iPhone with replica of Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone

An “AirTag” is a small piece of technology, created by Apple Inc., that utilizes Bluetooth signals to help track objects. The way they work is through crowdsourcing the power of other Apple devices around them (iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) to pick up the Bluetooth signal that the AirTag is putting out. Once this signal is picked up by one of these Apple devices, its location is sent to the Internet and back to the owner. No other information is exchanged between the AirTag and these devices.

In this activity, students will practice “crowdsourcing” information to a seeker who is looking for a hidden object to understand how decides can work together to share information.

1.      Choose a student to be “it” and step out of the room. While they are gone, hide the object.

2.      Allow the student back in. One at a time, they will ask other students around the room to submit a one-word hint as to where the object is. Each student can only be asked once, but the same descriptive word can be given by different students.

3.      Have the “it” student continue until the object is found. 

1.      For older students, forgo a descriptive word and instead have a student describe the distance between themselves and the object.

2.      As the “it” student gets closer to the object, have students giving answers closer to it raise their voice, and others further from it lower theirs/ whisper. The closer the hint-giving student, the stronger the “signal” the seeking student receives.

Standards for Air Tag