Inputs and outputs
Inputs and outputs define the boundaries: what starts the process, and what counts as done.
AI for Kids · Class 8 · Module 7 of 9
Workflow Automation
If you do the same fiddly task every week, that is a job for a machine.
8 sessionsSessions 49–56
4 weeksTypical pace
IntermediateLevel
Class 8Artificial Intelligence
The big idea
Students map a repetitive task as inputs, steps and outputs, then build a no-code automation for it — discovering that describing a process precisely is harder than automating it.
Why it matters
Automation thinking is systems thinking. It also gives students back real time in their own week.
Unpacked
What you will actually learn
Three core ideas, each taught with worked examples and then practised until it feels obvious.
Repeatable steps
Repeatable steps must be written precisely enough that someone else could follow them identically.
No-code workflow maps
No-code workflow maps connect triggers and actions visually, showing the logic without writing a program.
Did you know?
Automation projects most often fail at the mapping stage, not the building stage. Nobody had written down what the process actually was.
Common mix-up
“Automate everything.” Automating a broken or rare process just makes the mess faster. Fix and prioritise first.
Session by session
Your 8-session journey
Sessions 49–56 of the 72-session year, at two one-hour sessions per week.
- 1
Warm-up and big picture
Where this module fits, what you will build, and a hands-on starter that gets everyone curious about inputs and outputs.
- 2
Inputs and outputs
Guided teaching on inputs and outputs, worked through together with the teacher.
- 3
Inputs and outputs — practice lab
Independent practice, small challenges and one deliberate mistake to diagnose.
- 4
Repeatable steps
Guided teaching on repeatable steps, building directly on the previous two sessions.
- 5
Repeatable steps — practice lab
Applied tasks that combine inputs and outputs and repeatable steps in one piece of work.
- 6
No-code workflow maps
No-code workflow maps introduced and practised, completing the toolkit needed for the project.
- 7
Project build
Guided build session for the module project: Student productivity automation prototype.
- 8
Test, present and reflect
Finish, test against the checklist, present the work and explain the decisions behind it.
Project lab
Student productivity automation prototype
Every module ends with something the student built themselves and can demonstrate. This is the piece that goes into their portfolio and gets explained out loud at the end of session 56.
Try this at home
Track your week and find the task you repeat most. Map it fully on paper before building anything.
It is finished when
- It works from start to finish without breaking
- You can explain every part of it in your own words
- You tested it and improved at least one thing afterwards
- Someone else used or understood it without your help
By the end of this module
Students finishing Module 7 can:
- Explain and use inputs and outputs without prompting
- Explain and use repeatable steps without prompting
- Explain and use no-code workflow maps without prompting
- Build and finish student productivity automation prototype
- Test your own work and correct what you find
- Talk an adult through what you made and why
Word bank
The vocabulary introduced here, in plain language:
- automation
- Making a process run without manual steps.
- trigger
- The event that starts an automated workflow.
- workflow map
- A visual diagram of a process.
Module challenge
Think you have got this?
0 XPLevel 1 · Curious Beginner
6 quick questions drawn from this module — vocabulary, the project you build, and a myth-or-fact round. Every wrong answer explains itself, so a mistake still teaches you something.
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