Alexis Flanders

For my final creation in Unit 5, I designed a lesson titled Seeing What Matters: Abstraction in Art and Computer Science.

My key takeaway from this unit is that abstraction is about identifying what truly matters and setting aside the rest. When we understand the essential features of something, the bigger idea becomes clearer. The details that were removed are not gone forever, but they are no longer necessary for understanding.

This lesson connects abstraction across art, AI, and classroom practice.

I begin by asking students to imagine drawing a detailed object in just ten seconds. What would they keep? What would they leave out? That conversation sets the stage for defining abstraction as keeping the important parts and removing extra details.

Then we examine Picasso’s Bull series. As Picasso redraws the bull again and again, details disappear. The shading fades. The muscles simplify. Eventually, only essential lines remain, yet we still recognize the bull. That progression makes abstraction visible.

From there, students shift to Quick, Draw!, where a computer attempts to recognize their sketches. The question becomes: What features does the computer need in order to recognize the object?

To go beyond simply playing the game, I would extend the lesson by challenging students to try to “stump” the AI. Can they remove just enough detail to confuse the computer while still making the object recognizable to a human? That angle introduces a deeper layer of thinking about how humans and machines interpret patterns differently.

Students already use abstraction constantly. They underline key information in word problems. They summarize by selecting the most important events. They explain the rules of a game without listing every possible scenario. Naming abstraction when it happens helps students recognize that this is not a new skill, but one they already use.

Computation strengthens that skill. Coding requires identifying only the essential steps for a program to run. Extra instructions create confusion. Missing instructions cause failure. Abstraction in computer science mirrors abstraction in reading, writing, math, and even art.

This lesson brings all of that together. Abstraction is not about making something smaller. It is about making it clearer. And helping students see what matters is a skill that extends far beyond computer science.