Introducing students of grades 5–6 to the basics of artificial intelligence when teaching programming in extracurricular activities

The article discusses the issues of familiarizing students with the basics of artificial intelligence in the process of organizing programming training in extracurricular activities, as well as the opportunities provided by the PictoBlox programming environment in the process of organizing programming training in extracurricular activities for fifth- and sixth-grade students. A brief overview of this programming environment is given, the process of creating projects using machine learning and artificial intelligence is considered. Examples of projects that use elements of machine learning and artificial intelligence are given. The materials of the article will introduce informatics teachers and teachers of additional education to the main methodological approaches to using the PictoBlox programming environment in the educational process and will contribute to the organization of extracurricular activities using this software.