Category: Free Inquiry

Continuing on from my previous post on the uses of Generative AI for students, I want to swing more towards the various ways educators can leverage Gen AI to plan their classes, create materials, the finish off with some precautions to take when using these tools.

Beginning with using GenAI to create plans and lessons, I’m going to preface with stating that this should be used solely as a supplement to whatever other methods and resources one uses to plan, and must then be triple checked and cross-referenced. That being said however, GenAI can be extremely powerful in creating unit and lesson plans, and can even be specialized into a particular provinces curriculum. As an example, here is a response to a prompt I provided, asking it to create a lesson plan for a grade 10 science class on the conservation of mass.

Here’s the output for the prompt: “Create a grade 10 lesson plan using the BC curriculum for a science 10 class on the conservation of mass”:

As we can see, it is actually surprisingly efficient and effective at creating these resources. But now lets talk about the precautions educators must take when using these resources:

First, and probably most obvious, comes the issue of incorrect information. These large language models are notorious for providing misleading or downright factually incorrect information, thus it is super important that one cross references the information it provides with known sources, lest you end up giving misleading lessons to your students.

Second, the overuse of these AI can be detrimental to your overall ability as an educator. Let me explain what I mean: Say you have a class of which you have been making the lessons by hand for multiple months, then suddenly shift to AI-generating your lessons, there will certainly be some discrepancies in the quality and content. Thus, it may create jarring transitions and you may not be able to create as cohesive or as encompassing of a unit plan.

Overall however, it can be incredibly useful of a resource for create such lesson plans, and even more useful in creating resources such as quizzes, sheetwork and the like. Moreover, it can be great for generating new ideas and overcoming writer’s block.

Canva is an extremely effective and useful tool that can be used to create compelling displays and infographics. The a large of students are visual learners, and as such the teaching materials presented in class should coincide with that to enhance the learning environment.

This also makes lessons more engaging and encourages students to think about concepts in a variety of ways, which leads to higher material retention. Visual aids can be used to further emphasize key concepts taught in class, and are an excellent way for students to connect what they are taught with concrete examples. Canva is accessible also makes it a exceptional teaching tool, as it has a user-friendly interface and is free to use.

There are many other such programs that facilitate the use of these visual aids, however Canva sticks out as one of the most easy to use and access, for both students and teachers alike. From the teachers perspective, Canva can be used to quickly layout educational material for the students to digest.

As an example, I’ll present a brochure I made recently promoting outdoor learning in the classroom, and highlight some of the many features Canva had available to make this quick and easy to produce.

The first thing I’d like to point out in what made this so easy to produce is that of the multitude of present formats Canva offers. Because of this, it is super quick and easy to select what that is near enough to what you as a teacher want to use, then quickly adapt it to fit your lesson:

Following this, the editing and insertion of images, gifs or other forms of education media is made very easy through their use of easy to access tools, which make this very intuitive, including a vast selection of elements, or the option to include your own, which can be incredibly helpful incredibly educational materials for your students:

Generative AI has crashed its way into almost every aspect of our digital lives, especially for students of almost every level. The question most commonly asked as a result of this is its place in leaning environments and if students should be using it, and if so, how best they should leverage it.

It’ an obvious truth that it is not going away, students will continue to use it for school purposes, so how should we instruct them to use it best?

Keeping aside obvious misuses of it (cheating, plagiarism), one of the best uses students can leverage is using these large language models for research and studying methods to help further their education.

Starting with Research, at the most rudimentary level, students can ask LLMs to give and overview of a concept or topic of which they want to know. Here’s an example based around natural selection:

Following this, should they wish to know more on a given topic, they can then follow up with more in depth questions, even relating to what the teacher has assigned:

Finally, if they are say to want to review for particular test, quiz or other form of assessment, they can ask LLMs such as ChatGPT to create worksheets, quizzes and review sheets to solidify their knowledge and understanding of the topic, the following text was generated using the input: “Make a quick review sheet for me concerning this topic”:

Quick Review Sheet: Natural Selection and Inheritance

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Natural Selection

• Definition: The process where organisms with traits better suited to their environment survive and reproduce more successfully.
• Key Steps:
  1. Variation: Differences in traits among individuals in a population.
  2. Survival & Reproduction: Traits that improve survival chances lead to more offspring.
  3. Inheritance: Advantageous traits are passed to the next generation.
  4. Adaptation: Over generations, populations become better adapted to their environment.

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Inheritance

• Definition: The passing of genetic information (genes) from parents to offspring.
• Key Concepts:
  • Genes: Units of inheritance made of DNA, found on chromosomes.
  • Chromosomes: Structures that organize DNA; humans have 23 pairs.
  • Dominant Traits: Only one copy of the gene is needed to show the trait (e.g., brown eyes).
  • Recessive Traits: Two copies of the gene are needed to show the trait (e.g., blue eyes).
  • Genotype: Genetic makeup of an organism (e.g., BB, Bb, bb).
  • Phenotype: Physical expression of the genotype (e.g., brown eyes, blue eyes).

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Examples of Natural Selection

• Peppered Moths: Dark-colored moths became more common during the Industrial Revolution because they blended better with soot-covered trees, avoiding predators.
• Antibiotic Resistance: Bacteria with resistance genes survive antibiotics and reproduce, leading to resistant populations.

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Key Vocabulary

1. Adaptation: A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce.
2. Selection Pressure: Environmental factors that influence which traits are advantageous.
3. Mutation: Random changes in DNA that create variation.
4. Fitness: An organism’s ability to survive and reproduce.

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Quick Tip

Remember the phrase “VSRIA”:

• Variation
• Survival
• Reproduction
• Inheritance
• Adaptation

(End of ChatGPT generated response)

It is important to note that teaching students the best ways to use these is critical. Without the proper knowledge, it is all too easy for them to become over reliant on these models or not be able to cross reference their information, potentially leading to misunderstandings on a topic. The final note of “VSRIA” is potentially an example of this, as it appears to be entirely fabricated for this response and lacks any sort of grounding to real terms which would make it an easy acronym for students to recall.

All prompts and responses shown were input into ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/