AI Snapshots, Elementary AI Explorations + Learning Journeys
AI readiness activities students talk their way through, from third grade up
The brief
Help teachers with no AI background teach AI readiness inside the subjects they already teach, without devices.
What I did
Designed the Responsible AI Use collection and The Human Advantage Snapshots, helped shape Elementary AI Explorations, and co-designed two 18-lesson Learning Journeys with DREAM Charter School.
What happened
Indigitize adapted Elementary AI Explorations for Indigenous classrooms, and aiEDU's free curriculum library is used by more than 13,000 educators in all 50 states.
Organization
aiEDU (The AI Education Project), a national nonprofit
Role
Senior Lead, Curriculum
Learners
Grades 3–5 (Explorations), Grades 6–12 (Snapshots), middle school social studies (Learning Journeys), and their teachers
Format
Short, device-free classroom activities (10–25 minutes) and two 18-lesson learning journeys
Partners
DREAM Charter School, The Rithm Project, Indigitize
Year
2024–present
What does AI readiness look like when students never touch a device?
Context
AI is already part of students' everyday lives. Most teachers have no room for a new course, and many don't feel ready to teach about AI at all. aiEDU's answer is free curriculum that fits inside the subjects teachers already teach. Elementary activities were among the things teachers asked for most.
Design challenge
The job was to turn complex AI ideas into short, age-appropriate activities that spark real debate and that any teacher can run without an AI background, a new course or a classroom set of devices.
My role
- AI Snapshots (Grades 6–12). Short, story-driven discussion activities that drop into a math, science, ELA or social studies class. I refined and expanded the collection across releases, and designed The Human Advantage (October 2026), where students debate who deserves credit for AI-made art and which schoolwork is worth doing yourself. Each Snapshot ends with a transferable Big Idea and an optional task where students move from discussion to making something or deciding something.
- Elementary AI Explorations (Grades 3–5). A new product of hands-on games and activities for the youngest learners. I helped design its architecture, student experiences, facilitation guidance and scaffolds, and designed the Responsible AI Use collection (spring 2026): five 20–25 minute activities built around real dilemmas.
Explorations come in three collections, starting with What is AI? - Learning Journeys (middle school). I co-designed two 18-lesson sequences with DREAM Charter School in New York, Ancient Greece and Civil War & Reconstruction. Students learn how training data shapes what AI produces, then judge its output with the same source-evaluation skills historians use.
- Supporting teachers. I host launch sessions for new releases, including the Evaluating AI Outputs Snapshots webinar (November 2025), and walk teachers through Elementary AI Explorations in aiEDU's video guide.
Design approach
- Device-free by design. Every activity runs on paper and discussion, so it works in classrooms with no laptops or AI tools, and students do the reasoning themselves instead of handing it to a chatbot.
- Dilemmas, not definitions. Students grapple with AI readiness concepts through situations they care about, such as a missing pet or a classroom award, and have to decide what's right.
- Inside the subjects teachers already teach. Snapshots fit into a math or science period, and the Learning Journeys build on the evidence skills students already use in social studies.
- Tested in classrooms. We piloted the activities with teachers and revised them based on what we saw, which gave the final versions simpler steps and notes on the misconceptions students most often bring.
Outcomes and evidence
Indigitize adapted Elementary AI Explorations for Indigenous classrooms, and aiEDU's free curriculum library is used by more than 13,000 educators in all 50 states.
What I learned
Teachers rarely need another course to make room for AI. What helps more is a short, well-built activity that fits the lesson they were already planning, with guidance for the moment a discussion goes somewhere unexpected.
Links
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