Popup
Session
Runbook.
The core hypothesis
Kids who build something physical and name it will self-identify as builders. That identity moment — not any lesson we teach — is what converts to a quarterly program signup. This popup is a conversion event disguised as a workshop.
The real success metric isn't engagement during the session. It's the sentence a kid says to their parent on the drive home. We are engineering that sentence: "I built a robot today." Everything else is in service of that moment.
2-hour structure
Opening — Hook with identity
Facilitator intro. Do NOT frame as a class. Frame as: "By the end of today, you'll have launched something." Ask each kid their name + one problem they hate. Write answers on a whiteboard. This sets the project brief and makes kids feel seen.
Station 1 — Design Your Bot's Brain
Teams of 3–4. Pick one card from the "Who" stack, one from "What", and one from "Why" — form a one-sentence brief with stakes attached. Then complete the Bot Brain Sheet: script 3 dialogue exchanges, write 3 If/Then rules. This is their decision tree — literally how chatbots work.
Station 2 — Break Another Team's Bot
Teams swap Bot Brain Sheets. Using the Chaos Deck (weird inputs, edge cases, trust breakers), each team picks 3 cards that break the other bot's logic. Write failures on red sticky notes and return them. This is ML edge-case testing — kids discover it intuitively.
Station 3 — Pick How It Senses the World
Teams get the Brain Sheet back with red stickies and fix 2 problems. Then the parts bench: up to 3 sensor cards (real hardware — light, moisture, motion, distance, sound, temperature), up to 2 output cards, and one board card. Every pick has to be justified against a rule they already wrote. Captured on the Wiring Sheet.
Station 4 — Build & Name Your Bot
Build the physical bot using the kit, with the chosen sensors marked on it. Three physical features required: input, processing, output. Name the bot. Write the pitch sentence.
Demo Day — Teams pitch to each other
Each team presents to the room — not to facilitators. Hold up the bot, say the sentence, point to each physical feature. Photo taken. Every kid gets a Founder Card.
Close — Soft ask, not a pitch
"Who wants to keep going?" — pause — "We run a 3-month program. Here's what you'd build next." One sentence. Hand program half-sheet directly to parents. Price, dates, one deliverable. They decide in the parking lot.
Materials & prep checklist
Card Decks — Print & cut
- □15× "Who needs a bot?" cards — person + problem baked in
- □15× "What does your bot do?" cards — action behaviors
- □12× "Why does it matter?" cards — the stakes, plus how you'd measure it
- □19× Chaos Deck cards — weird inputs, edge cases, trust breakers
- □24× sensor cards — real starter-kit parts (light, moisture, motion, distance, sound, heat, gas, keypad)
- □15× output cards — LED, buzzer, servo, screen, OLED, motor, relay
- □3× board cards — Uno, Nano, ESP32
Printed Sheets
- □Bot Brain Sheet — one per team (dialogue script + if/then rules)
- □Wiring Sheet — one per team (sensors, outputs, pins, and the engineer sentence)
- □Program half-sheet — one per parent/guardian
- □Founder Cards — one per kid (blank, they fill in bot name + role)
Build Kit — Per team
- □Lego base pieces (base only, not full kits)
- □Pipe cleaners — 4 colors, ~8 per team
- □Googly eyes — mixed sizes
- □Index cards (for screens / mouths)
- □1× brass fastener so something can move
- □Sticker sheet for buttons
- □1× small cardboard box per team
Room Setup
- □Tables in team clusters — not rows
- □Whiteboard or large paper for opening answers
- □Red sticky notes at every table
- □Thick markers — multiple per table
- □Camera / phone for bot photos
- □Visible timer for facilitator
What could go wrong
| Risk | Level | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Session feels like school — kids disengage | high | Never say "learn." Always say "build" and "launch." Facilitator energy sets the room. |
| One kid sprints ahead, others feel behind | med | Have one "advanced path" card ready — a harder problem, not more freedom. |
| Station 2 becomes mean-spirited | med | Frame it as "you're the QA engineer" not "find what's wrong." Engineers find bugs — they don't criticize. |
| Build kit becomes arts & crafts distraction | med | Enforce the three-feature rule before free building. Input → Process → Output. In that order. |
| Parents don't engage with program handout | high | Hand it directly — don't leave it on a table. Say: "This is what they'd build next." Then stop talking. |
| Small group — fewer than 2 teams | low | Station 2 still works with 2 kids swapping. Minimum viable session is 4 kids total. |
How signups actually happen
You are not selling to the kids. You are selling to the parent who picks them up. The kid is your sales rep. The physical bot is your leave-behind. The Founder Card is your business card. The program half-sheet is your close. Design every minute to produce the sentence: "I built a robot today." That sentence is the signup.
Where
builders
begin.
Stop watching AI happen to the world. Start building it yourself.
What is Hi, Bot.?
Hi, Bot. is a hands-on popup experience where middle schoolers design, test, and build their own AI-powered robot — no coding required, no computers needed. In two hours, every kid leaves with a physical bot they built, a name they chose, and a real understanding of how AI works underneath.
This isn't a class. It's a launch day.
What kids will experience
Think like an AI designer
Define who your bot helps and what problem it solves. Empathy and product thinking in one move.
Understand how AI learns
By breaking each other's bots, kids discover edge cases and limitations — the real work of machine learning.
Ship something real
Every kid presents a physical bot with a name, a purpose, and a pitch. They leave as founders, not students.
How the 2 hours work
Kids work in teams of 3–4 and move through three stations. Each builds on the last. No station requires a screen.
Design Your Bot's Brain
Teams pick from a deck of real-world problems and a deck of bot behaviors to define their bot in one sentence. Then they script what their bot says — and write the rules it follows. This is how every chatbot ever built actually works.
Break Another Team's Bot
Teams swap logic maps and find three ways to break the other team's bot — weird questions, impossible situations, moments where it wouldn't know what to do. They write each failure on a red sticky note. This is what ML engineers call edge case testing.
Build & Name Your Bot
Teams fix two red sticky problems, then bring their bot to life using Lego, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and cardboard. Every bot must show how it listens, how it thinks, and how it responds. Then they name it and write their pitch sentence.
Minute by minute
Welcome & Kickoff
Introductions, team formation, and the challenge brief. Every kid states one problem they want to solve.
Station 1 — Design
Card picking + Bot Brain Sheet. Teams define their bot's purpose and script its logic.
Station 2 — Test
Chaos Deck challenge. Teams become QA engineers and find what breaks.
Station 3 — Sense
The parts bench. Teams pick the real sensors and outputs their bot needs, and the board to run them.
Station 4 — Build
Physical bot construction. Fix two problems, build the body, name it.
Demo Day
Every team presents to the room. Photos taken. Founder Cards handed out.
What's Next
Learn about the Hi, Bot. quarterly program — where this bot becomes a real, talking AI.
Every kid leaves with
More than they
came in with.
- —A physical robot they designed and built themselves
- —A Founder Card with their name and their bot's name
- —A real understanding of how AI decision-making works
- —The experience of pitching an idea to a room
- —A reason to call themselves a builder
Ready to keep building?
Ask about the Hi, Bot. quarterly program today.