Riding on The Back of A Whale: A Hackathon Framework for Introducing High School Students to Large Language Models

Abstract

As large language models (LLMs) become more integrated into daily life, it is crucial to foster AI literacy among high school stu- dents. However, most AI courses target college-level learners and assume prior knowledge, while high schools often lack the foundational curricu- lum and infrastructure for traditional LLM education. To bridge this gap, we present a hackathon-based framework that makes LLM learning acces- sible, engaging, and hands-on. The program combines interactive lectures on core LLM concepts with a guided competition where students fine- tune models and build real-world applications, such as healthcare chat- bots. This approach boosts motivation, programming skills, and practical understanding. Post-hackathon survey results show students gained both functional LLM experience and foundational knowledge. Furthermore, our framework can be extended to broader audiences, including learners without prior AI/NLP experience, offering a rapid, application-driven introduction to LLMs.

Type
Publication
In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education