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Once they understand the idea, you show them the three-line code that does the computation (using opencv for python), and you let them change the math formula in whatever crazy way they want.
Now plug it into a monitor and show the bounding box around each face. They'll love this!
Show them the code. GIve them a really high level overview : "Here we tell it to get a picture from the camera. Next we look for faces. If we find one we tell it send power to the LED to light it up."
Now, another interactive moment:
Plug in a USB keyboard and Ask a student to change the color of the bounding box. Of course they won't know anything about the code. Tell them to find the word "green" (or whatever) and change it to another color name. Run it again.
Little low-risk changes like that is how most of us learned to code. Maybe it will spark interest.
- I point them to the technology already around them, in their daily use, that they see as too obvious by now. And then share stories of how all that had come about to be. Simple things like soap, door handles, stairs, pencils, clocks, ...
- Ask them simple questions that they never asked. How does an eraser erase pencil marks? How is mass conserved as a tree grows out of a seed? Why do women typically keep long hair while men keep short? Why don't animals do their own photosynthesis instead of depending on plants (or why don't plants also move around like animals)?
- Another session I am planning will share bios of many famous people, showing them how extraordinary came out of the ordinary.
It seems surprising to me that we teach them about planets, exotic natural phenomenon like chemical reactions, magnets, etc., without first talking about much more relevant things like why does matter occupy space (or why don't we just fall through the floor below us). The result is kids (and adults) who commonly talk about voltage without having slighest idea of what it actually is.
There's an unspoken dogma that without a $1000 phone and pricey Mac, you can't be a creator.
Alternatively, demonstrate a very cheap Youtube or podcast production setup and show them how they could do a channel inexpensively.
Common theme is that the barriers to entry in many digital fields are lower than expected.
I've also had kids amazed with tools like React Native Expo where they can make a "real" app that lives permanently on their phone after the exercise in just a few hours (starting with some boilerplate code that they learn to customize). Walked a group of 10-year-olds through the process and they each came away with a very basic app on their phones that looked unique.
Start by training it on different facial expressions or objects in the room, and transition into how ML is changing our lives at scale.