AI Literacy
Model

As a class, work with AI to rewrite Cat in the Hat from Sally and her brother’s perspective, discussing the value of different perspectives.

Create a 3D Robot with boxes and make "Robot Rules" for imaginary school robot, discussing why certain rules are important for privacy, safety, and fairness.

Discuss the difference between getting help and copying, relating it to both human and AI assistance.

Play "Robot Says" (like "Simon Says"), discussing why it's important that humans can override robot instructions.

Write a story about a ‘Good’ (ethical) AI who doesn’t break rules, creatively exploring the difficult decisions it must make.

When practicing data collection, play out a mock scenario where some students’ data isn’t included and discuss fairness aspects thereof.

When discussing their community, talk about self-driving cars and map where they should be allowed/not.

Create a timeline predicting how AI might change their community over the next 50 years.

Paint an autonomous vehicle, including safety features for various ethical dilemmas.

Analyze scenarios of AI use in academic settings, identifying appropriate and inappropriate uses.

Read The Giver drawing parallels to the Committee of Elders’ deterministic decisions and artificial intelligences’.

When discussing variables, explore how overweighting certain variables leads to skewed answers, drawing parallels to AI algorithms (equations).

Create a school AI constitution discussing AI usage in school, as well as social media, deep fakes, etc.

Debate the pros and cons of AI-powered school surveillance systems, considering privacy and safety concerns.

Analyze AI-generated social media profiles, discussing issues of authenticity, privacy, and influence.

Interview an AI tool to ask it about its ethical code, training.

Debate merits of having AI involved in monitoring, diagnosing, and/or researching medical conditions.

Follow AI usage guidelines and appropriately cite their use of AI.

Creatively write about scenarios where AI adoption goes perfectly and/or terribly, explaining the impact on humans in each case.

Conduct a mock legislative session, drafting and debating AI-related bills based on current legal frameworks and emerging issues.

Debate the role of human governance in regulating global AI systems, proposing international oversight mechanisms.

Discuss Edward Snowden scandal and debate ethics of US surveillance domestically and abroad.

Research technological advancements throughout American history through the lens of equity.

Analyze case studies of real-world AI ethics dilemmas, proposing and justifying solutions.

Develop a school-wide AI use policy that balances innovation with academic integrity, presenting to administration.

Practice making supply/demand curves predicting the impact of AI on jobs, new products, income distribution, etc.

When teaching about different types of sentences (questions, commands), include examples of giving commands to AI assistants. Students can practice forming clear, concise commands.

Read simple stories about robots or AI assistants, discussing how they help people.

During units on the five senses, compare human senses to how AI "senses" the world (cameras for sight, microphones for hearing). This can be integrated into lessons about how we gather information about our environment.

Discuss how AI helps in different jobs during career day activities.

Draw pictures of AI helpers they/their community heroes encounter in daily life.

Write "day in the life" stories, highlighting every AI interaction.

Practice researching a topic of interest using different research tools, including AI, search engines, Wikipedia, and books.

When teaching probability, use examples of how AI uses data to make autocomplete predictions (e.g. Google) or recommendations (e.g. Disney+, Netflix).

Use data about AI adoption rates or LLM sizes in graphing exercises.

Create timelines of technological advancements, including AI milestones.

Research and map the data centers needed for AI computing. Can also discuss energy & environmental factors involved in AI computing.

Write speculative fiction about future AI developments.

When teaching about writing for different audiences, include a lesson on writing clear instructions for AI systems (like crafting effective chatbot prompts).

Explore how geometry is used in machine learning processes and computer vision tools (e.g. FaceID)

In units on technological revolutions (like the Industrial Revolution), include discussions on the AI revolution and its potential impacts on society and work.

Research how AI is used in various career fields of interest.

Write a persuasive essay on the pros and cons of AI in specific industries.

Study different kinds of artificial intelligence, including machine learning, and basic peripheral concepts like Big Data.

Research different open and closed AI models and the companies behind them.

In units on research and critical evaluation of sources, discuss nuances of citing AI-generated content.

Incorporate explanations of machine learning algorithms into lessons on statistical analysis & predictive modeling.

Chart the history of “Artificial Intelligence” and contributions of women and US immigrants.

Include debates on AI ethics as part of units on modern ethical dilemmas, including topics like AI bias, privacy, and specific uses like police report writing.

Debate ethics of closed, corporate-owned AI models.

Study the economic impact of AI labor on human wages.

Unpack economics of open vs. closed source AI models and the companies/organizations behind them.

Evaluate how different types of AI might impact students' chosen career paths and needed skills.

Read/compare different stories with slanted characters (e.g. snakes in Disney movies), discussing how certain perspectives can slant perception. Connect to data that AI gets that shapes its understanding of the world (e.g. qualities of snakes).

Discuss the importance of accurate measurements in simple examples, relating it to AI needing good data.

Visualize and compare data sizes used in data, from bytes to petabytes, using a number line.

Discuss how people can have different experiences and viewpoints, relating this to how AI provides varying answers based on its training.

Read the Parable of the Blind Men & the Elephant and discuss how important multiple perspectives are for getting the whole picture. Transfer to discussion of AI and incomplete (or biased) data underlying it.

Investigate how errors in data affect outcomes in hands-on experiments; connect to AI getting bad data & implications.

Discuss the importance of privacy and protecting personal information.

Compare different sources of historical information (autobiographies, newspapers, TV stories, etc.), discussing how AI might use various sources to learn about history.

Explore the dangers of “a single story” and anecdotal evidence, tying back to possible biases within AI.

Discuss how data collection for weather prediction systems can affect the quality of forecasts.

Experiment with the YouTube algorithm and impact of viewing novel content on their recommendations.

Discuss how AI systems manage vast amounts of personal data and curate feeds/recommendations/ads

Practice analyzing & decoding terms of service for popular apps and understanding what data is collected and how AI might use it.

Analyze AI-related privacy laws and practice responding for different formats (e.g. blog, thread, Op-Ed).

Test for, document, and report concrete examples of bias in AI systems.

Discuss how sizes of models impact strength of statistical findings; pair with finding probabilities of wrong answers.

Research history of US government surveillance and possible impacts of AI monitoring/predicting.

Debate the ethics of AI training with copyrighted material.

Explore the impact of AI biases in real world use cases (e.g. businesses’ decision-making, state policing, etc.).

Explore impacts of AI on business operations (e.g. Amazon deliveries, fraud prevention).

AI generates a list of themed words (animals, “E” words) that groups of students sort into different categories.

Sort objects based on specific criteria, including novel criteria determined by students.

Identify and extend simple patterns, drawing parallels to AI algorithms.

Sort AI-generated images of ice, steam, and liquid, categorizing them into respective “states of water” buckets.

Take an AI-generated paragraph about their school and divide each sentence into “True”, “False” and “Unknown” categories.

Read an AI-generated story that combines multiple fairy tales; classify the parts of the story according to what fairy tale they’re derived from.

Summarize a recent news story from the community and ask AI to represent the key points in an image/video/song.

Using an AI-generated image, students categorize shapes they see within the image.

Create a “10 Tips for Being Safe After School” and ask AI to help illustrate it.

After reading a story, describe some emotions that are elicited and ask a music AI to create a song that aligns with those feelings.

Practice summarization techniques of an article/chapter and compare to an AI’s summary of the same text.

Take an AI-provided word problem and break it down into component parts

With the help of AI and normal research tools, create, research, and defend a poster on “The 3 similarities of every ancient civilization.”

Researching the various issues facing middle school students and AI, categorize and address each with a resource for rising 6th graders.

Deconstruct multi-step AI projects into simpler steps to solve them sequentially.

Engage students in AI-generated “Two Themes and a Lie”, honing their ability to see broader elements.

Analyze Sports Illustrated’s AI-generated news stories and highlight “fact” versus “opinion” within each.

Break down an AI-generated Op-Ed for logic and identify types of logical fallacies AI can make.

Break down a business into its component parts and utilize AI as a thought partner for each.

Students describe family members, draw their own family portraits while comparing them to AI-generated ones of their family; and compare the outputs.

Ask Siri for the weather predictions and track the actual weather. Discuss results.

AI generates fun word problems that apply addition/ subtraction concepts.

AI-generate multiple “Two Truths and a Lie” statements about a Pete the Cat book (or other) and challenge students to identify the correct answers.

Solve AI-generated logic puzzles (e.g. Who took the cookie?) and investigate whether the AI might have made any mistakes.

Under adult supervision, students ask AI tools about their community and they investigate the claims made by tools.

Students review AI-generated images of their favorite characters and critique their depictions of them.

Read a story about AI tutors and discuss pros and cons of using them.

Teachers provide students with 3 recent AI-generated news stories and they investigate to determine which is true.

Collecting data about their school (e.g. school lunch favorites), students will chart and analyze them, comparing their analysis to AI-created figures.

Students fact check AI as they ask fun questions like “What if I eat baking soda and Diet Coke?” (under adult supervision)

Explore and share with classmates about AI hallucinations and the reasons behind AI “making up” information.

Read news reports of fake news, deepfakes, and AI-run social media accounts in order to create a “Smart After School” guide for middle schoolers.

Interrogate and debunk AI claims made while co-writing a paper about a class text.

Investigate, correct, and defend an AI-driven mathematical analysis.

Read and analyze strength of findings within studies exploring efficacy of AI usage on student learning.

Ask AI how it would improve the US Government and critique its responses in light of the Constitution and Amendments.

Imagine a scenario where AI content has proliferated the internet/books and create a guide for determining “the truth.”

Validate AI feedback about a business idea by talking to real potential customers.

Critique, compare, and contrast AI-generated images of their favorite fictional characters.

Write a story of how “superheroes” Siri and Alexa work together to solve or create a big problem in the future.

Compare AI-generated facts to those that are observable in the classroom.

Sort AI-generated "facts" about their school/community into true, false, and unsure categories, verifying with local knowledge.

Collaboratively write a biography about their teacher using a mix of human- and AI-generated content, discussing factfulness throughout.

Write a story about how AI works for their younger siblings.

Observe the teacher creating simple charts with AI tools and practice interpreting them.

Discuss tools and practice matching the right tool for the right task (e.g. ruler for lengths), including AI tool examples.

Take a virtual, AI-based excursion on the Oregon Trail and analyze AI-generated happenings alongside historical documents.

Co-create a “When to use AI Guide for Students” (13+ usage), providing peer guidance.

Investigate incorrect AI-generated word problem answers. Discuss fallibility of AI.

Poll classmates on types of AI usage and analyze data for measures like mean, median, mode, and range.

Debate the positives of AI (weather prediction) against drawbacks (pollution) on climate change solutions.

Create "AI guides" for their families, explaining how to use common AI tools safely and effectively.

Assess the reliability of AI-generated summaries of historical events compared to primary sources.

Help an adult to select an appropriate AI tool for a task like homework practice or recipe creation.

Make a presentation about AI for a Senior Home, explaining in understandable terms the risks in scams, deepfakes, etc.

Reflect on AI usage in studying and producing work to begin creating a personal code for AI usage.

Design guidelines for appropriate use of AI in lab report writing and data analysis.

Conduct hands-on experiments versus AI simulations for similar concepts, comparing their results and experiences.

Research and present on different types of AI tools/models, comparing their capabilities and limitations.

Analyze case studies of AI implementation in policing, admissions, hiring, etc, discussing societal implications and proposing ethical guidelines.

Research and propose AI innovations to decrease prices at their favorite stores/brands.

Draft AI policy recommendations for local government, addressing potential benefits and concerns.

Under adult supervision, identify topics in which they have interest and create art projects with AI-generated images, music, or videos. Compare to projects they might do on their own and share how they feel when using these tools (relative to making art on their own).

Under adult supervision, identify challenging concepts with which they struggle and create practice AI-generated assignments in areas of interest (e.g., sports, superheroes) to address gaps. Reflect on how they feel when getting help from a machine versus a teacher/parent/friend.

Under adult supervision, use AI to generate Escape Room-esque challenges that reinforce class concepts.

Under adult supervision, use AI as a thought partner to explore new topics of interest (e.g. new books to read, [video] game strategies, etc.)

Under adult supervision, experiment with different approaches to prompting and reflect on findings.

Students reflect on things that they enjoy and excel in, comparing their capabilities to machines’.

Beginning with feedback/results from recent assessments, create a remediation/ acceleration plan using AI tools.

Use self-scaffolding prompting techniques to build on what they already know/understand to grasp new topics.

Leverage AI tools to learn new topics via analogy, extrapolation, visualization, etc.

Experiment with using AI before, during, and after problem solving to understand how it augments learning.

Write stories with and without AI prompts, reflecting on how each method affects their creativity, motivation, and self-regard.

Post-homework completion, check AI problem-solving processes/answers against own for analysis.

Study human development and how AI is likely to impact youth development in particular.

Students prompt AI to randomly ask them questions that they must answer in foreign language.

Under adult supervision, use AI to translate a class text into a math/science word problem.

Rewrite a favorite story (e.g. Are You My Mother?) but where the main character is a robot run by artificial intelligence.

Students work with teachers to translate patterns into AI-generated images or music

Create "future community" projects, combining hand-drawn elements with AI-generated futuristic buildings or vehicles.

Under adult supervision, use an AI image generator to create illustrations for students’ own short stories.

Under adult supervision, create images composed only of certain shapes.

Under adult supervision, chain AI tools to research an animal, generate a visual of its habitat, create a food web, and produce a short documentary script.

Under adult supervision, generate images/videos of historical scenes of interest.

Create imaginative maps of fictional countries, incorporating real geographic features.

Under adult supervision, write collaborative stories where they alternate writing passages with AI-generated continuations.

Demonstrate AI data visualization capabilities to compare two relevant datasets students have collected.

Analyze AI-generated historical fiction, analyzing how well AI can interpret historical events and figures.

Learn types of prompting and utility of practice chain-prompting

Under adult supervision, use AI-powered design tools to generate new art in the style of famous historical artists.

Under adult supervision, use AI-based musical tools to make a unique composition.

Study AI-generated poetry in various styles, comparing them to human-written poems and analyzing literary devices used.

Employ AI visualization tools to create unique representations of complex mathematical concepts or data sets.

Using AI, creatively re-write American history, imagining major US events had they happened differently.

Research ethical implications of multi-modal language model (MLM) training and reflect on impacts on artists.

Practice using AI tools to make a professional presentation.

Research modern artists’ use of AI to create new works.

Practice advanced prompting in image, sound, and video editors to make entirely new pieces.

Iteratively generate images and videos of favorite characters by directing their teacher to continually adjust prompts.

Observe how AI images of animals/plants change as they learn to describe them more granularly and teacher updates prompts.

Spot all of the numbers/shapes cleverly hidden within a fun, AI-generated scene. Turn it up to “hard” level when ready.

Play “Stump the AI” by trying to create a pattern that it can’t guess.

Write a creative story of adventure and–under adult supervision–create and present a visual representation of your imagined adventure.

Test getting the weather from different AI tools (e.g. Siri, Alexa, weather app) and track their correctness over time.

Pull together important community documents to create a “Community Expert” Bot (GPT) that can answer questions about their home.

Play “AI Telephone” where different groups of students alternate writing descriptions and interpreting images.

Research variety of AI innovations in healthcare, environmental monitoring, etc. and the different types of AI involved.

After finishing a science fair project, engage AI in exploratory extensions of their research question (under adult supervision).

Practice challenging problems within math-specific AI tools (e.g. WolframAlpha).

Under adult supervision, use AI to simulate historical "what-if" scenarios and discuss potential alternate outcomes of major events.

When AI research tools give confusing results, rephrase questions or use different search approaches.

If an AI design tool isn't creating what they want, practice iterating prompts in different ways until goal is reached.

Create and play an AI-generated song from sheet music.

Choose from various AI-powered research tools and databases to gather information for a comprehensive analysis.

Prompt AI for increasingly difficult/varied SAT/ACT/AP questions and make the answer bank options.

Translate academic papers and findings into plainspeak.

Test various AI tools for different tasks (e.g. research, thought partnership, editing) and assess which perform best respectively.

Translate abstract math concepts to tangible real world scenarios/visualizations.

Test, research and critique AI’s ability to connect 2 random historical events (a la 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon)

Complete a multi-step project in which multiple prompts are required to research, draft, design, and deliver a multimedia product.

Attempt to build a simple product/business using widely accessible AI (with AI).

After watching Wall-E, discuss implications of overreliance on technology.

Preview weather predictions for multiple days in advance and then compare what really happened, discussing the degree to which AI-driven weather predictions can be depended on.

Students compete against AI estimating different things (e.g. candies in a jar) and reflect on their approach versus AI’s.

Co-design “The Perfect Community” with an AI image generator.

Write creatively about ways that humans and AI-powered machines can partner to address major global problems (climate change, inequality, homelessness, etc.).

Practice “seeing the world like AI does” by turning an image into a set of triangles and rectangles.

Play “A-I Spy” with students, selecting an item in their classroom and trying to trick the AI. Try again after providing an image of the classroom. Discuss the limits of AI.

Co-design “The Perfect Community” with an AI image generator, discussing who/what is included/excluded.

Create a comic strip depicting a day in the life of a student working alongside an AI learning assistant.

Use AI writing assistants for critiques only, but craft the main content themselves, reflecting on the process.

Conduct hypothetical science fair project with AI (e.g. “If the floor was lava, could I cross it on ice blocks, metal shoes, ___?”).

Attempt to use AI as a lab partner in a class experiment. Reflect on ways in which AI helped and hindered progress.

Research how different governments and cultures around the world are adopting AI technologies, creating a world map of AI use.

Write a Bill of Rights for how humans should treat AI and how AI should treat humans.

Make a poster comparing relationships they can have with family and friends versus tools like Character.AI and Meta AI.

Design a "School of the Future," incorporating AI assistants, and present how they would work alongside human teachers and students.

When beginning to brainstorm for a piece, play “Yes, and…” with an AI (under adult supervision).

Research a career field of interest and write the paper “2040: How humans use AI in ___ (field/industry)”

When learning about genes, explore the use of AI in genetic research, discussing ethical considerations and the balance between AI capabilities and human oversight.

Design and conduct experiments where AI and humans collaborate in different stages (hypothesis generation, data analysis, conclusion drawing).

Debate the role of AI in modern democratic processes, from campaign strategies to deepfakes.

Explore how AI is helping decode ancient languages.

After watching Her, discuss the philosophical implications of emotional attachments to AI.

Examine the trolley problem in the context of autonomous vehicles, debating the ethics of AI decision-making in life-or-death scenarios.

Practice describing a scene they can observe (e.g. a playground) followed by iteratively generating images until they achieve a close match.

With teacher leading, ask AI to help make directions for a PB&J; have students give AI feedback until it can successfully explain all steps.

Have students translate simple math problems into fun word problems, giving AI feedback if they don’t like the story.

Build a guide to being a “Community Helper”, interviewing AI firefighters, city councilors, etc. and improving their guide after each interview.

Practice adjectives and adverbs, explaining something simple to an AI (teacher-led) to see if it can guess the item; each student builds on previous until AI can guess.

Alongside growing plants from seeds, students experiment with different growing ideas using AI (e.g. “ChatGPT, how could we make seeds grow twice as fast?”).

Take measurements of a classroom and iteratively attempt to generate a simple map of the classroom with AI. (teacher-led)

Conduct a "Historical Detective" activity where students refine their questions to an "AI witness" (teacher-led) to uncover details about a historical mystery.

Critique an AI-generated paragraph about The Giver (or other recent text) and provide feedback to AI.

Under adult supervision, work with AI to create a fun, AI-based “video game” that helps the student practice math concepts.

Under adult supervision, students ask AI to help them create a song or mnemonic device to remember important events.

Under adult supervision, practice collaborating with AI on a long, difficult project.

Under adult supervision, generate 3 images, iterating the prompt each time to improve the output; reflect on what worked and didn’t as the prompt evolved.

Under adult supervision, practice interviewing for a job as a babysitter, getting feedback on answers from AI.

Submit multiple drafts to AI for feedback-only purposes, repeatedly attempting to improve output.

Use AI to build a prediction engine for a question like “How many people will live in my town when I’m 40?”; give multiple scenarios and observe the differences.

Role play a scenario (via prompting) where a famous explorer encounters “The Ancient AI Civilization”; progressively builds a relationship with the AI Tribe and comes to shared agreements.

Propose a personal AI Ethics Code to an AI to consider unforeseen cases and improve the document.

Practice using AI as a theoretical customer for a product one might sell.

Generate a song by continuously adjusting the prompt to generate improved outputs.