Cognitive Agent Assists in Learning Chemistry

On January 17, 2024, the eighth workshop with gamified cognitive agents was held. The workshop took place for the seventh-grade students of II. Primary School Varaždin. The seventh graders, along with their chemistry teacher Ksenija Pintarić, designed the cognitive agent James Peru 008, which was implemented and adapted for use by members of the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence at the partner institution, FOI.

The workshop was led by the computer science teacher Marinela Schatten, M.Sc., an external collaborator, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Markus Schatten, and Dr. Bogdan Okreša Đurić, representatives of Partner 1 (Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics).

Gamified cognitive agents for conversation are artificial intelligence systems that include a speech interface (allowing direct interaction, i.e., responding to human speech), a graphical interface (featuring an avatar that responds to speech), and are intelligent (capable of automating various tasks typically performed by a human). Numerous scientific studies demonstrate that the application of conversational cognitive agents in education yields very good results in achieving learning outcomes.

The cognitive agent James Pero 008 talks about the physical properties of substances. It has been released as open-source software and is available for anyone who wants to try it at the following link: https://dragon.foi.hr/jamespero008/

Photos from the workshop are below: