Chicago after-school program uses paper pencils to teach AI

paper-and-pencil AI – In a South Side classroom, an instructor has students brainstorm songs with pencils, then uses their handwritten notes to generate music through Suno. The approach is central to Overture Games, a startup expanding across Illinois and Massachusetts with an emph

On the last day of an after-school program at a South Shore youth center, 8-year-old Matthew Uriosdegui didn’t sit down at a screen. He grabbed a pencil.

He and his friends were brainstorming lyrics and instruments for a celebration song—beatboxing as they tried to land on the right idea. They agreed on a rap, then filled in answers to create a “groovy” piano tune about an island party with balloons and cake.

Instructor Dallas Godina collected the worksheets, opened a laptop, and typed Matthew’s handwritten notes into Suno, a music composition tool powered by artificial intelligence. Soon, Matthew was listening to multiple versions of his song, scanning for the one with the right vibe.

“Oh, I like this one,” Matthew said, snapping along to the track.

Matthew is one of several hundred students who have participated in after-school programming through the startup Overture Games. The company’s model puts paper and pencil at the center of the experience as a way to teach AI skills while keeping screens at arm’s length. Overture is working with 36 schools and youth centers across Illinois and another 18 in Massachusetts.

The program is also one of the few formal efforts aimed at helping younger children build foundational skills for using AI, at a time when the sector of education is growing quickly but experts say lacks research to guide schools on what to teach and how.

Overture was founded by two recent Northwestern University graduates, Aspen Buckingham and Steven Jiang. Jiang and Buckingham argue that their approach is safer and more effective: expose kids to important technology. but limit screen time; have children handwrite prompts; and restrict who enters information into systems such as Google Gemini or Runway AI.

“As soon as they hear that kids are not directly introduced to AI tools themselves, meaning putting their hands on it, just doing whatever they want with it, that is the definition of safety to schools and parents,” Jiang said.

But the debate over how to introduce young children to AI—especially a technology that changes quickly—has been uneven across classrooms. In some places, students are using AI tools before they can explain what AI is. In others, instruction is delayed or inconsistent, leaving parents and educators to fill the gap.

A 2025 report from the RAND Corporation found that more than 60% of middle and high school teachers in core subjects like English, math and science are using AI at school. Elementary school teachers lag behind, with only 42% ever introducing AI in the classroom.

Victor Lee, an education professor at Stanford University who helps high school teachers incorporate AI skills into their lesson plans, said elementary schools should teach AI only when there is a “really valid and productive instructional purpose tied to important learning goals.”

Lee also challenged Overture’s emphasis on prompting as the main skill children should master. He said many AI literacy experts do not think prompting is the most important capability for young students to build.

“The question we have to ask is: Is prompting the most important skill to learn? I would say a lot of AI literacy experts say no,” Lee said.

He added that teaching students about common mistakes AI tools make can be more valuable than encouraging young kids to actually use AI tools themselves. Overture’s curriculum includes exactly that as a secondary focus—students work on spotting errors AI systems generate.

At the Rebecca K. Crown Chicago Youth Center in South Shore, one game is “Real or AI.” Students guess whether an image in front of them was captured on a camera or generated by AI—and they enjoy testing their instincts.

On a recent Monday, Godina opened his laptop with images, and students examined them for clues. Matthew walked closer to an image of a piano and noticed music notes on the sheet rather than scribbled writing, a detail he said likely meant the photo was real. He was correct.

Through Overture’s classes, Matthew also learned that AI struggles to create realistic body parts and often adds more lighting than it should. And while creating his own video game, he said he discovered that AI currently struggles to deliver quality output when prompts include misspellings.

“Sometimes AI makes mistakes,“ Matthew said. “It’s just a tool.”

Some educators, however, say hands-on creation can matter even if children are not operating AI directly. Elizabeth Radday of EdAdvance. a nonprofit that supports public schools in Connecticut. said she believes active work helps students retain information and that learning should involve creating rather than passively absorbing.

“There’s a big difference between kids that are doing things to create a final project, versus clicking through something and just watching videos, or learning about AI through watching someone else do it,” Radday said.

In Overture’s classes, students often work in groups to draw characters by hand and write prompts describing them. They then tweak their prompts to guide the AI tool. By the end of the 10-week course, students create an entire imaginary world or an interactive game.

To Godina, the end goal is bigger than the technology. He wants students learning how to collaborate, communicate their ideas, and explain those ideas.

“learning how to work together, learning how to discuss and communicate their ideas, and then also explain their ideas,” Godina said.

Radday said she sees promise in that approach. “If you love gaming and want to create your own games as a fifth grader. that used to be a really high-level skill that was not accessible. ” she said. Now. she argued. AI can help children do more than they could before—“That’s where we really think about AI extending and accelerating what kids can do. not just replacing critical thinking.”.

Still, the ability to use a tool for a project doesn’t always translate into an understanding of what AI is.

At the Crown Youth Center. third and fourth graders who participated in Overture’s after-school program could explain how their main character—a blue bunny—defeated an evil “cactus cat” in the world of their AI-generated game. But in the same class. most students couldn’t answer the question. “What is AI?” beyond describing it as “fake” or “not real.”.

The uneven access to AI education is part of what makes programs like Overture’s feel urgent to the organizations bringing them into under-resourced communities.

Other recent RAND research found that 43% of low-poverty districts said they had trained teachers on how to use AI, while only 6% of high-poverty districts reported training their teachers. AI education is often pricey and depends on adults who have already learned how to use it.

Leaders at Chicago Youth Centers wanted to partner with Overture partly for that reason. Devin Swift. who manages science and technology programming for Chicago Youth Centers. said the issue isn’t whether students should learn about AI. but how to make sure young people in under-resourced communities can access it.

“AI is up and coming. I think it’s important for young youth, especially Black and Brown youth, to know what it’s about,” Swift said. “So that when they get out into the world, they have all the tools necessary to be good adults, to be in the workforce.”

Overture offers AI classes at multiple Chicago Youth Centers. Those programs are funded by grant programs and free to families, though parents often pay for Overture’s AI programs more broadly. A 10-week program costs about $300, while single-day summer classes cost $120.

Overture partners with 38 schools across Illinois and Massachusetts. According to documents provided to the Sun-Times, 27 of those are private schools.

Nationally. a 2025 report from the College Board found that private high schools are more likely than public ones to provide students and teachers with access to AI tools. The same report found public high schools serving a higher share of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are the least likely to have policies in place for AI use.

Buckingham said it took the company “a little more time” to form partnerships with public schools, but as the startup expands, it is taking on more as clients.

At some schools offering Overture’s program, parent interest reflects both excitement about AI and concern about how it might spill into children’s lives beyond class.

Alice Raflores, a parent at Longfellow Elementary School in northwest suburban Buffalo Grove, said she signed her second grader up as soon as spots were available. “When he saw the flyer for different enrichment programs, he saw ‘AI,’ he saw ‘games,’ and he’s like, ‘Mom, I want to do this one!’”

Raflores said she liked that Overture’s program kept the experience collaborative and classroom-based while still letting her son learn safely. She said her son. Michael. has seen her use AI for work and personal projects. and she wanted him to learn how to use the technology with barriers enforced by trusted adults.

“I see it as teaching him that there are tools out there that can assist him in doing other things. but it is one tool of many. ” Raflores said. “These tools are going to be part of our child’s lives. and exposing him in a fun way. which was still also involving his own creativity. his own writing. I felt comfortable with it.”.

Maggie Wurzbach, a parent at St. John Berchmans School. a Catholic school in Logan Square. said Overture’s AI classes piqued her 10-year-old son’s interest in understanding how the coding for AI works. “His creativity and his desire to learn things and ask questions increased by taking that class,” Wurzbach said.

But she said his interest in computers has also grown beyond the program. “That’s where parents have to set up the safeguards and the expectations,” Wurzbach said.

Raflores described a similar shift after the classes. “The moment he comes home from those classes, he’s like: ‘I want to do AI, I want to build something,’” she said. “I have to encourage him to not start there.”

In South Shore, that difference between curiosity and comprehension is part of the daily lesson. Matthew can sit with friends and generate music, while his instructor filters the tech through pencil-written prompts. And for now. the program’s promise—and its critics’ concerns—hinge on one central question: whether guiding children’s hands away from the tool is enough to help them understand what the tool really is.

AI education after-school programs Chicago youth centers Overture Games paper and pencil Suno Google Gemini child safety education equity RAND Corporation