Learning Goals
5 minBy the end of this lesson you can:
- Explain what a pattern is in your own words.
- Spot a pattern in a short sequence or small data table.
- Explain that AI learns patterns instead of fixed rules.
Warm-Up · What Comes Next?
8 minLast lesson, data was the food of AI. Today we find the patterns hidden in it.
What comes next in each?
- 2, 4, 6, 8, …
- 🍎 🍌 🍎 🍌 🍎 …
Reveal the answers
10 (add 2 each time) and 🍌 (apple-banana repeats). You spotted a pattern — a rule that keeps repeating.
New Concept · The Pattern Superpower
18 minWhat is a pattern?
A pattern is a relationship that repeats. Once you see it, you can predict what is likely to come next.
You already do this. You might notice your bus is usually late on rainy days. That's a pattern, and you use it to predict.
Rules vs patterns
- A rule is something a human types: "if rain, expect a late bus".
- A pattern is something the AI discovers by itself from lots of data.
This is why AI is special. Nobody has to write every rule — the AI finds the patterns hidden in the examples.
Spam filters, recommendations and weather apps all work by finding patterns and predicting from them.
Worked Example · Study Hours & Scores
18 minHere is a tiny dataset from Daniel's class — hours studied and the test score.
| Hours studied | Test score |
|---|---|
| 1 | 55 |
| 2 | 62 |
| 3 | 70 |
| 4 | 78 |
| 5 | ? |
The pattern: each extra hour adds about 7–8 marks. So 5 hours might give roughly 85.
An AI would learn the same trend from the numbers and predict the missing score — without anyone writing a rule.
A pattern is a likely guess, not a promise. Daniel might have an off day. AI predictions can be wrong too.
Try It Yourself
20 minUse your worksheet.
What comes next? (a) 5, 10, 15, 20, … (b) 🔺🔵🔺🔵🔺 … (c) 1, 2, 4, 8, …
Hint
Ask "what is happening each step?" — adding, repeating, or doubling.
A stall sold: Mon 20, Tue 22, Wed 24, Thu 26 plates of mee goreng. Describe the pattern and predict Friday.
Hint
Each day adds the same amount — find it, then add one more.
Mini-Challenge · Pattern in My Week
12 minThink of something that repeats in your week — when the canteen is busiest, when you feel most sleepy, which day has the most homework.
Describe the pattern and use it to make one prediction about tomorrow.
It works if your prediction clearly comes from a repeating pattern, not a wild guess.
Show one example
Pattern: the canteen is busiest on Mondays (everyone's back from the weekend). Prediction: next Monday it will be packed, so I'll bring my own snack.
Recap
5 minA pattern is a relationship that repeats. AI's superpower is finding patterns in data by itself, then predicting from them. Predictions are likely guesses, not promises.
Vocabulary Card
- pattern
- A relationship that repeats, which lets us predict what comes next.
- prediction
- A best guess about something new, based on a pattern.
- trend
- A pattern of change over time, like "sales rising each day".
Homework · Five-Day Pattern Hunt
≤ 20 minPick one number to track for five days — steps walked, minutes of reading, bedtime, glasses of water. Record it each day, then describe the pattern and predict day six.
Sample · Minutes of reading
Mon 10, Tue 15, Wed 20, Thu 25, Fri 30.
Pattern: 5 more minutes each day. Prediction (day 6): about 35 minutes.
Yours will be different — any honest five-day record with a pattern and a prediction is perfect.