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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.

Grades 4–7. 40 weeks per year. 160 weeks in all. At least 70% of each week, students do the work themselves. The tools are built for this course.

Why we teach this

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.

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

Grade 4 · People, tools, and guesses
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.
Grade 5 · Using AI honestly
Students learn how to get help with schoolwork and with life at home without letting AI do the work for them.
Grade 6 · Persuasion, scams, and practice
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.
Grade 7 · Taking responsibility
Students practice being responsible in a small business, in public posts, in their own projects, and in choices about the future.

Seven rules for all four years

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

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.

Practice without AI

Memory. Remember something without looking it up. A poem, facts the student chose, or a diagram from last week.

Looking carefully. Draw or describe what is actually in front of them. They don't ask AI to describe it.

Stating a position. For two minutes, with no notes, the student says what they think and why. A classmate answers. The teacher or a classmate says whether the reasons hold up.

Mental math. Students practice math in their heads so a calculator doesn't replace their number sense.

Handwriting. They write a paragraph from their own thoughts, on paper.

Explaining it back. They explain the idea to a classmate without using the AI that helped them. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.

Trying before asking. They work on a hard problem for a set time before they ask a person or AI.

Talking to a person. They talk with a classmate or an adult and pay attention to that person. AI is not a friend.

Quiet time. A few minutes with nothing to fill the time. Students practice paying attention without a screen.

Making it by hand. Paper, cardboard, clay, or string. Students finish an idea with their hands, not with AI.

Thinking

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.

Rules for school, home, public life, and work

School

If the student can't explain their work without AI help, they don't own their knowledge.

Each assignment says what AI help is allowed: ideas, comments, grammar, or none.
Letting AI write the work is cheating. That includes “just this paragraph.”
Sources have to be real. A made-up book or website fails the assignment.
Every major piece of work includes a written record of what the student did and what AI did.

Home and personal life

AI can help a student organize their own life. It cannot be used to trick someone, to share private information, or to replace a person.

Practice schedules, collections, recipes, and hobby plans are allowed. In Grades 4 and 5, an adult checks them.
Students don't use AI to lie to their family or to write a fake excuse.
Students don't upload other people's photos unless those people said yes.
AI is not a friend. When a student is upset, they talk to a person on their Help Map.

Work and a small business

Say when AI helped. A person is responsible for the quality. Don't sell something that isn't true.

If a school business uses AI to write text for customers, it says so.
No fake reviews, fake testimonials, or fake “people like you.”
No project in this course makes money from children's personal information.
In Grade 7, students write down the rules for how their business will use AI.

Public life

Before you share something in public, check that it is true, and say if AI made the picture or the voice.

Check a claim before you forward it. Use two sources, or a person you trust.
Label pictures and voices that AI made. Seeing it is not proof that it happened.
Students don't fake a crowd. They don't fill a conversation with AI comments that all say the same thing.
A local problem is researched in more than one place. One chat answer is not research.

Security

What students never type into AI. A full name with an address, a password, a school ID, a photo of a child's face in a public AI, health details, family money, or someone else's secrets.

Younger students don't use a public chatbot. The course tools run on the school's system. Grade 4 does not use an open public chatbot. Students get more freedom when they show they can use it safely, not just because they are older.

Scams and fake messages from someone in charge. Students learn about phishing, a fake message from a principal, and a copied voice of a parent. In Grade 6 they practice on a fake inbox. They never try it on a real person.

Fake pictures, video, and audio. Students learn this in Grade 5 and use it again in Grade 7 when they look at public posts. They make labeled fakes so they can spot unlabeled ones.

AI that can take actions, not just write text. In Grade 7, students use a practice tool that only allows a short list of actions. They look at what those actions could do if the AI were allowed to do more.

Getting around safety rules is not a game. We don't teach students how to break AI safety rules for fun. “The AI said I could” is not an excuse.

How we grade

We grade whether the student understands the work. We don't grade how much writing they can get AI to produce. If the student can't explain their work without AI help, they don't own their knowledge.

“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.

AI Lab wrote this for 42 lessons of 50 minutes: tests in lessons 14, 28, and 40, review in lesson 41, and the exam in lesson 42. A Compass year is 40 weeks. The grade percentages stay the same. Test 1 is week 14. Test 2 is week 28. Test 3 is week 39. The exam is week 40.

How the year’s grade is split

Part	When	Share of the grade	What it is for
Test 1	Week 14	15%	The start of the year: what AI is, how to use it safely, and the first skills.
Test 2	Week 28	15%	Making something, working with information or simple programming, and the skills from the middle of the year.
Test 3	Week 39	15%	The student uses the year's skills together. This test also shows whether they are ready for the exam.
Projects and classwork	All year	25%	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.
End-of-year exam	Week 40	30%	The student shows what they learned this year, without help during the exam. Passing this exam is required for the year's certificate.

What the exam asks the student to show

Knowledge
The student explains the main ideas of the year in their own words, including the terms the course expects them to know.
Using AI on a new task
The student uses AI or another digital tool to finish a task they have not seen before. The task matches what that year taught.
Spotting problems
The student finds a mistake, a risk, a weak source, or a use that is not allowed. They say what to do instead.
Making something
When the year requires it, the student makes or improves a piece of work, a program, an analysis, or a first version of a solution.

What is required for the certificate

The student scores 70% or higher for the year.
The student scores 60% or higher on the end-of-year exam.
The student has not made a serious safety mistake. Putting personal information into AI, using AI to trick someone, or something equally serious blocks the certificate even if the scores are high enough. The student fixes that mistake in class first. Then they can get the certificate.

Pass
The student met the year score, the exam score, and the safety rules.
Pass with distinction
A higher pass. The standards use this name. They don't give a separate percentage for it, so this course doesn't make one up.
Not passed yet
The student has not met the year score, the exam score, or the safety rules. They can finish the missing work and be tested again. The AI Lab name for this result is “Not yet certified.”

This certificate comes from the course. It is not a government certificate. The school does not call it one.

What counts inside the 25% for projects and classwork

A written record
Dates and steps: what I tried, what AI did, what I changed, and what I checked.
Explaining without AI
The student explains the work without AI help. If they can't, they don't own the knowledge. This is used in writing, math, code, and final projects.
Questions about right and wrong
Who could be hurt? Did people agree? Is it honest? Is it fair? Can you undo it? Students are scored on real situations, not on nice-sounding answers.
A use and a problem
Every major project shows both a real use and a real problem. A project is not finished if it only shows what AI can do and never shows a problem.
Portfolio
One portfolio each year. Continuing students also keep a four-year portfolio in Grade 7.

Words for what a student can do

These words are how teachers say what a student can do. The certificate means the student can do the skill, not only recognize the word. Later years ask the student to use the skill on new work, take it apart, judge it, make something, and explain their choices.

Recognise. Point it out when you see it.
Describe. Explain it correctly in your own words.
Use. Do it correctly on a task you have practiced.
Apply. Pick the right method and use it on a new task from this year's work.
Analyse. Take it apart and say how the parts fit, or what is wrong.
Evaluate. Judge it using the rules you were given, and using proof.
Create. Make something that meets the requirements. It has to be the student's work.
Defend. Explain your decision. Say what is weak about it, and what else you could have done.

How a student starts

A new student is not placed only by age, and not only by school grade. A short placement test shows where they should start. They may start in an earlier year if they need the basics. They don't have to finish Grade 4 before later work if the test shows they are ready.

AI ideas
Can the student explain what AI is, what an AI that writes or makes pictures does, and one basic limit, at the right level for that year?
Giving AI instructions
Can the student get a useful result, improve the instructions, and say whether the result is good enough?
Checking information
Can the student check whether a claim is true, and tell a stronger source from a weaker one?
Safety
Does the student keep personal information out of AI, and know which uses are allowed?
Data
Can the student organise or read data at the level where they would start?
Programming
Can the student use block coding, or Python, if the year they would enter expects it?
A new task
Can the student work on an unfamiliar problem with the right digital or AI tools?

Printed materials

Course outline. This page. It says how the course is built, what happens in each of the four years, and which tools we will build. We finish this before we write the lessons.

Year books (grades 4–7). The week-by-week teacher book: how to start class, what students do, the closing questions, extra work for students who are ready, and the materials.

Student journal. A written record of the work, a Help Map of real people, the student's own honesty rules, a list of skills they will keep practicing without AI, a practice tracker, and reflection pages. These start on paper.

Family guide. A short guide each year, written in plain language. It says what the class will do, what it will not do, how to talk about it at home, and the privacy agreement.

Tool specifications. One page for each course tool: what students should learn, the use and the problem, the age limit, the rules about data, and notes for the people who will build it.

Rubrics and cases. Scoring guides for the three tests, the end-of-year exam, explaining without AI, right and wrong choices, the research record, and projects. Case cards teachers can print.

Acceptable use and student rights. A draft school policy that students help write in Grade 7, and a simpler agreement that starts in Grade 4.

Scope and sequence

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

Grade 4 · A person, a machine, a fact, and a guess · 75% of class doing the work

People, tools, and guesses

Students learn three differences. A person is not a machine. A fact is not a confident guess. Private information is not something they can type into AI. They stay interested in the tools, and they stay safe.

By the end of Grade 4, a student can sort living things, ordinary tools, and AI. They can check a sentence against something they already know. They can refuse to type a name, a photo, or a password into AI. They can make a piece of work and point to the part they did and the part AI did.

Unit 1 · Weeks 1–5

People, ordinary tools, and AI

Question for the unit. What can a person do, and what is a machine only copying?

A person can notice, remember, choose, and care. An ordinary tool, such as a pencil or a calculator, helps a person do a job. An AI tool can talk in a smooth way. Those are three different things. Students practice telling them apart.

Past: People counted on their fingers, used clay tokens to keep records, and practiced ways to remember.
Now: A language tool guesses the next word and presents that guess as an answer.
Future: Later tools will sound even more like people. Students still have to remember the difference.

The rule. Do not treat a chatbot as a friend, a pet, or a person. Kind words are for people.

End-of-unit project. My Intelligence Map — A drawn or written map of five things the student did with their own mind this week that a machine did not do, plus a short card about one older tool.

SchoolHome

Intelligence Sorter

Week 1 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
What do we mean by smart?
Students do
Students walk around the room and sort objects into living, tool, both, or neither. They name four things a person can do: notice, remember, choose, and care.
Students make
A class chart of items people disagreed about, such as a plant, a thermostat, a book, and a dog.
What can go wrong
Students call everything 'smart.' Then they cannot say what is different about a person, a tool, and AI.
Week 2 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Twenty-four cases
Students do
Students use Intelligence Sorter. In pairs, then as a class, they decide where a chatbot, a dog, and a thermostat belong, and they give a reason.
Students make
Written decisions for three hard cases, with one reason each.
What can go wrong
Students treat a voice that answers as a person. A reply is not proof that someone is there.
Week 3 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
A short history of tools
Students do
Students make cards for clay tokens, the book, the telephone, the search box, and a chatbot. Each card names one thing the tool made easier and one problem it caused.
Students make
Five cards for the museum at the end of the year.
What can go wrong
Students write only the good part. Every card needs the problem too.
Week 4 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Map your own mind
Students do
Students draw or write My Intelligence Map from this actual week. They do not ask AI for a list of things people can do.
Students make
The map, made by the student.
What can go wrong
Students let AI tell them what their mind is for. The map has to come from what they did this week.
Week 5 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
What can a person do that a machine can't?
Students do
Each student gives a two-minute talk. Families may listen. Classmates ask: what can you do that a machine cannot?
Students make
A spoken explanation of the map.
What can go wrong
The class claps for a clever demo and never asks what can go wrong.

Unit 2 · Weeks 6–10

Learning from examples

Question for the unit. If a machine only knows the examples it was shown, what happens when it sees something new?

Learning from examples is useful, and it can also go wrong. If the examples are too few, or if they leave people out, the guess will be narrow or unfair. Students make a small sorting program fail on purpose, and they say why it failed.

Past: People learned trades by watching many examples. They also copied the teacher's mistakes.
Now: These tools are trained on huge amounts of text and pictures that the student did not choose.
Future: A larger set of examples will still have gaps. A person has to notice the gaps.

The rule. Do not treat a guess from a thin set of examples as fair to people who were left out of the pictures.

End-of-unit project. Teach-a-bot poster — A poster that says what the class showed the program, what it got wrong, what they would show it next, and a rebuilt set of examples.

School

Pattern Pupil

Week 6 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
That's a dog
Students do
Students talk about how people learn faces, songs, and 'that's a dog' from examples. They contrast that with a rule someone wrote down.
Students make
Two lists: learned from examples, and learned from a written rule.
What can go wrong
Students think that learning from examples is the same as understanding. It is not.
Week 7 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Train the sorting program
Students do
Students train Pattern Pupil on shapes or colors the class chooses. They test it on a card it has not seen.
Students make
A set of training examples and a first note of how often it was right.
What can go wrong
One lucky right answer does not mean the program understands.
Week 8 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Leave examples out on purpose
Students do
Students leave some examples out on purpose. They watch the program fail on a green apple, a drawing, or a word.
Students make
A failure log: what we hid from it, and what it then did.
What can go wrong
Students miss that a narrow set of examples, including a set that leaves people out, makes an unfair guess.
Week 9 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Show what broke
Students do
Students design the poster from the experiment they just ran. They do not ask AI to explain AI for them.
Students make
A poster draft.
What can go wrong
Students blame 'the computer' instead of the set of examples they made.
Week 10 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Rebuild the examples
Students do
The class looks at the broken programs. Students rewrite the training set, test again, and name what still fails.
Students make
The final poster and the rebuilt set of examples.
What can go wrong
Students expect a perfect set of examples. There isn't one. They still have to say what fails.

Unit 3 · Weeks 11–15

Writing clear instructions

Question for the unit. How do clear instructions change what AI does?

Instructions for AI are a recipe, not a wish. They name what to include, the steps, the limits, and how to check the result. The point is help with thinking. The point is not a finished assignment the student did not make.

Past: Recipes, manuals, and a teacher's directions are older ways of telling someone how to do something.
Now: A sentence in a box can draft a story, a list, or something that is not true.
Future: Clearer instructions will still need a person who checks the result.

The rule. At school, students may ask AI for help thinking. They may not ask AI to do the assignment. If the instructions make AI produce the finished assignment, they are the wrong instructions. If the student can't explain the work without AI, they don't own the knowledge.

End-of-unit project. Class instruction cards — A set of shared instruction cards for 'help me think.' Each card has a required check. The class judges the cards on whether the student checked the result.

SchoolHome

Prompt Kitchen

Week 11 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
A recipe and a wish
Students do
Students compare 'make it good' with a real recipe. They name the ingredients, the steps, the limits, and how you would taste-test the result.
Students make
A vague wish rewritten as clear instructions, on paper.
What can go wrong
Students treat the chat box as if it can read their mind. It cannot. They have to say what they want.
Week 12 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Fix five weak instructions
Students do
In Prompt Kitchen, students fix five weak requests: a story, a how-to, a joke, a summary of a paragraph they read, and a plan.
Students make
Before-and-after cards.
What can go wrong
A smoother paragraph that nobody checked. Smooth is not the same as correct.
Week 13 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Three sets of instructions, one task
Students do
Students give the same task three different ways. They write down how the results differ. They do not pick a favorite only because it sounds polished.
Students make
A log of how the three results differed.
What can go wrong
Students say the computer is 'being creative' when the results differ. It is guessing.
Week 14 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Help me think
Students do
Students write class instruction cards that may only ask for questions, a structure, or comments. The cards may not ask AI to finish the assignment.
Students make
Instruction cards with a line that says what they must not be used for.
What can go wrong
Cards that look like help but secretly ask AI to do the assignment.
Week 15 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Review the instruction cards
Students do
The class judges the cards on two things: are the instructions clear, and did the student check the result against a book, a person, or their own knowledge?
Students make
The cards that pass are posted. The cards that fail are rewritten.
What can go wrong
The class praises the fanciest answer and ignores whether anyone checked it.

Unit 4 · Weeks 16–20

Facts, stories, opinions, and guesses

Question for the unit. How do we catch a sentence that sounds sure but is only a guess?

Facts, stories, opinions, and guesses are four different kinds of sentences. A complete sentence can still be the wrong kind. Students practice checking.

Past: Rumors, tall tales, and printed mistakes are older than machines. Smooth talk is older than machines too.
Now: AI will invent a book, a date, or a school mascot and say it in a calm voice.
Future: The guesses will sound more finished. A person still has to check them.

The rule. Passing on a guess as a fact is a small lie, even if AI said it first.

End-of-unit project. Detective case file — A file of errors the student found, including at least one invented book or website, and a claim they checked with two sources.

SchoolPublic life

True/False Detective

Week 16 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Four kinds of sentences
Students do
Students sort sentences into fact, story, opinion, and guess. They argue about the ones that could go in more than one group.
Students make
A wall with four labeled groups.
What can go wrong
Students use 'it sounds right' as their method. That is not a check.
Week 17 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The school you know
Students do
Students use True/False Detective on prepared paragraphs about their school, a sport, or a pet. These are topics they can actually check.
Students make
Highlighted notes on what was wrong.
What can go wrong
Students trust the calm tone. A calm sentence can still be false.
Week 18 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Books that do not exist
Students do
Students look for invented titles in a prepared list of sources. They try to find each one in the library catalog or with a librarian.
Students make
A list of real sources and invented sources.
What can go wrong
Students treat a citation as decoration. A citation has to point to a real source.
Week 19 · Making
90% of class doing the work
I checked it
Students do
Students take one claim. They may mark it as checked only with two sources or a trusted person. If they have not checked it, they do not share it.
Students make
A claim card that shows the check.
What can go wrong
Students call one chat window 'research.' One chat answer is not research.
Week 20 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Case files go up
Students do
The class posts the files. Visitors try to catch one error the student missed.
Students make
Public case files.
What can go wrong
The point is practice at finding mistakes. Do not shame the student.

Unit 5 · Weeks 21–25

Private information

Question for the unit. What is mine, and what should I never type into AI?

Privacy is not the same as being ashamed of a secret. It means taking care of names, bodies, places, and other people's stories. The course tools have to work without that information.

Past: People kept diaries with locks, sent letters that could be opened, and talked about each other over the fence.
Now: A chat box can keep what you typed, often on someone else's computer.
Future: There will be more of these boxes, and they will remember more. The student and the adults in their life still have to protect private information.

The rule. Other people's photos and stories are not yours to paste in. Family business stays in the family.

End-of-unit project. Family privacy agreement — A poster and a short script to take home. The family talks about what they never type into AI, and who they tell if something feels wrong.

HomeSchool

Secret Shield

Week 21 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
What is private?
Students do
Students sort examples: a full name with an address, a password, a photo of a classmate, a story idea, and a math question. Some are private. Some are not.
Students make
A class list of things we never type into AI.
What can go wrong
Students become afraid to share any idea. Ideas can be shared. Names, photos, and addresses cannot.
Week 22 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Find the private parts
Students do
Students use Secret Shield on prepared messages. They flag names, places, passwords, photos, and family money.
Students make
A scored practice set.
What can go wrong
Students try a workaround, such as 'it's my friend's name, so it's fine.' It is not fine.
Week 23 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
What a free app asks for
Students do
Students act out a 'free' app asking for location, contacts, and the camera. They map what it asks for. They do not make real accounts.
Students make
A map of what the app wants.
What can go wrong
Students hear the word 'free' and stop asking what the app wants in return.
Week 24 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Write the agreement and the script
Students do
Students write the family privacy agreement and a five-line script they can say at the kitchen table.
Students make
The poster and the script.
What can go wrong
A neat poster that nobody reads at home. The script has to be something a student will actually say.
Week 25 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Take it home
Students do
Students practice the script. They send the agreement home and collect a signature or a short note from the family.
Students make
A signed agreement, or a note that the conversation happened.
What can go wrong
Do not pressure families. This is an invitation to talk. It is not a test of the home.

Unit 6 · Weeks 26–30

Making something with AI help

Question for the unit. If AI helps me make something, who made it?

Using a tool is allowed when the student decides the meaning, changes the work, and labels the help. Copying a generated piece and signing it is not making.

Past: Workshops, apprentices, and printers who set someone else's words in type.
Now: A story or a picture can appear in seconds, in a style that is not the student's.
Future: Making things will get faster. The student's choices, and giving credit, will matter more, not less.

The rule. At school, the student writes down what they did and what AI did. They name the parts AI made. The lesson of the story has to be theirs. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.

End-of-unit project. Illustrated fable — A fable. The student writes the lesson of the story by hand first. They label every part AI helped with. They change the draft themselves before it is finished.

SchoolHome

Co-Create Studio

Week 26 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Help and copying
Students do
Students look at two pieces of work. One says where AI helped. One does not. They decide who made each one, and they write the class rule.
Students make
A class credit rule on the wall.
What can go wrong
Students say 'I clicked, so I made it.' Clicking is not the same as making.
Week 27 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Sketch, vary, finish
Students do
The student sketches first. The tool makes a variation. The student finishes it. The finish has to change the picture, the words, or both. The tool will not export the work until the student changes it.
Students make
A three-stage strip: sketch, AI variation, student finish.
What can go wrong
Students accept the first AI variation as finished.
Week 28 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The lesson of the story comes first
Students do
Students write the lesson of the fable with no AI. That sentence is the point of the assignment.
Students make
The lesson, written by hand.
What can go wrong
Students let AI decide what the story is supposed to teach.
Week 29 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Finish and label
Students do
Students finish the fable in Co-Create Studio. They label every part AI helped with. They keep the lesson they wrote.
Students make
A labeled fable.
What can go wrong
Help that is not labeled. If AI did a part, the label has to say so.
Week 30 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Story night
Students do
Students read the fable aloud. The audience asks: what did you decide? If the student can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge, and the work goes back.
Students make
A spoken explanation of who made the story.
What can go wrong
The class praises the pictures and never asks what the student decided.

Unit 7 · Weeks 31–35

Who to ask for help

Question for the unit. When is AI the wrong place to take a feeling?

AI is not a friend, a parent, a counselor, or emergency help. Each student leaves with a Help Map of real people and a sentence they have practiced for asking those people for help.

Past: People went to elders, teachers, religious leaders, and brothers or sisters. The need is old.
Now: A chat box will answer at midnight in a kind voice.
Future: The voices will sound kinder. The rule does not change. Feelings go to people.

The rule. Using AI to tease, trick, or leave out a classmate hurts that person. A kind request to AI is not a substitute for being kind to the person in the room.

End-of-unit project. Help Map — A personal map of real names at home and at school, and a practiced sentence for asking for help. The public version does not show private family details.

HomeSchool

Who Can Help?

Week 31 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
A chatbot is not a person
Students do
Students name what a friend, a parent, a counselor, and emergency services are for. They place a chatbot next to those roles and say it does not belong in any of them.
Students make
A poster that shows which problems do not go to a chatbot.
What can go wrong
Do not make fun of students who already talk to chatbots. Redirect them. Do not shame them.
Week 32 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Sort the situations
Students do
Students use Who Can Help? on being stuck on homework, a fight, fear, a game idea, and loneliness. They choose a person, a tool, or both.
Students make
Sorted situation cards.
What can go wrong
Students put loneliness in the tool column. Loneliness goes to a person.
Week 33 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Kindness and tricks
Students do
Students contrast a request that helps a classmate with a request that teases them or fakes a message from them. They write the class rule.
Students make
A list of things we do not do.
What can go wrong
Students say 'it was only a joke' about a message written in someone else's voice. That is not a joke. It is a fake.
Week 34 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Draw the map
Students do
Students fill the Help Map with real names they choose. They practice the sentence: I need a person.
Students make
A Help Map. Private details stay off the public wall version.
What can go wrong
Do not force a family shape that is not there. The map can include adults at school.
Week 35 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Practice asking
Students do
Students role-play asking a person for help. The public wall shows kinds of help, not secrets.
Students make
A practiced sentence, and a wall of the kinds of help.
What can go wrong
Do not turn a private problem into a performance.

Unit 8 · Weeks 36–40

A class museum of tools

Question for the unit. What did older tools change for people, what is AI changing now, and what rule do we want next?

The year ends in public. There are three stations: past, now, and future. Each object has a benefit, a cost, a risk, and a proper use. Families walk through it. Students say how their own thinking grew.

Past: A museum always makes an argument about what mattered. This one will too.
Now: The tools are already in the students' pockets.
Future: Students write a label for a tool that does not exist yet, and the rule they would want attached to it.

The rule. An exhibit that only says how impressive a tool is works like an advertisement. Every station includes a risk.

End-of-unit project. Grade 4 tool museum — A three-station exhibit with labels, a family-night tour, and a short written answer: what did I learn to do myself this year?

SchoolPublic life

Museum Builder

Week 36 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Choose the stations
Students do
Teams pick objects for past, now, and future. They draft the question each station asks a visitor.
Students make
Station plans.
What can go wrong
The future station is only a wish list. It needs a rule, not only a wish.
Week 37 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build the past station
Students do
Students build the past station in Museum Builder and in the room. Every label names a benefit, a cost, a risk, and a proper use.
Students make
The past station.
What can go wrong
Students write only about how nice the old tool was. Every label needs the cost.
Week 38 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Now and future
Students do
Students build the remaining stations. Future tools must carry a rule the class would want.
Students make
The now station and the future station.
What can go wrong
The future station is only a story about a cool machine. It needs the rule.
Week 39 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Practice the labels
Students do
Students give each other tours. If a visitor cannot hear a warning, the label is rewritten.
Students make
Revised labels.
What can go wrong
The labels use words a younger sibling would not understand. Rewrite them in plain words.
Week 40 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Museum night
Students do
Families visit. Each student answers: what can I do now that I could not explain at the start of the year?
Students make
A public exhibit and a short written answer.
What can go wrong
The tools get more attention than the students. The night is about what the students learned.

Grade 5 · Schoolwork and help at home · 75% of class doing the work

Using AI honestly

Students learn how to get help with schoolwork and with life at home without letting AI do the work for them.

By the end of Grade 5, a student can write down what AI help is allowed on an assignment, follow a claim to a real source, keep their own words in a draft that used AI, explain an idea without AI, and label a picture as a photo or as something AI made.

Unit 1 · Weeks 1–5

Honest schoolwork

Question for the unit. When is AI help like a calculator, and when is it like copying?

Honesty means the student can say what they were allowed to ask, what they changed, and what they can still explain. Help that is not named becomes cheating a little at a time.

Past: Answer keys in the back of the book, older brothers and sisters, and paid tutors are not new. Naming the help is the skill.
Now: A finished-sounding paragraph can appear in the same minutes the student was supposed to do the work.
Future: Schools will keep changing the rules. Students who can describe what they did will be able to follow the new rules.

The rule. If AI did the thinking, the student doesn't own the knowledge, and putting their name on the paper is a lie. Calculators didn't end math. They changed what the student has to show.

End-of-unit project. My school honesty rules — A signed set of rules, plus a plan for one real upcoming assignment. The student uses the plan again during the year.

School

Honesty Workflow

Week 1 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
What kind of help is this?
Students do
Students restate the school's honesty rule in their own words. They compare a calculator, a tutor, a copied paragraph, and an essay written by AI.
Students make
A four-column chart of kinds of help.
What can go wrong
The rule is so strict that nobody can ask for anything, or so loose that anything is allowed. Neither one is the rule.
Week 2 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Turn a copied assignment into an honest one
Students do
Students take a prepared assignment that was done dishonestly and rebuild it as an honest path: think, draft, allowed help, check, and say what AI did.
Students make
A before-and-after plan.
What can go wrong
This is a design task. It is not a chance to shame a student.
Week 3 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
A real upcoming assignment
Students do
Students use Honesty Workflow on a real assignment from another class. They follow that teacher's allowed uses if they know them. If they do not know, they use the stricter default: AI may not write the work.
Students make
A one-page plan.
What can go wrong
Students invent permission the teacher did not give.
Week 4 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Write the rules
Students do
Students draft their own honesty rules. A classmate looks for a loophole, such as 'just this sentence.' Then they sign the rules.
Students make
Signed rules.
What can go wrong
Rules that only restrict other people. The rules have to restrict the student who signed them.
Week 5 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Rules on the wall
Students do
Two students read their rules aloud. The class agrees on a shared minimum. Each student keeps their own rules.
Students make
A class minimum, plus each student's rules.
What can go wrong
A wall of words that nobody uses in week six. The rules have to show up on the next assignment.

Unit 2 · Weeks 6–10

Checking sources

Question for the unit. Who said this, and how would I know if they were wrong?

Search, chat, books, and people do different jobs. A chat window may help a student ask a question. It is not where the answer should come from. A trail of sources is better than a pile of links.

Past: Card catalogs, encyclopedias, and a librarian who asked what the student was actually trying to find.
Now: A paragraph can include a citation that points nowhere.
Future: There will be more made-up sources. Students will need the catalog and a person even more.

The rule. A made-up source fails the work. Passing it on is not a small technical mistake. It is a false report.

End-of-unit project. Short report with a trail of sources — A short report. Each claim has a Source Trail. AI may help the student write questions. AI may not supply the answers.

SchoolPublic life

Source Trail

Week 6 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Four ways to look something up
Students do
Students take the same question and name four methods: search, chat, a book, and a person. They predict what each method is good for.
Students make
A job card for each method.
What can go wrong
Students declare one method the winner forever. Each method has a job.
Week 7 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Three sources, one question
Students do
Students run the same question through three real sources. They compare them and note where they disagree.
Students make
A comparison table.
What can go wrong
Students stop at the first paragraph that sounds finished.
Week 8 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The planted article
Students do
Students use Source Trail to hunt for fake citations in a prepared article. A catalog or a librarian confirms whether each source exists.
Students make
A hunt log.
What can go wrong
Students skip the confirmation because the citation looks like a real academic source.
Week 9 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Questions, not answers
Students do
Students write the short report. AI may suggest questions. Answers come from sources they can follow. They write down what they did and what AI did.
Students make
A report draft and the trail of sources.
What can go wrong
Students paste a literature review that AI wrote.
Week 10 · Review
75% of class doing the work
A partner follows the trail
Students do
A partner tries to follow each source. If the trail breaks, the student rebuilds it.
Students make
The final report.
What can go wrong
A trail that only the author can follow. Someone else has to be able to check it.

Unit 3 · Weeks 11–15

Writing with AI help

Question for the unit. How do I keep my own wording if AI can finish my sentences?

The order is: think, outline, draft, get comments, and rewrite it yourself. The student's own wording is evidence that a person did the work. Reading it aloud is part of the grade.

Past: Editors, teachers writing in the margin, and older brothers or sisters who 'fixed it' until it was no longer yours.
Now: Many AI tools share a similar wording, and it is tempting to skip the first draft.
Future: Readers will get better at hearing that default wording. Writers need to hear it too.

The rule. A draft that used AI is honest only if the student writes down what AI did, and can still say the words out loud. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.

End-of-unit project. A true story, with a record — A story of a real event. The student writes down each step, compares the wording with their earlier writing, and reads it aloud.

School

Voice Meter

Week 11 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Five steps for writing with help
Students do
Students walk through brainstorm, outline, draft, comments, and rewrite. They mark where AI may help. AI may comment. AI may not write the first sentences of a personal story.
Students make
A bookmark with the five steps.
What can go wrong
Students start in the chat box instead of writing the first sentences themselves.
Week 12 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Three versions, one room
Students do
The class reads unlabeled paragraphs: written only by AI, written only by a student, and written by a student with help. They rate whether it sounds like a particular student, not how polished it looks. Then the teacher says which is which.
Students make
A ratings sheet.
What can go wrong
Students always prefer the most polished paragraph, even when it is not the student's.
Week 13 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Compare your wording
Students do
Students use Voice Meter on a paragraph they already wrote this year and on an AI 'improvement.' They mark where the two sound the same.
Students make
The two paragraphs, with the matching parts marked.
What can go wrong
Students use the tool to accuse a classmate of cheating. It is a writing tool, not a way to accuse someone.
Week 14 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Write the story
Students do
Students write a personal story. The first sentences are theirs. If they use AI, they use it as a critic. They log every pass.
Students make
The draft and the log.
What can go wrong
A log written after the work is done, instead of while the student is doing it.
Week 15 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Read it aloud
Students do
Reading aloud is how the student shows the work is theirs. Listeners ask one question about a choice in the story. If the student can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.
Students make
The story, spoken.
What can go wrong
Students skip the reading because the page looks finished. The page is not the proof.

Unit 4 · Weeks 16–20

Explaining math and science

Question for the unit. If I can't explain it without AI, do I know it?

In math and science, AI may explain an idea. It may not give the answer for the student to turn in. The test is whether the student can teach the idea without AI. In an investigation, the student collects the data. AI doesn't invent it.

Past: Answer keys, worked examples, and a parent who 'just told you.'
Now: A worked solution can be wrong in a way that still looks believable.
Future: The solvers will get better. The need to check them grows. It does not shrink.

The rule. Turning in an answer you cannot teach is claiming knowledge you do not have.

End-of-unit project. A small investigation — A small science or math investigation. The student collects the data. AI may only be used for background questions. The student explains it at the board without notes from AI.

School

Explain-Back

Week 16 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Ask for an explanation, not the answer
Students do
Students take the same problem and write two requests: 'what is the answer' and 'what is a way to think about this.' They label which one is allowed.
Students make
The two requests, labeled allowed or not allowed.
What can go wrong
Students say they are 'just checking' when they are really asking AI for the answer.
Week 17 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Explain it without AI
Students do
Students use Explain-Back. They get an explanation, hide it, and teach it to a classmate. If they can't teach it, they go back and learn it. They do not copy the AI wording.
Students make
A recording of the explanation, or a classmate's sign-off.
What can go wrong
Students memorize AI's wording instead of understanding the idea.
Week 18 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
It looks finished, and it is wrong
Students do
Students hunt for errors in prepared 'solutions' that look complete. They name the clue that showed the error.
Students make
An error-hunt sheet.
What can go wrong
Students stop looking when the steps look official. Official-looking steps can still be wrong.
Week 19 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Collect the data yourself
Students do
Students run a small investigation. They measure, count, or test something real. They may ask AI background questions. They may not ask AI for the data.
Students make
An investigation notebook.
What can go wrong
Data that AI made up. That is fiction, not an investigation.
Week 20 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Explain it at the board
Students do
Students explain the investigation without AI. Classmates ask questions. If the student needs a hidden tab, they don't own the knowledge.
Students make
A spoken explanation.
What can go wrong
Students read AI's summary from a hidden tab.

Unit 5 · Weeks 21–25

Pictures that may not be real

Question for the unit. Why is 'I saw it' no longer enough?

People have edited images for a long time. AI pictures break the old habit of treating a photo as proof. Students make labeled AI pictures so they can ask other people to label theirs.

Past: Darkrooms, airbrushing, and photo software. A picture was already something that could be changed.
Now: A picture of something that never happened can appear in seconds.
Future: Video and voice will join pictures. Students need to ask 'how was this made?' as a habit.

The rule. No unlabeled fakes of real people, especially classmates. Any likeness needs permission.

End-of-unit project. Ask how it was made — A hallway poster, plus a labeled pair: a photo and an AI picture of the same still life. Never a person's face.

Public lifeHomeSchool

Real-or-Rendered

Week 21 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Pictures used to be treated as proof
Students do
Students hear a short history of edited images. They say what a photograph used to be trusted to prove, and why that trust is now a choice.
Students make
A timeline: darkroom, photo software, AI picture.
What can go wrong
Students either pretend pictures were always perfectly true, or they pretend nothing has changed. Both are wrong. Editing is old. AI pictures are faster and harder to spot.
Week 22 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The gallery
Students do
Students use Real-or-Rendered on a prepared set. They argue, then the teacher reveals the answers. They write down which clues worked.
Students make
A notebook of clues.
What can go wrong
The class turns it into a trick game and never writes down a method they can use again.
Week 23 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Make one and label it
Students do
Students photograph a still life. They make a clearly labeled AI picture of the same objects. They put the two side by side.
Students make
A labeled pair.
What can go wrong
Pictures of people. This week is still lifes and objects only.
Week 24 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The poster
Students do
Students design a hallway poster: Ask how it was made. The poster has to teach a check. It is not only a warning.
Students make
A poster draft.
What can go wrong
A scare poster that does not tell the reader what to do.
Week 25 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Hallway gallery
Students do
Students hang the pairs and the posters. Younger students try the gallery with a Grade 5 guide.
Students make
A public gallery.
What can go wrong
Unlabeled AI pictures leaving the room.

Unit 6 · Weeks 26–30

Using AI at home

Question for the unit. What is a useful set of instructions for my life, without tricking anyone?

Personal use is allowed: practice, organizing, planning, and hobbies. It is not a way around family rules, and it is not a way to fake a message from you.

Past: Chore lists, recipe boxes, and a parent's advice on how to practice.
Now: A plan can appear in seconds, including a plan that hides what the student was asked to do.
Future: More tools will act for a person. The line that says what the instructions must not be used for will matter more.

The rule. Do not use AI to lie to family. In this grade, an adult checks the instructions.

End-of-unit project. One useful set of instructions — One Prompt Recipe Book card for a real task. The student runs it at least twice, improves it after it fails, and an adult checks it.

HomeSchool

Week 26 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Help, or hide
Students do
Students sort personal uses: a practice schedule, a collection catalog, a fake excuse, and a trick message. They mark keep or do not keep.
Students make
A keep / do-not-keep chart.
What can go wrong
Students treat all home use as harmless. Some of it is a lie.
Week 27 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Write the instructions
Students do
Students write instructions for a real task they have. The card names the purpose, the limits, and what it must not be used for.
Students make
Instruction card, version 1.
What can go wrong
A task the student does not actually have, invented to please the assignment.
Week 28 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Run it, then fix what failed
Students do
Students run the instructions. They write down what went wrong. They improve the card.
Students make
Instruction card, version 2, plus the log.
What can go wrong
Students call the first neat plan a success before they have tried it.
Week 29 · Making
90% of class doing the work
An adult checks it
Students do
Students take the card to an adult at home or at school. They revise it from the adult's note. They prepare for the fair.
Students make
A checked card.
What can go wrong
Students skip the adult because the card looks done.
Week 30 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Useful instructions fair
Students do
Visitors may try a set of instructions on a sample task. The author says out loud what the instructions must not be used for.
Students make
A public card.
What can go wrong
Instructions that still hide a shortcut.

Unit 7 · Weeks 31–35

Unfair patterns in AI answers

Question for the unit. If AI learned from an unfair set of examples, what does it repeat?

A stereotype is a pattern, not the truth about a person. AI will repeat the average of what it was shown. Students check that pattern, and then ask for a wider range of people.

Past: Textbooks, ads, and casting already carried these patterns.
Now: Those patterns are repeated so often that they can look like a fact of nature.
Future: The checks can get better. The tools will not be perfect. Noticing the pattern is still a person's job.

The rule. We do not publish these checks as a way to mock people. We publish them as evidence about tools.

End-of-unit project. Fairness check — A one-page report: what we asked, what AI repeated, how we changed the request, and what still failed.

SchoolPublic life

Stereotype Spotlight

Week 31 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
A pattern is not the truth about a person
Students do
Students name a stereotype without aiming it at a classmate. They separate 'what we often see' from 'what is true of a person.'
Students make
A two-column chart.
What can go wrong
The lesson becomes a fight between children. Keep it on the tool.
Week 32 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Ask for 'a scientist'
Students do
Students use Stereotype Spotlight on prepared requests that are appropriate for this age: scientist, nurse, leader, inventor. They tally the results. They do not generate harmful content.
Students make
A tally sheet.
What can go wrong
Students treat one output as the final truth about a group of people.
Week 33 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Ask for a wider range
Students do
Students rewrite the request so it asks for a wider range of people. They compare the results and note what still clusters.
Students make
A note on the rewritten request.
What can go wrong
Students think a clever request fixes the world. It only changes this answer.
Week 34 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Write the check
Students do
Students write the one-page fairness check, including what they will watch for during the rest of the year.
Students make
A draft of the check.
What can go wrong
A lecture at the reader. The page has to report what the class actually saw.
Week 35 · Review
75% of class doing the work
What we will keep watching
Students do
Classmates review the checks. The class adopts a watch-list for later units: images, stories, and ads.
Students make
A class watch-list.
What can go wrong
A list that never appears again. Post it where later units will see it.

Unit 8 · Weeks 36–40

Teaching a younger student

Question for the unit. Can I teach a younger student how to ask a good question and check the answer?

A skill is real when the student can teach it. Grade 5 students design a ten-minute lesson for a Grade 4 student or a family member. The lesson has a good question, a demonstration, and a check.

Past: Apprentices taught the next apprentice.
Now: Homework has changed in five years. Students should be able to say how.
Future: They will keep teaching people who meet these tools later than they did.

The rule. Do not teach a shortcut you would not use under your own honesty rules.

End-of-unit project. A ten-minute lesson — A lesson the student actually teaches. It includes a required step where the learner checks the answer, a rehearsal, and a written note on how homework changed: past, now, and next.

SchoolHome

Lesson Kit

Week 36 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
What is worth teaching?
Students do
Students pick one Grade 4 skill: checking a guess, spotting private information, or telling a clear instruction from a wish. They write the ten-minute plan.
Students make
A lesson outline.
What can go wrong
A lecture. The younger student has to do something.
Week 37 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build the lesson
Students do
Students use Lesson Kit: a question, a demonstration, and a check. The materials have to work without the younger student's home account.
Students make
Lesson, version 1.
What can go wrong
The lesson depends on an open public chatbot. Grade 4 does not use one.
Week 38 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Rehearse
Students do
Students teach a classmate who is playing Grade 4. They time it. They check the lesson against their honesty rules.
Students make
Lesson, version 2.
What can go wrong
The lesson runs long and the student cuts the check. The check stays.
Week 39 · Presentation
90% of class doing the work
Teach it
Students do
Students teach Grade 4 students or families. They collect one piece of evidence that the learner checked an answer.
Students make
The taught lesson, plus the evidence.
What can go wrong
Students perform for the teacher instead of teaching the child.
Week 40 · Review
70% of class doing the work
Homework then, now, and next
Students do
Students write how homework changed: past, now, and what may come next. They look at their honesty rules again and change them if they need to.
Students make
A year reflection and the updated rules.
What can go wrong
A future that only says homework will be 'easier.' Easier is not the goal. The student still has to know the work.

Grade 6 · How AI pushes people, and what students stop learning · 75% of class doing the work

Persuasion, scams, and practice

Students learn how AI is used to persuade people and to run scams. They also measure what happens to their own knowledge when AI does the work.

By the end of Grade 6, a student can explain that a language tool is guessing the next word. They can mark a persuasion tactic in an ad. They can give their family a short briefing on how to spot a scam. They can record what they handed to AI. They can argue a case about right and wrong with the same five questions.

Unit 1 · Weeks 1–5

A history of tools people use to think

Question for the unit. What did each new tool give people, and what did it cost?

Writing, libraries, the printing press, the telegraph, the computer, the internet, and AI. Each one arrived looking wonderful and later became ordinary. Each one also had a cost. Students write that cost down before they judge the newest tool.

Past: This unit is the history.
Now: We are living with the newest cost. That is why AI can feel like magic, or like something nobody can change. It is neither.
Future: The next tool will also have a benefit and a cost. Students who have practiced writing both down will be able to see both.

The rule. Liking the past is not an argument. Liking whatever is new is not an argument either. Name the benefit and the cost.

End-of-unit project. If I lived then — Letters from a scribe, a printer's apprentice, a child on the web in the 1990s, and the student now, plus a class debate on the printing press and AI.

SchoolPublic life

Era Explorer

Week 1 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
One benefit and one cost
Students do
Students open Era Explorer. For writing, they name one benefit and one cost before they touch later tools.
Students make
A page that lists one benefit and one cost.
What can go wrong
A history that is only a list of victories. Every tool has a cost.
Week 2 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Benefit and cost cards
Students do
Students write cards for the printing press, the telegraph, the computer, the web, social media, and AI. Each card has one benefit, one cost, and one kind of person who paid the cost.
Students make
Timeline cards.
What can go wrong
A cost blamed only on 'society.' Name a person or a group of people.
Week 3 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Four letters
Students do
Students write the four letters. The first sentences are theirs. AI may comment on whether the historical details sound right. AI may not invent a life that the student then signs.
Students make
Four letters.
What can go wrong
A stylish imitation with no benefit and no cost.
Week 4 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The printing press and AI
Students do
The class debates: did the printing press change daily life more than AI? Students use evidence from the cards, not a general feeling.
Students make
A recorded debate, or written notes of the debate.
What can go wrong
The class scores how confident the speaker sounds instead of the evidence.
Week 5 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Timeline wall
Students do
Students hang the timeline. A visitor should leave able to name one benefit and one cost of AI.
Students make
A public timeline.
What can go wrong
Decoration with no benefit and no cost.

Unit 2 · Weeks 6–10

AI guesses the next word

Question for the unit. If AI is guessing the next word, why does it feel like it knows the answer?

Students look at the list of likely next words, and at a control for how random the answer is. Writing that sounds smooth is not the same as knowing the fact. When students see how AI picks the next word, they stop treating it as if it understands.

Past: Oracles, clockwork figures, and the Mechanical Turk. People have wanted a machine to have a mind for a long time. It still doesn't.
Now: A list of likely next words, presented as a calm sentence.
Future: The guesses will get better. They are still guesses unless someone checks them against the world.

The rule. Treating a guessing machine as something that knows is dishonest. We will not do that to ourselves.

End-of-unit project. Why it said that — A lab notebook on a topic the student knows. It shows the ranked guesses, an experiment with the randomness setting, and a rewrite of 'it knows me' as a description of how the tool works.

School

Next-Word Lab

Week 6 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Smooth writing is only a feeling
Students do
Students read a polished wrong paragraph and a clumsy right one. They vote first on which one feels right. Then they check which one is actually right.
Students make
The two paragraphs, with the class vote written on them.
What can go wrong
Do not shame students for falling for the polished one. That was the point of the lesson.
Week 7 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
See the guesses
Students do
In Next-Word Lab, students inspect the ranked next words on short, school-safe sentence starts. They say out loud: it is ranking words. It is not remembering a fact sheet.
Students make
A copy of one ranking, with notes.
What can go wrong
Students turn the lab into a display of technical skill. The goal is to understand how the tool works.
Week 8 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Change how random the answer is
Students do
Students use the same request at different randomness settings. They write down how the results change. A different answer does not mean AI is thinking. Grade 4 already saw that different instructions produce different guesses.
Students make
A log of the settings and the results.
What can go wrong
Students call a more random answer 'more creative' without saying what 'creative' means for this task.
Week 9 · Making
90% of class doing the work
A topic you know
Students do
Students ask about a sport, a place, or a skill they know. They mark errors that sound finished. They explain why a next-word tool made them.
Students make
A lab notebook.
What can go wrong
Topics the student cannot actually check.
Week 10 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Rewrite 'it knows me'
Students do
Students take 'it knows me' or 'it thinks' and rewrite it as a description of how the tool works, in language a Grade 4 student could hear.
Students make
A card for the museum: the claim, and how the tool actually works.
What can go wrong
Students replace one mystery with technical words. The Grade 4 test is whether a younger student understands it.

Unit 3 · Weeks 11–15

How ads and messages try to persuade

Question for the unit. How do words get you to want something, click something, or believe something?

False scarcity, flattery, fake proof that other people agree, false urgency, and a voice that sounds as if it knows you. Students mark these tactics, then rewrite the wording so it is honest.

Past: Handbills, radio jingles, and television ads. Persuasion is an old trade.
Now: Wording can be written for a thousand different people in a minute.
Future: The pitches will get more personal. A tactic the student can name is weaker. A tactic they cannot name gets through.

The rule. In a Grade 7 business, students will not use the tactics they can now name as harmful. Learning to use AI includes refusing some uses.

End-of-unit project. An honest ad and a manipulative ad — A made-up product with two ads. One uses the tactics the class marked. One would pass an honesty hearing. The class decides which one a course business may use.

WorkPublic lifeHome

Influence Inspector

Week 11 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Name the tactics
Students do
Students collect tactics from prepared ads they already know. They give each tactic a plain name.
Students make
A list of tactic names.
What can go wrong
Students turn the lesson into sneering at ads. The job is to name the tactic.
Week 12 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Mark the wording
Students do
Students use Influence Inspector on pitches written by AI and pitches written by people. They highlight the tactics and tally them.
Students make
A marked sheet.
What can go wrong
Students assume only machines manipulate people. People did it first.
Week 13 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Rewrite it so it is honest
Students do
Students take one manipulative piece. They rewrite it so a customer still understands the offer, without fake proof or false urgency.
Students make
The rewrite.
What can go wrong
An 'honest' rewrite that is just a weaker lie.
Week 14 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The pair of ads
Students do
Students invent a harmless product. They write the manipulative ad and the honest ad. They label both.
Students make
The pair of ads.
What can go wrong
A product that is itself a trick, such as fake medicine. Keep the product ordinary.
Week 15 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Which ad would we allow?
Students do
The class decides: would we allow the honest ad in a course business? Would we allow the other one? They write the decisions.
Students make
Written decisions.
What can go wrong
The class punishes a style of writing instead of the tactics.

Unit 4 · Weeks 16–20

Scams and fake messages

Question for the unit. What does a lie look like when it uses a familiar voice?

Phishing, a fake message from a principal, a voice that almost sounds like a parent, and an urgent demand for a password. AI makes this cheaper and more polite. Families get a briefing, not a panic.

Past: Chain letters, fake invoices, and a stranger at the door in a uniform.
Now: A message in a voice that almost sounds like a parent, from a number the student does not know.
Future: The fakes will get better. Warning signs still exist: the channel, the urgency, the secrecy, the money, and the password.

The rule. The practice inbox never uses a student's voice, never targets a real person, and is never used as a prank.

End-of-unit project. Family security briefing — A five-minute talk and a one-page sheet: the warning signs, one family rule, and what to do if something feels wrong.

HomePublic life

Scam Gym

Week 16 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
An old trick in a new message
Students do
Students map a classic con onto a modern message. They look for urgency, a person in charge, secrecy, and a request.
Students make
A card with the four warning signs.
What can go wrong
The lesson becomes fear. The lesson is what the student can do.
Week 17 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
A practice inbox
Students do
Students use Scam Gym, a simulated inbox. They reveal the warning sign. They do not use real accounts.
Students make
A scored inbox log.
What can go wrong
Students paste a real suspicious email into the class tool. They describe it. They do not paste it.
Week 18 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Copied voices and passwords
Students do
The teacher leads a caution on copied voices, without using student voices. Students plan password habits, unique secrets, and a family way to ask 'is this you?'
Students make
A family plan: a code word, a second app, or a callback.
What can go wrong
Asking children to make copies of relatives' voices. We will not.
Week 19 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Write the briefing
Students do
Students write a five-minute talk and a one-page sheet in plain language. They include one rule the family could actually keep.
Students make
The briefing packet.
What can go wrong
A packet of twenty rules. One rule the family keeps is better than twenty they ignore.
Week 20 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Brief the family
Students do
Students give the briefing at family night, or take it home with a reply line. Students who cannot brief at home brief a school adult.
Students make
A delivered briefing.
What can go wrong
Do not grade whether the family follows the rule. Grade whether the student explained it clearly.

Unit 5 · Weeks 21–25

What students stop learning

Question for the unit. If I let AI think for me, what happens to what I know?

Handing work to AI is real. Hard practice is how a skill grows. Students compare work with AI and work without it, and they check their memory a week later. That is the evidence. Saved time helps only if they spend it on harder work.

Past: Some navigators could not navigate after GPS. Some students could not spell after a spell-checker. The pattern is older than this tool.
Now: A first draft, a plan, and a memory can all be supplied without effort.
Future: A student who kept practicing can tell when AI is wrong. A student who didn't can only click.

The rule. This unit is not a panic, and it is not a test of purity. Students measure what happened, and they make an agreement.

End-of-unit project. Skills I will keep practicing — A signed list of skills the student will practice without AI, a week of recording what they handed to AI, and class findings from the memory check.

HomeSchool

Week 21 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Practice and chores
Students do
Students name school tasks that are useful practice and tasks that are only chores. The closing practice without AI is so students keep the skill. It is not there to praise the old way.
Students make
A list of practice and chores.
What can go wrong
Students treat all struggle as good. Useless struggle is still useless. Useful practice is the point.
Week 22 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
With AI and without AI
Students do
Students do the same hard task under two conditions, either by splitting the class or by using two tasks. They note speed, quality, and what it felt like. They set a memory check for week 25.
Students make
An experiment log. No student is labeled the 'weak' group.
What can go wrong
Do not humiliate the group working without AI. Rotate. Both conditions are data.
Week 23 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
What I handed to AI
Students do
Students keep a private diary for the week: planning, wording, memory, arithmetic, and deciding. The class sees only the combined totals.
Students make
A private log and an anonymous tally.
What can go wrong
Do not shame students who handed a lot of work to AI.
Week 24 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The agreement
Students do
Students write a Brain Pact: skills they will keep practicing without AI, such as mental math, a poem, an argument with no notes, handwriting, or making something by hand. They say how they will practice. They sign it.
Students make
A signed agreement.
What can go wrong
An agreement of twenty skills. Three skills they actually practice are better than twenty they only wish for.
Week 25 · Review
75% of class doing the work
The memory check
Students do
Students return to the week 22 material. They record what they still remember. The class writes findings and revises the agreements. Time AI saves has to be used. It should not just be filled.
Students make
A findings note and an updated agreement.
What can go wrong
Students claim a small classroom study proves a big fact. They are practicing a method. They are not publishing a paper.

Unit 6 · Weeks 26–30

Deciding if a use is fair

Question for the unit. How do we decide when a use of AI is fair?

Students use five questions: Who could be harmed? Did people agree? Is it honest? Is it fair? Can it be undone? The cases come from homework, home, friendship, and a small business. Decisions are written, compared, and revised. They are not a quick vote based on a feeling.

Past: Courts, religious rules, and family tables. People have always needed a way to decide when loyalty and truth pull in different directions.
Now: New cases: a generated excuse, a classmate's face, and a fake review.
Future: The cases will keep changing. A set of questions the student can reuse is more useful than a list of banned apps.

The rule. The questions are the ethics lesson. The tools are where students test them.

End-of-unit project. Six written decisions — Six reasoned decisions using the five questions. Two of them are argued in class.

SchoolHomePublic lifeWork

Dilemma Deck

Week 26 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Five questions
Students do
Students learn the five questions with a case that is not about AI first, such as borrowing a bike.
Students make
A bookmark with the five questions.
What can go wrong
Do not start with the most upsetting AI story. Learn the questions on something small.
Week 27 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The case cards
Students do
Students use Dilemma Deck on four cases: having AI write homework, a fake excuse, a friend's photo, and a generated compliment used as a trick. They write first, then work in pairs.
Students make
Four draft decisions.
What can go wrong
Do not use a classmate's real situation. Cases stay hypothetical or prepared.
Week 28 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Class hearing
Students do
Students role-play two cases. Roles: the person who used AI, the person who could be harmed, the tool, and the judge. The judge has to use the five questions out loud.
Students make
Notes from the hearing.
What can go wrong
A performance that forgets the five questions.
Week 29 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The casebook
Students do
Students write six decisions. One is a business case, a fake review. One is a public-life case, sharing an unlabeled image.
Students make
The casebook.
What can go wrong
One-word decisions. The reasoning is the work.
Week 30 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Read the hardest cases
Students do
Students read the two hardest cases. The class may disagree. If the five questions were skipped, the decision is revised.
Students make
A revised casebook.
What can go wrong
A show of being more moral than other people. The job is a precise decision.

Unit 7 · Weeks 31–35

What a free app collects

Question for the unit. If the product is free, what is being sold?

Students look at children's data and at terms of service in plain language, and they map a 'free' app. A plan to share less is an action, not a mood. We do not open anyone's real account.

Past: Store charge accounts, loyalty cards, and a magazine that sold its subscriber list.
Now: A free app that wants the camera, the location, the contacts, and a record of childhood.
Future: Tools will guess more from less obvious data. Sharing less still starts with what you install and what you type.

The rule. In many 'free' products, the student is not the customer. Naming that is part of being able to read the product. It is not a reason to sneer.

End-of-unit project. What the internet might know, and three cuts — A portrait of what the internet might know, using prepared categories, not real personal details, and three reductions the student will actually try.

HomePublic life

Data Trail

Week 31 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Free has a price
Students do
Students follow a prepared 'free' app from download, to permission, to advertiser. They use stick figures. They do not install it.
Students make
A sketch of who gets what.
What can go wrong
Do not tell students they are foolish for using apps. The apps were designed to be used.
Week 32 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Walk the trail
Students do
Students use Data Trail on a prepared example. They map sensors, the account, the content, and the guesses the app can make.
Students make
A trail map.
What can go wrong
Students paste real profile links onto a shared screen.
Week 33 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Translate three clauses
Students do
Students translate three prepared terms-of-service clauses into language a twelve-year-old can say to a parent. They answer: what would you be agreeing to?
Students make
Three translations.
What can go wrong
A translation that still sounds like a lawyer.
Week 34 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The portrait and three cuts
Students do
Students build a data portrait from categories: school, games, video, and location. They choose three reductions. They take the plan home.
Students make
The portrait and the plan.
What can go wrong
A plan of twenty cuts. Three they try are better than twenty they wish for.
Week 35 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Plans go home
Students do
Students share one reduction in public. They keep the portrait as private as they need. Families are invited. They are not audited.
Students make
One public reduction and a private portrait.
What can go wrong
A circle where students shame each other for their data.

Unit 8 · Weeks 36–40

Showing one use and one risk

Question for the unit. Can I show both what one AI tool can do and how it can go wrong?

Teams pick writing, images, voice, code, or search. A booth has one demonstration of a proper use, one demonstration of a risk, one rule for careful use, and a panel for past, present, and future. Younger students and parents walk through it.

Past: World's fairs often showed only what was impressive. This exhibition will not.
Now: The tool is in the room.
Future: Students write a rule they would want attached when the tool is stronger.

The rule. A booth that only impresses people fails the course. A booth that only frightens people fails it too.

End-of-unit project. Exhibition booth — A public booth with both demonstrations, a rule, a timeline panel, and a tour for grades 4 and 5.

SchoolPublic life

Museum Builder

Week 36 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Pick one capability
Students do
Teams choose writing, images, voice, code, or search. On one page they draft the useful use, the risk, the rule, and the timeline.
Students make
A booth brief.
What can go wrong
Teams pick everything. One capability, done well.
Week 37 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build the useful use
Students do
Students build a demonstration a visitor can try in two minutes. It has to be useful, and it has to be honest.
Students make
The useful-use station.
What can go wrong
A demo that needs an open public chatbot. Grade 4 should not meet one. Use the course tools.
Week 38 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build the risk
Students do
Students demonstrate a failure, a scam, wording that all sounds the same, or a lie that sounds finished. They label it. They keep it contained. They do not play a prank on visitors.
Students make
The risk station, the rule, and the timeline panel.
What can go wrong
Scaring small children. Match the warning to the age of the visitor.
Week 39 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Practice the tour
Students do
Students give each other tours. If a visitor only remembers how impressive it looked, they rewrite the opening.
Students make
A tour script.
What can go wrong
A script the student cannot say without reading the page.
Week 40 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Exhibition
Students do
Parents and younger students visit. Each team writes down one visitor question they could not answer. That question is next year's work.
Students make
The public exhibition and the list of unanswered questions.
What can go wrong
The unanswered questions disappear. Keep the list.

Grade 7 · School, public posts, and a small business · 76% of class doing the work

Taking responsibility

Students practice being responsible for their own work and for other people. The work covers a small business, public posts, a project they make, and choices about the future.

By the end of Grade 7, a student can split a job into tasks for a person and tasks for AI, check a public claim, present a small honest business, limit what an automated tool is allowed to do, write a school policy, and say whether AI did the work or they did. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.

Unit 1 · Weeks 1–5

Forecasts, wishes, and warnings

Question for the unit. How do we tell a forecast from a wish or a warning?

Students look at predictions from about ten years ago, including ones that happened and ones that did not. They make three versions of the 2040s: hopeful, careless, and careful. For each one, they name what would have to be true now. Taking responsibility means choosing among futures, not waiting for one.

Past: Flying cars that did not arrive, pocket libraries that did, and social feeds that surprised people. The record is mixed. That is the lesson.
Now: There is a loud market of forecasts. Many of them are sales pitches.
Future: This unit is about the future. The careful version will not arrive by itself.

The rule. Do not sell despair to younger students, and do not sell a perfect future. Talk about conditions, not feelings.

End-of-unit project. Three versions of the 2040s — A comic or short script of three futures, plus a checklist of what would have to be true for the careful one. Students present it on scenario night.

Public lifeHome

Scenario Studio

Week 1 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Forecast, wish, warning, or sale
Students do
Students sort prepared quotes into forecast, wish, warning, and sale. They argue about the ones that could be more than one.
Students make
A sorted set.
What can go wrong
Students treat every confident sentence as a forecast.
Week 2 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Which predictions happened?
Students do
Students evaluate five predictions from 10 to 20 years ago. They mark each one as happened, partly happened, or missed, and they cite evidence.
Students make
A scorecard.
What can go wrong
Students score from a vague memory. They use the class archive.
Week 3 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Draw three versions of the 2040s
Students do
In Scenario Studio, students make a hopeful future, a careless future, and a careful future. The pictures include people, not only gadgets. The first version is the student's, not AI's.
Students make
Three boards.
What can go wrong
A 'careful' future that is only richer gadgets.
Week 4 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
What would have to be true
Students do
For the careful future, students list laws, habits, school rules, and personal agreements that would have to exist. They mark which ones the class can actually affect.
Students make
A checklist of conditions.
What can go wrong
A list that only governments can meet. Include conditions a student can keep.
Week 5 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Scenario night
Students do
Students present. A visitor should leave with one condition they could help make true.
Students make
The public scenarios.
What can go wrong
A display of bleak futures with nothing the visitor can do.

Unit 2 · Weeks 6–10

A small honest business

Question for the unit. How can a small team use AI without lying to customers or lowering the quality of the work?

Customer support, design, analysis, and marketing can use AI, and the team has to say so. A very small business sits next to its written AI policy. Competing by being less honest is a choice students can refuse.

Past: Mail-order catalogs, shop signs, and a guarantee in a person's name.
Now: A storefront can generate endless wording, including fake proof that other people like the product.
Future: A small team will be able to do more. Trust will be the scarce part.

The rule. Say when AI helped with work a customer sees. No fake reviews. No children's data as a product. A person is responsible for quality.

End-of-unit project. A very small business with a policy — A planning page, a tiny offer that can be real or a mock, an honesty label, and a one-page AI use policy on the table.

Work

Venture Canvas

Week 6 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
What businesses actually do with AI
Students do
Students map customer support, design, analysis, and marketing. For each one, they name a use that is allowed and a lie.
Students make
A four-part map.
What can go wrong
A map that is only science fiction about jobs. Keep it concrete.
Week 7 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The planning page
Students do
Students fill Venture Canvas: the customer, the offer, how AI helps, what a person still does, and how the team will say so.
Students make
Planning page, version 1.
What can go wrong
A 'business' with no customer. Name a real person who might want the offer.
Week 8 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Write the policy
Students do
Students write an AI use policy: which tools are allowed, the sentence they will say to customers, and what they will never generate. That includes fake reviews, fake testimonials, children's data, and medical claims.
Students make
Policy, version 1.
What can go wrong
A policy made of slogans. Write rules you can check.
Week 9 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Make the offer
Students do
Students make a one-page offer, a prototype or a mock, and the honesty label. No live payment is required. The test is: would you sell this to a teacher you respect?
Students make
The stall kit.
What can go wrong
A generated storefront with no product.
Week 10 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Market stall
Students do
Students run a table. The policy is on the table. Visitors may ask 'what did a person do?' If the team can't answer, the stall closes until they can.
Students make
The public stall.
What can go wrong
Students sell the AI instead of the offer.

Unit 3 · Weeks 11–15

Jobs and what people still need to learn

Question for the unit. Which parts of a job should stay with a person, and which parts should I still learn even if a machine can do them?

A job is a set of tasks. Some tasks can be done by a machine. Some still have to be learned so a person can tell when the machine is wrong. Students interview three adults so this stays about real jobs, not science fiction.

Past: Trades changed because of the loom, the spreadsheet, and GPS. People losing a skill is a documented pattern. It is not just a mood.
Now: First drafts, searching, summarizing, and first designs are already changing.
Future: AI helps people who kept the skill. People who did not keep it will have little left to check.

The rule. Do not tell a child that a parent's job is 'dead.' Split the job into tasks. Respect the person. Be precise about the tasks.

End-of-unit project. A job I might want — A task split for one occupation, notes from three adult interviews, and a plan for what the student will learn, what they will share with AI, and what they will let a machine try.

WorkHome

Task Splitter

Week 11 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Tasks, not job titles
Students do
Students break one familiar job into tasks: a teacher, a mechanic, a nurse, or a shop owner. On paper, they mark a task a machine might do. They do not 'automate a person.'
Students make
A task list.
What can go wrong
Students declare whole professions finished in week one.
Week 12 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Split three occupations
Students do
Students use Task Splitter. The columns are: a person does this, a person and AI share this, and a machine may try this. They also mark what they must still learn in order to check the tool.
Students make
Three split sheets.
What can go wrong
Students put all the interesting parts in the machine column because a demo looked good.
Week 13 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Interview adults
Students do
Students have three conversations, with family, school, or community adults, about a tool that changed their work. They use prepared questions. They write thank-you notes.
Students make
Interview notes.
What can go wrong
A spam survey. These are conversations. No recording without consent.
Week 14 · Making
90% of class doing the work
A job I might want
Students do
Students pick an occupation they are interested in. They split it. They write what they will learn, what they will share with AI, what they will let a machine try, and what they refuse to skip learning.
Students make
A personal split.
What can go wrong
Students choose an occupation only to please the teacher. A tentative interest is allowed.
Week 15 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Career conversations
Students do
Students post the splits. A guest adult answers questions. Students use precise language. They do not predict doom.
Students make
The public splits.
What can go wrong
A recruitment fair. This is a lesson about work, not a job pitch.

Unit 4 · Weeks 16–20

Checking public claims

Question for the unit. How do we keep a public conversation when anyone can fill it with smooth text and fake pictures?

Students study fake images in politics, news written by AI, and a pile of comments that only look like many people. They use prepared examples, not a live feed. They brief a real guest on a local problem, using more than one kind of source.

Past: Pamphlets, sensational newspapers, and rumors on the radio. Public conversation has been flooded before. The amount is new.
Now: A hundred similar comments can have one origin. A picture can show a crowd that never gathered.
Future: Checking claims becomes a public skill, in the way reading became a public skill after the printing press.

The rule. Students do not target real local officials with fake media, even as a joke. The cases are prepared.

End-of-unit project. A brief on a local problem — A brief on a real local issue, with more than one kind of source, a Claim Verifier sheet on one claim that looks like it spread online, delivered to a principal, a librarian, or a parent guest.

Public lifeSchool

Claim Verifier

Week 16 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
A fake crowd, a copied quote, a pile of comments
Students do
Students look at prepared examples: a synthetic crowd, a quote written in someone else's style, and a pile of similar comments. They name the harms: a false impression that everyone agrees, a person who is smeared, and attention that gets used up.
Students make
A card that names the harms.
What can go wrong
A fight about political sides. Keep the lesson on the method.
Week 17 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Check a claim
Students do
Students use Claim Verifier on a prepared claim: state the claim, find sources, find a source that disagrees, check whether many comments are really the same message, and give a verdict.
Students make
A verdict sheet.
What can go wrong
Students paste live social posts into a shared tool. They describe the claim. They do not dump the posts.
Week 18 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Comments that only look like a crowd
Students do
Students study many similar comments with one origin. They say how they would tell, and what they would refuse to count as 'everyone thinks.'
Students make
A detection note.
What can go wrong
Do not teach students how to run that flood. Teach them how to notice it.
Week 19 · Making
90% of class doing the work
A local brief
Students do
Students pick a real local problem, such as library hours, a park, a bus, or a lunch line. They use more than one kind of source. AI may help list questions. Answers come from sources they can follow.
Students make
A brief draft.
What can go wrong
A national argument they cannot check locally. Keep the topic close to home.
Week 20 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Brief a guest
Students do
Students deliver the brief to a staff member or a parent. They take questions. They write down what they could not defend.
Students make
The delivered brief.
What can go wrong
A performance of concern with no sources.

Unit 5 · Weeks 21–25

Tools that take actions

Question for the unit. What happens when a tool can take a series of actions, not just write a paragraph?

Some tools take actions. The permissions matter. Students build a small school tool they can explain part by part. Copying code they cannot explain fails the spoken explanation.

Past: Scripts, macros, and a factory sequence. Automation is old. A sequence that looks as if it decides on its own is the new risk.
Now: A helper can search, fill in a form, and send something, if the student allows it.
Future: The permissions will get wider. The habit of reading the permission is the skill.

The rule. No tool in this unit contacts people, spends money, or leaves the practice environment. Getting around safety rules is not a game.

End-of-unit project. A tool for our school — A working first version, such as a quiz, flashcards, or a habit tracker, that the student can explain without AI, plus a review of what it is allowed to do.

SchoolWork

Agent Sandbox

Week 21 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
A sequence of actions
Students do
Students contrast a tool that writes a paragraph with a tool that looks something up, makes a list, and fills a form. They walk through a story of a message that was sent by mistake.
Students make
A storyboard of the permissions.
What can go wrong
Students stay on how impressive it is. The lesson is the permissions.
Week 22 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The practice tool
Students do
Students use Agent Sandbox on a short list of allowed actions: search a page, make a list, or fill a quiz. They review the permissions before each run. Then they say what a wider permission would have done.
Students make
A run log, and a note on what a wider permission would have allowed.
What can go wrong
Students turn off the allow-list 'just to see.'
Week 23 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build, part one
Students do
Students start the school tool. AI help is allowed. Every function the student cannot explain is deleted or rewritten.
Students make
Prototype, version 1.
What can go wrong
An app AI generated that the student cannot walk through.
Week 24 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build, part two
Students do
Students finish a small slice that works. They write a permissions review: what this tool does not do.
Students make
Prototype, version 2, and the review.
What can go wrong
Students add features until the tool is large and unexplained. A small tool the student understands is better.
Week 25 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Explain every part
Students do
Students explain every part without AI. A classmate tries to find a hole in the explanation of what the program is allowed to do. If the student can't answer, they go back and learn that part.
Students make
A spoken explanation.
What can go wrong
A demo day where the laptop hides the student. The student has to explain the tool.

Unit 6 · Weeks 26–30

Who writes the school rules

Question for the unit. Who decides how these tools behave, who is left out, and what do they cost?

Students look at open and closed tools, age limits, unequal access, and environmental cost in language appropriate for this age. They draft a school policy and a student bill of rights, then hold a hearing with a staff guest.

Past: Who owned the printing press, the radio spectrum, and the telegraph. Power over tools is an old public problem.
Now: A small number of labs, many open tools, and a school that has to choose.
Future: Someone will write the rules. Students in this course will have tried once, on purpose.

The rule. A policy is care for people who are not in the room: younger students, families without access, and staff who will have to enforce it.

End-of-unit project. A school AI policy and student rights — A one-page policy, a student bill of rights, and notes from a hearing.

Public lifeSchool

Policy Workshop

Week 26 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Who controls the AI?
Students do
Students map open tools and closed tools, school and home, paid and free. They add who cannot use a tool, and a short note on energy and water as costs. The note is information, not a guilt trip.
Students make
A map of who controls what.
What can go wrong
A lecture on world politics the students cannot act on. Keep a thread they can act on: the school.
Week 27 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Should our school allow this?
Students do
Students run a practice hearing in Policy Workshop on one concrete question, such as an open chat for Grade 4, image tools that use faces, or a tool that can send messages. They use roles, a timer, and the five questions from Grade 6.
Students make
A practice ruling.
What can go wrong
A ruling with no way to enforce it.
Week 28 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Draft the policy
Students do
Students write one page: what is allowed, what is banned, what must be disclosed, and how a student can appeal. They write for staff who were not in the class.
Students make
A policy draft.
What can go wrong
A speech instead of a policy. A policy names the specific rule.
Week 29 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Student rights
Students do
Students write rights: to learn without AI, to know when AI is scoring them, to ask a person to review a decision, to keep secrets out of AI, and to be taught both the use and the problem.
Students make
A rights draft.
What can go wrong
Rights with no duties. Add the duty to say when AI helped, and the duty to check.
Week 30 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Hearing
Students do
A staff guest attends. Students present, take questions, and revise one clause in the room if it fails.
Students make
Hearing notes and the revised page.
What can go wrong
A page that goes in a drawer. Send it to the people who asked for it.

Unit 7 · Weeks 31–35

The main project

Question for the unit. What can I make that shows I understand the work, not just that AI produced a finished product?

Students choose a field: science, arts, a small business, community work, or teaching. They write a proposal, complete an ethics review, and name what they will not hand to AI. They get a review every week. A product with no record of how it was made fails.

Past: An apprentice piece, a senior project, and work a teacher watched you make, so it could not be faked.
Now: A polished product can appear without a maker. The record is how we know who did the work.
Future: A record of the student's decisions will matter more than a pile of finished objects.

The rule. The student names, in advance, the skills they will not hand to AI on this project. Those skills are part of the assignment.

End-of-unit project. Main project, in progress — A proposal, a review of whether the project is allowed, a written record of what the student did and what AI did, weekly review notes, and work in progress going into the last unit.

SchoolHomeWorkPublic life

Studio Portfolio

Week 31 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Propose
Students do
Students name the field, the question, the audience, how they will check sources, the risk they will show, the useful use they will show, and a note on past, now, and next. They pitch it in three minutes.
Students make
The proposal.
What can go wrong
A proposal that says the student will keep asking AI until something impressive appears.
Week 32 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Is this project allowed, and what will you keep?
Students do
Students review the project with the five questions. They name what they will not hand to AI. They enter both in Studio Portfolio.
Students make
The review and the list of skills they will keep.
What can go wrong
A keep-list that is only the easy parts. Put a hard skill on the list.
Week 33 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Make the work
Students do
Students do the work. Each day they write what they did and what AI did. The teacher and classmates look at those decisions, not only at how polished the work looks.
Students make
The work and the daily record.
What can go wrong
A week of asking AI to generate the project, with a record written on Friday.
Week 34 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Make it again
Students do
Students continue. At the halfway review, if another person can't tell what the student decided, the work isn't theirs yet. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.
Students make
The work, version 2.
What can go wrong
Students say 'AI and I both liked it' and cannot name a decision they made.
Week 35 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Review
Students do
The class holds a formal review. The plan has to include both the useful use and the risk, even if both are not built yet.
Students make
Review notes and the next actions.
What can go wrong
A review that only talks about how polished the work looks.

Unit 8 · Weeks 36–40

Explain it, teach it, and make a promise

Question for the unit. Can I say what I did, teach a younger student, and say how I will use AI?

Students finish the project. They explain it out loud and answer this question: did AI do this, or did you? If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge. They teach a Grade 4 or Grade 5 lesson. On the public night, they make a promise specific enough to keep. Continuing students leave a four-year portfolio.

Past: Oaths, apprenticeships, and a teacher's sign-off. A public promise is an old way of deciding who you are going to be.
Now: A night when families see what the student decided, not a gadget demonstration.
Future: The promise is also for tools that do not exist yet.

The rule. A promise the student cannot keep is a performance. Three sentences they can keep are better than a page of nice words.

End-of-unit project. Main project, spoken explanation, and promise — Finished work, a spoken explanation, a lesson the student taught, a public night, a short promise, and a portfolio.

SchoolPublic lifeHome

Week 36 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Finish
Students do
Students complete the work, including the risk demonstration, the useful-use demonstration, and the timeline note. They stop adding features. They write the outline of the explanation.
Students make
The finished project and the outline.
What can go wrong
One more AI flourish the night before.
Week 37 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Finish, then label
Students do
Students label what they did, what AI did, and what they checked. They put the portfolio in order. They practice the explanation with a classmate who asks hard questions.
Students make
A labeled portfolio.
What can go wrong
Labels that sound more impressive than the work.
Week 38 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Spoken explanation
Students do
Part of the explanation is without AI. The question is always: did AI do this, or did you? It isn't finished if they can't walk through what they did.
Students make
An explanation that passes, or one that has to be revised.
What can go wrong
A friendly chat that never asks whether the student did the work.
Week 39 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Teach a younger student
Students do
Students teach a ten-minute Grade 4 or Grade 5 lesson, using Lesson Kit. They collect evidence that the younger student checked an answer.
Students make
The taught lesson.
What can go wrong
Teaching fear, or teaching a shortcut. Teach a check.
Week 40 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Public night and a promise
Students do
Students hold a public night. The promise is three sentences the student can keep, about school, personal life, and public life. Continuing students present a four-year portfolio. They thank the people on the Help Map.
Students make
The promise, the public work, and the thanks.
What can go wrong
A promise made of vague statements. If the student cannot keep it, it is not a promise.

Course tools

Build group 1 · Noticing and checking

Grade 4, weeks 1–25

Intelligence Sorter

Students sort living things, ordinary tools, and AI tools, then explain the cases that are hard to sort.

A table of 24 cases. Each case has a place for the student’s reason, and the class can tally the items people disagree about.

Caution. A tool that sounds like a person is not a person.

Strength. Students get more precise about what kind of thing they are dealing with.

Pattern Pupil

The class trains a small sorting program on examples they choose, then tests it on purpose with examples it has not seen.

A simple program that runs on the school device and sorts shapes, colors, or words. It includes a way to try an example meant to trick it.

Caution. It copies the examples it was shown, including the gaps in those examples.

Strength. Students can see what “training examples” means, instead of treating it as a vague idea.

Prompt Kitchen

Students turn a vague request into clear instructions: what to include, what steps to follow, what limits to set, and how to check the result.

A side-by-side editor with weak and strong examples, buttons for limits, and a log of how the results differ.

Caution. A confident answer still has to be checked.

Strength. A clear request produces a more useful draft.

True/False Detective

Students look for confident guesses in paragraphs about things they already know.

A case file where students highlight a sentence, label it as fact, story, opinion, or guess, and then say how they would check it.

Caution. A tool can be wrong even when the sentence sounds finished.

Strength. Students get a repeatable way to check, instead of only a feeling of doubt.

Secret Shield

The tool flags names, places, passwords, photos, and family business before anything is sent.

A checker that runs on the school device and looks for unsafe categories. It does not store the student’s real text.

Caution. Once information is shared, the student may not be able to get it back.

Strength. Most useful schoolwork can be done with general details or made-up examples.

Build group 2 · Making and getting help

Grade 4, weeks 26–40

Co-Create Studio

Students can draft a story or an image, but they cannot export it until they have changed it themselves.

The student writes the lesson of the story first. Every part that used the tool is labeled. Export stays locked until the student makes their own changes.

Caution. It is easy to turn in AI's work as your own. If you can't explain it without AI, you don't own the knowledge.

Strength. A tool can help with a draft. It does not replace the student’s choices.

Who Can Help?

Students sort a feeling or a problem toward a person, a tool, or both. A chatbot is never treated as a friend.

A set of questions that leads to a choice, plus a printable Help Map the student fills with real names.

Caution. A kind tone from AI can stop a student from talking to a real person.

Strength. Explaining an idea to a tool can make it clearer. The student then takes it to a person.

Museum Builder

Students make exhibit cards for the past, the present, and the future. Every object needs both a use and a risk.

A label writer, a three-part layout, and cards that can be printed for family night.

Caution. An exhibit that only says how impressive a tool is works like an advertisement.

Strength. Putting a tool on a timeline makes the benefit and the cost easier to see.

Build group 3 · Honest schoolwork

Grade 5, weeks 1–25

Honesty Workflow

Turns an assignment into a path the student is allowed to follow: think, draft, check, and say where a tool helped.

A builder that makes a one-page plan and a written record for a real assignment that is coming up.

Caution. “It only helped a little” is how students usually start letting AI write the work.

Strength. When the allowed help is named, students can use help and still be honest.

Source Trail

A research notebook that will not accept a claim unless the student names a source that exists.

A trail from question to source to quotation to check. It includes a practice mode with a made-up citation for students to find.

Caution. A made-up citation can look real.

Strength. A tool may help students write questions. It is not a source they can trust for the answer.

Voice Meter

Compares writing the student has already done with an AI draft, and marks where they sound the same.

A side-by-side view that highlights generic wording. It is a writing coach, not a tool for accusing students of cheating.

Caution. If the whole class sounds like the same AI, the students are not writing in their own words.

Strength. Students can get comments on structure and clarity without giving up their own wording.

Explain-Back

The student gets an explanation, closes it, and teaches it. The tool stays closed until the student’s own explanation is written.

A timer, a hide-and-restate step, and an optional chance for a classmate to listen. Used in math and science.

Caution. A wrong answer that looks finished will stay wrong if nobody has to teach it.

Strength. A second explanation helps only if it becomes the student’s own explanation.

Real-or-Rendered

A gallery where students cannot treat a picture as proof, and where they must label any picture they make with AI.

A prepared set of images, plus a place to make and label new ones. Students do not make unlabeled fake images of real people.

Caution. A picture used to be treated as evidence. That is no longer safe.

Strength. Asking “how was this made?” becomes a habit.

Build group 4 · Fairness and teaching

Grade 5, weeks 26–40

Prompt Recipe Book

A personal set of useful, honest instructions for real tasks, checked by an adult.

Cards the student writes. Each card has a purpose, limits, and a line that says what it must not be used for.

Caution. We do not keep an instruction that helps a student trick someone.

Strength. Personal use is allowed when it helps a student organize life, not when it hides what they were supposed to do.

Stereotype Spotlight

Students check what a tool repeats when they ask for “a scientist,” and then ask it to show a wider range of people.

A worksheet for the request and the check, with a required rewrite. The class discusses the results. They are not published as facts about people.

Caution. Unfair patterns, copied over and over, can start to feel like common sense.

Strength. Noticing the pattern is the start of correcting it.

Lesson Kit

A builder for a 10-minute lesson: a question, a demonstration, and a check. Grade 5 uses it when they teach Grade 4.

A timed lesson template that requires a step where the learner checks the answer.

Caution. If you teach a shortcut, the younger student learns the shortcut.

Strength. If a student can teach it, they know it.

Build group 5 · How the tools work, and how they can trick people

Grade 6, weeks 1–20

Era Explorer

A timeline of tools people have used to think and communicate: writing, the printing press, the telegraph, the computer, the internet, and AI. Each card names a benefit and a cost.

An interactive timeline with benefit-and-cost cards written by students, and a way to hold a debate.

Caution. People often treat a new tool as wonderful at first, and later as ordinary. The cost is still there.

Strength. History stops students from treating today's AI as magic, or as something nobody can change.

Next-Word Lab

Students see a ranked list of guesses for the next word. Smooth writing stops looking like knowledge.

A visible list of likely next words, and a control for how random the result is, on short completions that are safe for school.

Caution. A machine that is guessing can still sound as if it knows the student.

Strength. Seeing how it picks the next word stops students from treating it as if it understands.

Influence Inspector

Students mark the tactics in writing that is meant to make them want something, click something, or believe something.

A highlighter for false scarcity, flattery, fake proof that “everyone” likes it, and false urgency. It includes a rewrite into honest wording.

Caution. Ads and messages that are tailored to one person, at a large scale, are a new kind of pressure.

Strength. Once a student can name the tactic, it is harder for the ad to work on them.

Scam Gym

A practice inbox of phishing, fake authority, and copied-voice warnings. There are no real targets.

Practice messages that reveal the warning sign. Students can export a one-page family guide. The tool never uses a student’s voice.

Caution. AI makes scams cheaper, more polite, and more personal.

Strength. The same habit of spotting warning signs can protect a household.

Build group 6 · Thinking and personal information

Grade 6, weeks 21–40

Offload Meter

A private diary of what the student handed to a tool this week, what they kept for themselves, and a memory check later.

A private log and a chart of skills the student handed off, paired with the with-and-without experiment.

Caution. A skill gets weaker if the student stops using it.

Strength. Time saved can go to harder work, if the student actually uses it that way.

Brain Pact

A signed list of skills the student will keep practicing without AI: memory, math, an argument with no notes, and making something by hand.

The agreement, plus a practice tracker that matches the weekly closing activity.

Caution. An agreement the student does not practice does nothing.

Strength. Choosing what to keep practicing without AI is how a student stays in charge of their own learning.

Dilemma Deck

Cases from school, home, public life, and work. Students argue them with the same five questions.

Cards and a class hearing. The five questions are: Who could be harmed? Did people agree? Is it honest? Is it fair? Can it be undone?

Caution. A nice sentence about doing the right thing fails the first time a shortcut is easier.

Strength. Students can write a reasoned decision, compare it with others, and revise it.

Data Trail

Students map what a “free” app might know, in language a twelve-year-old can use to explain it to a parent.

A map of the data trail, and plain-language translations of terms from a prepared set of examples. Students do not open or scrape real accounts.

Caution. If the product is free, something else is being sold.

Strength. A short plan to share less is a concrete privacy step, not just a feeling.

Build group 7 · Responsibility

Grade 7

Scenario Studio

Students build three versions of the 2040s — hopeful, careless, and careful — and name what would have to be true for each one.

Comic or script boards, a checklist of conditions for the careful future, and an archive of old predictions.

Caution. A wish or a warning can be written so it looks like a forecast.

Strength. Imagining futures is one way students choose rules for the present.

Venture Canvas

A very small business with a product, a customer, and a written policy for how AI will be used.

A planning page, an honesty label, and a sentence that says when a tool helped. No real payments are required.

Caution. A business can compete by being less honest. Students practice refusing that.

Strength. A small careful team can do more than it could ten years ago.

Task Splitter

Students break a job into tasks a person should do, tasks a person and a tool can share, and tasks a machine can try. They also name the parts they still need to learn.

Occupation cards, a place for interview notes, and three columns: learn, share with a tool, and let a machine try.

Caution. If students skip the hard parts of learning, they will not know when the machine is wrong later.

Strength. A tool helps most when the person still knows the work.

Claim Verifier

A public-life routine: state the claim, find sources, find a source that disagrees, check whether many comments are really the same message, and give a verdict.

Prepared examples of claims that spread online, not a live social-media feed, plus a briefing students can export.

Caution. Public conversation can be filled with smooth text and fake pictures.

Strength. Checking a claim is a skill. It is not a type of person.

Agent Sandbox

A limited tool that can take a few allowed steps, and that shows what could happen if it were allowed to do more.

A short list of allowed actions, such as searching a page, making a list, or filling a quiz. Students review the permissions before it runs.

Caution. A tool that takes actions can do things the student did not intend.

Strength. A tool the student can explain is a skill. A tool the student cannot explain is a risk.

Policy Workshop

Students draft a school AI policy and a student bill of rights, then hold a hearing.

A set of sample clauses, a timer for the hearing, and a one-page export for staff guests.

Caution. Someone will write the rules. If students never try, they only receive them.

Strength. Responsibility includes the school, not only the individual student.

Studio Portfolio

The record of the year, or of all four years: what the student did, what AI did, the spoken explanations, the agreements, and the main project.

A portfolio with a review of whether the project is allowed, goals for what the student will keep doing themselves, and notes from the spoken explanation.

Caution. A polished product with no record of how it was made does not count as a course project.

Strength. The record of what the student decided is the real report of what they learned.

Compass

Why we teach this

Students are already using AI.

They still have to learn the material themselves.

Every use of AI can also cause a problem.

The four years

Seven rules for all four years

How a week is organized

Practice without AI

Thinking

Risks

Benefits

Rules for school, home, public life, and work

School

Home and personal life

Work and a small business

Public life

Security

How we grade

How the year’s grade is split

What the exam asks the student to show

What is required for the certificate

What counts inside the 25% for projects and classwork

Words for what a student can do

How a student starts

Printed materials

Scope and sequence

People, tools, and guesses

People, ordinary tools, and AI

What do we mean by smart?

Twenty-four cases

A short history of tools

Map your own mind

What can a person do that a machine can't?

Learning from examples

That's a dog

Train the sorting program

Leave examples out on purpose

Show what broke

Rebuild the examples

Writing clear instructions

A recipe and a wish

Fix five weak instructions

Three sets of instructions, one task

Help me think

Review the instruction cards

Facts, stories, opinions, and guesses

Four kinds of sentences

The school you know

Books that do not exist

I checked it

Case files go up

Private information

What is private?

Find the private parts

What a free app asks for

Write the agreement and the script

Take it home

Making something with AI help

Help and copying

Sketch, vary, finish

The lesson of the story comes first

Finish and label

Story night

Who to ask for help

A chatbot is not a person

Sort the situations

Kindness and tricks

Draw the map

Practice asking

A class museum of tools

Choose the stations

Build the past station

Now and future

Practice the labels

Museum night

Using AI honestly

Honest schoolwork

What kind of help is this?

Turn a copied assignment into an honest one