I was asked by the Dean of the Stem Department, Doctor Martha Pond, if I’d be able to attend her after school department meeting and give her teachers an opportunity to participate in an AI playground. I was thrilled that she wanted to include me in this activity. Seeing as though there were about 30 different staff members with all different skillsets with generative AI, we thought it would be best to provide staff with choices to explore on their own, rather than me do demonstrations. We wanted staff to have an opportunity to try themselves, and not just absorb information. By this point, staff have attended several trainings on generative AI.
I asked Martha to help me find true resources that are already being used in the Bedford High School curriculum as a way to help teacher see the power of when generative AI can help support their existing work. Martha did just that, asking staff for examples of Science Labs activities, curriculum maps for courses, guided note presentations, assessments, etc. I then used these resources to help model different situations where generative AI can help either enhance support or supplement.
The Activity
Staff were shared a Canva Presentation with curated resource ideas, 12 to be exact. Staff were told to pick at least one of 12 to learn more about it and try to replicate on their own with their own curriculum. These ideas ranged from
- helping teachers come up with additional assessment questions or replace existing ones with maybe better higher order thinking questions.
- helping teachers see how they could implement an activity between two units based off of a curriculum guide. (I know in some instances when I was teaching math I would just miraculously start a new unit, but never really explained how the two units connected).
- helping teachers see how creating a SchoolAI space can help students think through an idea (in this case, it was coming up with a type of recipe they might want to make). There are also many spaces already created for a wide range of topics that teachers don’t have to start from square one. One might be surprised at what truly is already there.
- helping teachers answer the question from students of ‘why do we have to learn this?’ by having students participate in a warm up activity through a schoolAI space.
- helping teachers see how generative AI can create a rubric or enhance an existing rubric for an assignment.
- helping teachers see how generative AI can help come up with potential data sets that students can use to help explain what might be going on. In some instances a teacher might not have time for students to collect data themselves or the teacher might need several different versions of data so that all students aren’t analyzing the same datasets.
- helping teachers see how generative AI can help kick start ideas for a new unit.
The goal of this playground was to try and reach all learners while not overwhelmed them. We wanted them to pick one activity, see what it entails, and then try and implement themselves with their own curriculum. We always hear that time is an issue so rather than doing something else in a department meeting Martha Pond wanted to actually have staff be given time to explore deeper with generative AI.
In addition to the 12 ideas, I also provided two additional new resources for staff who may have already felt comfortable with the material presented. One related to equatIO’s Math Mentor generative AI tool and the other pertaining to Google’s experiments called Learn About.
Martha and I walked around to help answer questions that staff might have to help them get unstuck or to help talk through applications. Good questions were asked by staff. I was happy to see that some individuals were able to find something to help them out with their curriculum.
Some Learnings
equatIO Math Mentor – AI Tool
Two math teachers in particular were intrigued with equatIO’s Math Mentor as the tool is designed to help give students assistance when they are unable to solve a math problem. One of the math teachers thought it would be helpful for students when they are solving delta math problems. If they are stuck on a problem, they could activate the equatIO extension and see a similar problem be solved out without having to leave the webpage that they are on.
Another math teacher liked the idea of students using the tool to get more practice problems if they felt like they wanted more practice. I’ll be honest, I never thought of using the tool that way, but it is a clear technique without the need of a teacher to provide additional practice problems beyond the required problem set.
Two other math teachers liked the idea of providing SchoolAI’s Maria the Math Tutor space in their Google classroom for students to go to at anytime whenever they are stuck on a math problem or technique. They like the idea of allowing students the ability to ask some questions to a chatbot and not have to wait for an email response from the teacher. While we know that this ‘tutor’ is not a replacement of a human, nor is it 100% full proof, we are hopeful that some students might gravitate to getting some questions answered.
One science teacher appreciated the fact that she could download her PearAssessment assessment for her physical science class as a PDF file and upload it into a conversation with a chatbot to ask for additional assessment questions. She was wanting a couple of higher order thinking questions. She was also interested to see what alternative multiple-choice questions she could ask students and replace with existing ones. This teacher also liked the idea of being able to put a YouTube video link into a conversation and ask for questions that could better help verify student understanding of the material. Another science teacher was diving into problem based learning approaches with particular content.
The plan is for me to join the Humanities department meeting next month and do a similar activity. However, this time, the examples will have an English and Social Studies feel to it with actual curriculum at the high school. I’m thankful for Dr. Martha Pond for reaching out to see if we could make this work. #alwayslearning
If you have any questions or want to bounce some ideas, you know where to find me.
And that is my Spiel…
Craig M Sheil 