,000 for further development of Climate Chaos, an interactive educational board game for young teens. The game teaches players the leading causes of global warming and challenges them to strategically apply practical solutions.

This year’s judging panel included Carl C. Haynes-Magyar (UMSI PhD ’22), postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and winner of the 2022 Learning Lever Prize; Vanessa Lane, co-founder and COO of Better Play Studios; Josh Nichols, CEO and founder of CrossBraining; and Brenda Said-Wright, director of instruction and intervention at Riverview Community Schools and owner of the Great Lakes Educational Group.

Read the full award announcement.

(Lead image by Jose Juarez for Michigan Photography: The James A. Kelly Learning Lever grand prize and development prize winners pose for a photo. From right: Jessica Browning, Tara Dorje, Chiao Lin, Aleena Qaiser, Xuechen Liu, Toinu Reeves.)