Getting starting with teaching AI to your students can be a daunting task. Teachers and students are returning to school with new initiatives and policies to put in place, adding AI expectations may be the last thing on your already over-full plate. However, we know that is AI not going away and that most of our students are using it in some form or fashion. So why not get the year kicked off with an AI-inspired activities to set the tone for expectations?
Our goals are to both teach the kids how to use AI properly and teach them when to use it with their learning. Those expectations and norms around AI start on day one in your classroom. Some of the activities listed below are updated versions of some of the activities from last year and others tackle those classroom norms head on…while using AI. The goal here is to highlight human creativity and critical thinking while also showcasing some of the imaginative outputs that AI can create.
1. Host a “Prompetition”
AI Tool Suggestion: Google Lab’s Say What You See Tool
One of my favorite things to do with students (and teachers) is to host a “Prompetition”. This isn’t so much a competition as it is a battle for ultimate AI prompting supremacy. There’s a few different ways to do this challenge but my favorite is to do this using Google Arts & Culture’s “Say What You See” tool. (Shout out to Emma Moss for sharing this with me).
First, do this as a whole group – asking the students to help you come up with the best prompt for the random image that is shown on the screen. Then, go to the next image and have students chat in small groups for a minute or two coming up with different descriptive words that might match the image best. Following their collaboration, have them share their thoughts whole group. Have student groups share what they came up with and see if you come up with a better score. Finally, invite the students to go to the website on their own devices to see who can get the highest score. As the images are random, some students might get tougher images but ask those students with higher scores to share what kind of words they used in their prompt. This builds critical thinking skills and because of the character limits, forces students to think of the best descriptive words for certain traits (like instead of saying “light mint green” use the word “sage”).
2. “My Faves” Activity
AI Tool Suggestion: Padlet “AI Image” feature
We all have favorite things that make us uniquely us. The purpose of this activity is to get familiar with AI image generation and also the importance of designing a solid prompt. For this challenge, I have students list out these 5 favorite things: animal, food, hobby, location, and color. Then, I have them join my Padlet wall and locate the “AI Image” feature. (HINT: You can actually go into your settings and limit post fields to only use “AI Image”)
Once they’ve selected the AI image feature, they enter a prompt like this: Draw a combination of an [animal] eating [food] while [doing the hobby] at the [location] with a [color] sky. The results range from hysterical to cute to somewhat disturbing. Here’s some results from a recent workshop. Be sure to showcase each image on the screen and ask students to “reverse engineer” the prompt by asking them whole group to decide how the image on the screen was constructed.
3. My Personal Best Trivia Category
AI Tool Suggestion: ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini
Recently, I had an opportunity to visit with dynamo educational leaders Matt Holley and Matthew X. Joseph at a local watering hole. At this particular establishment, trivia games were being played on the screens around us. THis caused us to wonder….what would be each of our best trivia categories? And with that, this AI game was launched. Here’s how it works:
- Set the scene – “Imagine you are an attendee on Jeopardy and you see your dream category. The one category that you know waaaaaay too much about.”
- Find a partner and share what your category is. Hint: Make it as specific as possible. In other words, if the topic is Harry Potter, make it about a particular book. If it’s baseball, make it about a certain era. Or if it’s about Roblox, make it about a particular game.
- Each student pulls up an AI chat tool (LLM) and prompt it to create 5 trivia questions with multiple choice answers around the topic of ______.
- One student quizzes the other on their topic and keeps score. Two points if they get the question right without multiple choice. One point if they get it correct but had to use multiple choice. Warning: Sometimes AI can be wrong! This is also a great thing to discuss with the class.
Bonus: If two students have similar interests in the class, invite them up to the front of the room to have them battle (like the game show “The Floor“) on the same topic with the screen behind them.
This activity accomplishes a couple of different goals. First, it shows them that AI tools can help quiz them on various topics, event those that they might struggle with. Secondly, this is a quick way for the class to know each other’s interests. Lastly, this game reveals that everyone is an expert at something and for those with very specific topics, they actually might find the questions easier than broader topics.
4. AI Ethics Guidelines Podcast
AI Tool Suggestion: Brisk, NotebookLM
A conversation that should be taking place in every classroom no matter what the grade is when and where to use AI to help with learning. Starting out the year discussing the ethics of AI can set the tone for the rest of the school year. Rather than tell your students what they can and can’t do, involve them in a discussion around AI. When can using too much AI can actually hinder learning? In what ways can AI help with learning? Work as a whole group to brainstorm some norms and situations. After you’ve exhausted most of the discussion, ask AI to give some other suggestions as well. Combine both the student examples and the AI scenarios into a ‘AI Ethics Guidelines’ document.
After you’ve created the class set of agreed AI norms, use a tool like Brisk‘s podcast creator or NotebookLM to generate a podcast synopsis of the rules (or really any other document in PDF format or website).
FYI: The folks at Brisk gave me a 3-month free pro trial for my blog readers. Check it out!
5. A Song About Me
AI Tool Suggestion: Suno or Udio
I’m not a musician. Far from it. The most I can do is mix music being a former DJ, however, apps like Suno and Udio have given those of us without musical talent a chance to at least be invited to the party. As kids come back into your classroom, ask them to use one of these tools to make a song about themselves. Their interests, their hobbies, their family, etc can all be tied into their favorite music genre when creating their all about me song.
Then, throughout the first few weeks of the school year, play a different student’s song as students enter class each day.
Bonus tip: If you use a tool like Suno, be sure to try the “Generate Video” feature to get a Karaoke-style video that the entire class can see and sing along to.
6. Your Gold Medal Olympic Sport
AI Tool Suggestion: Gemini’s Video creation feature (Veo3)
Everyone has something that they are good at. But are you good enough to win a gold medal in if it was an olympic sport? I’m talking everything from gold medal “email responder” to “video game master”, finding that one thing or talent can be a struggle for our early learners. In this activity, students come up with something that they are good at and turn it into an Olympic sport. Then, using Google Gemini’s new video feature (powered by Veo3), upload a photo of yourself and create a prompt of a scene where you are doing your ‘olympic sport’. Here’s an example of me as a “Gold medal pot-stirrer”:
7. HI vs. AI Challenge
AI Tool Suggestion: Any LLM (i.e. ChatGPT, Brisk, etc)
This is an activity I like to do throughout the year to highlight the limitations of artificial intelligence when it goes up against human creativity. The set-up is simple – have students get in partners or groups of 3 to then brainstorm a list of items under a certain category (i.e “Things found in a school” or “Excuses for not turning in homework”). Set a timer for 1-minute and have the students start coming up with their lists verbally while counting on their fingers or tally-marking. This adds a spirit of competition.
When finished, ask some of the groups with the highest number of answers to name a couple of items that they think no one else in the room thought of. As they call out their items, have other groups raise their hand if they came up with the same item in their group brainstorm.
Then, ask AI to come up with a similar list of 30-40 items. Students review the AI list and respond to it in real-time. Were there items AI mentioned that they didn’t? What were some that they came up with that AI didn’t?
This a great way to show the limitations of AI while also encouraging students to think differently and creatively.
8. GenAlpha Class Rules
AI Tool Suggestion: Any Large Language Model (LLM) or AI chat tool
If you’ve been around any teen or tween recently you might have heard several interesting phrases in their GenAlpha slang. Words like “low key”, “bruh”, “aura farming” and “skibidi rizz” are some new terms in the vernacular of our intrepid youth. In this challenge, ask the students to take the standard set class rules and give them a GenAlpha makeover. First, students collaborate with a partner to re-write a rule. Instead of “Follow directions the first time” students may decide to use the phrase “Lock in, bruh”.
After they’ve collaborated on some improvements, have them use an AI tool like Canva Magic Write (for younger students) or ChatGPT to brainstorm some other GenAlpha phrases. Then ask students to anonymously post their “human created” phrases as well as their AI generated ones on a poll. Students vote and/or rate each GenAlpha rule that was submitted.
After the poll results, have students decide which of the posts were made by humans and which were made by AI. The results may be surprising but in the few times that I’ve tried this activity, every time the human-created posts end up out-ranking the AI-generated ones.
Summary
These activities aren’t about a particular subject or assignment. Their purpose isn’t to get more grades in the grade book or check a box on a list. They are meant to help students understand how AI can help them learn while also setting some expectations around its usage. This lays the groundwork for how students will think about and interact with artificial intelligence all year long. By weaving AI into your very first lessons, you’re not only meeting students where they are, but also guiding them toward responsible, imaginative applications that enhance learning. I hope these activities kick off your year with some laughter, a little friendly competition, and a healthy dose of AI literacy skills.
Have a great school year!
Carl Hooker is an educator, speaker, author, and thought-leader. He’s written several books including Learning Evolution: The New Era of AI in the Classroom. His latest book, “ZENgaged: An Educator’s Guide to Teaching the Anxious Generation” focuses on how educators can work with students to create balance between their digital and analog lives. Pre-orders available here: https://mrhook.it/zen
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