Fostering AI Literacy Through Strategic Play: A Competitive Pathfinding Game for Middle School

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the introduction of foundational AI concepts into K-12 education. Although game-based learning is widely used across educational domains, its potential to support students in developing core AI understandings remains an active area of exploration. This paper presents a competitive two-player game designed to foster AI literacy among middle school students through a focus on search algorithms. In the game, students take turns editing a shared grid-based environment to observe how their actions affect their chosen algorithm's output and runtime. Through strategic gameplay and algorithm comparison, students engage in hands-on reasoning about pathfinding efficiency and decisionmaking. To evaluate the game's effectiveness, we conducted a classroom study with 40 middle school students and analyzed their responses to pre- and post-activity surveys. Results indicate increased understanding of pathfinding and high levels of engagement. While preliminary, these findings demonstrate a promising playful pathway to AI literacy and offer a foundation for future classroom-centered AI education.