Building AI-Savvy Citizens: Grade 9s Explore Data, Bias, and Digital Responsibility

Recently, Grade 9 students participated in an engaging and timely session focused on artificial intelligence (AI) literacy. As AI becomes an increasingly prominent part of the digital landscape, equipping students with the knowledge to navigate these tools safely and responsibly is a priority.

The interactive workshop focused on two main pillars of AI literacy: data safety and privacy, and understanding AI and human bias. 

Students explored the critical importance of protecting their personal information online. They compared the vulnerability of posting private details publicly on a classroom door to the security of ripping up those notes and throwing them away. This exercise highlighted the difference between using public tools with unknown data policies and utilizing secure, school-approved platforms such as Flint and Gemini accessed safely through their LCS accounts.

To understand how AI models actually learn, students were tasked with a challenge: writing an "algorithm" to make the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. When comparing their steps, the class quickly realized that every recipe was entirely unique, shaped by individual preferences and lived experiences. This activity demonstrated how human perspective naturally influences the instructions we write, reminding students to remain critically aware of potential biases when evaluating AI-generated content.

By blending hands-on activities with practical analogies, the session empowered students to become not just passive consumers of AI, but thoughtful, critical, and data-conscious digital citizens.