Students are already using AI.
They see it in search, homework apps, picture apps, and fake voices. School should not ignore that. School should teach them what to do when they use it.
Course outline · v0.1 · for review
Compass
A four-year course that teaches students how to use AI without letting AI replace what they know.
Four years. Forty weeks each year. At least 70 percent of every week, students do the work themselves: they practice, they make something, and they check it with a partner. It is not a lecture about technology. We build the course tools ourselves, with limits for each age, so students practice on a set task instead of using an open chat box.
Years
4
Grades 4, 5, 6, and 7. Each grade has one main goal.
Weeks
40
Forty teaching weeks a year, in eight units of five weeks.
Time doing the work
70%
In each week, about 15% is the opening, 70% is students doing the work, and 15% is the close. Across all weeks, that doing-the-work time is about 75%.
Hours
~90
Three classes of 45 minutes, or two of 60, each week. That is more than 63 hours a year of students doing the work.
Share of class time students spend doing the work, across all 160 weeks
75%
Why we teach this
Why this program exists
They still have to learn the material themselves.
Students only get better at remembering, paying attention, and deciding if they do those things themselves. AI can help a student who already understands the work. AI can also do the work instead of them. This course makes them learn it first. Then they can use AI.
Every use of AI can also cause a problem.
We don't teach students to be afraid of AI. We also don't teach them that AI is always fine. Each unit shows one real use and one real problem. A student should be able to say what AI is good for, what can go wrong, and when they have to do the work themselves.
The four years
What each grade learns
Grade 4 · Typically 9–10
People, tools, and guesses
A person, a machine, a fact, and a guess
Students learn the difference between a person and a machine, between a fact and a confident guess, and between private information and something they can share.
75% of class doing the work
Open yearGrade 5 · Typically 10–11
Using AI honestly
Schoolwork and help at home
Students learn how to get help with schoolwork and with life at home without letting AI do the work for them.
75% of class doing the work
Open yearGrade 6 · Typically 11–12
Persuasion, scams, and practice
How AI pushes people, and what students stop learning
Students learn how AI is used to persuade people and to run scams, and what happens to their own knowledge when AI does the work.
75% of class doing the work
Open yearGrade 7 · Typically 12–13
Taking responsibility
School, public posts, and a small business
Students practice being responsible in a small business, in public posts, in their own projects, and in choices about the future.
76% of class doing the work
Open yearAll four years
Seven rules we follow for all 160 weeks
- 01
Students have to know the work themselves
The goal is a student who understands the work, not a faster way to finish homework. Every week they practice without AI.
- 02
Check the answer before you believe it.
A sentence can sound right and still be wrong. Students check facts, look for fake sources, and explain the work without AI. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.
- 03
Don't type private information into AI
Names, home addresses, photos, and family business do not go into AI. Students ask before they use someone else's information. This is a rule they follow in class, not a poster.
- 04
Look at the past, now, and what may come next
Each unit looks at older tools, then at AI. Students name writing, the printing press, the computer, and the internet. They say what each one made easier, and what problem it caused.
- 05
School, home, public posts, and a job have different rules
The same AI can help with homework, a hobby, a public post, or a small business. What is allowed is different in each case.
- 06
Show a real use, and show what goes wrong
Students don't only see AI succeed. They also see it fail. They don't only hear a warning. They also see a use that is allowed.
- 07
Students practice the decision. A speech is not enough.
Students work through real situations. They write down what they did, say when they used AI, and explain the work out loud. This is not one lecture in week one.
How a week is organized
How each week is divided
Three classes of 45 minutes, or two classes of 60. Extra work for students who are ready happens in class, during the time they are doing the work. It is not extra homework unless the teacher decides otherwise.
15%
Opening
The teacher starts with a short example and the question for the week. Students hear how people did this before AI, how it works now, and what may change. They know what they will make.
70%
Doing the work
Students do the activities, use the course tools, make the piece of work, and check it with a partner. The teacher helps them. The teacher does not lecture through this part of class.
15%
Closing
Students say what can go wrong, and what they still have to do themselves. They answer a short question before they leave. Then they practice for a few minutes without AI.
How we grade
Five parts of the year’s grade
“Time doing the work” means how class time is spent. The percentages below are how the year's grade is calculated. They are different numbers.
15%
Test 1
Week 14
The start of the year: what AI is, how to use it safely, and the first skills.
15%
Test 2
Week 28
Making something, working with information or simple programming, and the skills from the middle of the year.
15%
Test 3
Week 39
The student uses the year's skills together. This test also shows whether they are ready for the exam.
25%
Projects and classwork
All year
Work from the whole year: projects, a portfolio, a written record of what the student did and what AI did, and tasks where they make something, explain it, or teach it.
30%
End-of-year exam
Week 40
The student shows what they learned this year, without help during the exam. Passing this exam is required for the year's certificate.
A certificate needs a year score of 70% or higher, an exam score of 60% or higher, and no serious safety mistake. The exam parts, the classwork we count, and the placement test are in the class handbook.
Learning
What AI can do to a student's learning, and where it can help
Students should learn to use AI. They should not be scared of it. They also should not hand their schoolwork to AI while they are still learning the subject.
Risks
AI does the thinking, so the student doesn't learn it
Memory, planning, and a first try get weaker if students never do them. In Grade 6, students compare work they did with AI and work they did without it.
Smooth writing is not the same as knowing the answer
A sentence can sound finished and still be empty or wrong. Students don't trust it until a real source or a person confirms it.
The whole class starts to sound like the same AI
If everyone writes like the same AI, they are not writing in their own words. A writing comparison tool, and reading the work out loud, show whether the student wrote it.
A kind reply from AI is not care from a person
A chatbot is not a friend, a counselor, or a parent. In Grade 4, each student writes a Help Map of real people and keeps it.
Skipping the hard parts means they can't check AI later
If students skip the hard parts of writing, math, and research, they won't know when AI is wrong.
AI can talk a student into something
Ads written for one person, scams, and lots of comments that all say the same thing can push a student who has never practiced saying no.
Benefits
Help with a draft, after the student has started
AI can suggest an outline, a counterargument, or another way to explain something. The student has to start the thinking first.
Comments on the work, not a finished paper
AI can point out structure, unclear sentences, and another approach. Students use that as comments. They don't turn it in as their paper.
A second explanation, if the student can say it themselves
AI can explain a hard idea again. The student then explains it without looking at the AI. If they can't, they don't own the knowledge.
Saved time, if the student uses it on real work
Time not spent on a first draft can go to an experiment, making something, a conversation, or work for the community. The course teaches them to use that time. It doesn't assume they will.
Finding patterns in more information than one person can hold
This can help in research. A person is still responsible for whether the claim is true.
A small group can get more done, if they stay honest
In Grade 7, student businesses show that a few students can do more than they could before. They still don't lie to get there.
Scope and sequence
Thirty-two units, eight a year
| Year | Unit | Weeks | Title | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 1 | 1–5 | People, ordinary tools, and AI What can a person do, and what is a machine only copying? | School · Home |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 2 | 6–10 | Learning from examples If a machine only knows the examples it was shown, what happens when it sees something new? | School |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 3 | 11–15 | Writing clear instructions How do clear instructions change what AI does? | School · Home |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 4 | 16–20 | Facts, stories, opinions, and guesses How do we catch a sentence that sounds sure but is only a guess? | School · Public life |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 5 | 21–25 | Private information What is mine, and what should I never type into AI? | Home · School |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 6 | 26–30 | Making something with AI help If AI helps me make something, who made it? | School · Home |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 7 | 31–35 | Who to ask for help When is AI the wrong place to take a feeling? | Home · School |
| Grade 4 People, tools, and guesses | 8 | 36–40 | A class museum of tools What did older tools change for people, what is AI changing now, and what rule do we want next? | School · Public life |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 1 | 1–5 | Honest schoolwork When is AI help like a calculator, and when is it like copying? | School |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 2 | 6–10 | Checking sources Who said this, and how would I know if they were wrong? | School · Public life |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 3 | 11–15 | Writing with AI help How do I keep my own wording if AI can finish my sentences? | School |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 4 | 16–20 | Explaining math and science If I can't explain it without AI, do I know it? | School |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 5 | 21–25 | Pictures that may not be real Why is 'I saw it' no longer enough? | Public life · Home · School |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 6 | 26–30 | Using AI at home What is a useful set of instructions for my life, without tricking anyone? | Home · School |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 7 | 31–35 | Unfair patterns in AI answers If AI learned from an unfair set of examples, what does it repeat? | School · Public life |
| Grade 5 Using AI honestly | 8 | 36–40 | Teaching a younger student Can I teach a younger student how to ask a good question and check the answer? | School · Home |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 1 | 1–5 | A history of tools people use to think What did each new tool give people, and what did it cost? | School · Public life |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 2 | 6–10 | AI guesses the next word If AI is guessing the next word, why does it feel like it knows the answer? | School |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 3 | 11–15 | How ads and messages try to persuade How do words get you to want something, click something, or believe something? | Work · Public life · Home |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 4 | 16–20 | Scams and fake messages What does a lie look like when it uses a familiar voice? | Home · Public life |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 5 | 21–25 | What students stop learning If I let AI think for me, what happens to what I know? | Home · School |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 6 | 26–30 | Deciding if a use is fair How do we decide when a use of AI is fair? | School · Home · Public life · Work |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 7 | 31–35 | What a free app collects If the product is free, what is being sold? | Home · Public life |
| Grade 6 Persuasion, scams, and practice | 8 | 36–40 | Showing one use and one risk Can I show both what one AI tool can do and how it can go wrong? | School · Public life |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 1 | 1–5 | Forecasts, wishes, and warnings How do we tell a forecast from a wish or a warning? | Public life · Home |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 2 | 6–10 | A small honest business How can a small team use AI without lying to customers or lowering the quality of the work? | Work |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 3 | 11–15 | Jobs and what people still need to learn Which parts of a job should stay with a person, and which parts should I still learn even if a machine can do them? | Work · Home |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 4 | 16–20 | Checking public claims How do we keep a public conversation when anyone can fill it with smooth text and fake pictures? | Public life · School |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 5 | 21–25 | Tools that take actions What happens when a tool can take a series of actions, not just write a paragraph? | School · Work |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 6 | 26–30 | Who writes the school rules Who decides how these tools behave, who is left out, and what do they cost? | Public life · School |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 7 | 31–35 | The main project What can I make that shows I understand the work, not just that AI produced a finished product? | School · Home · Work · Public life |
| Grade 7 Taking responsibility | 8 | 36–40 | Explain it, teach it, and make a promise Can I say what I did, teach a younger student, and say how I will use AI? | School · Public life · Home |