Know What You're Building and Why
In this week, you'll identify a pedagogical challenge in your practice and design an AI tool to address it. By the end of the week, you'll have a working prototype that supports your students' learning.
Think about your teaching practice. What's the biggest challenge or opportunity you've identified? What specific teaching problem could an AI tool help address?
Who will use this AI tool? Your students? You? Both? Be specific about your audience and their needs.
How does this tool support student agency, self-determined learning, or the six phases of inquiry? What pedagogical shift does it enable?
What does this tool do? How does the user interact with it? What happens step-by-step? Don't worry about technical details—just describe the experience.
Here's something you already know: when you give instructions to a room full of students, you think about who needs what. Some students catch on immediately. Others need step-by-step scaffolding. Some take everything literally and miss nuance. AI works the same way—and the "prompt" you write is like the instructions you'd give to ensure every student in that distinct classroom can succeed.
Think about your most capable student—the one who grasps the lesson with minimal guidance. Then think about your most literal thinker—the one who needs every step spelled out. AI can be both, depending on your prompt.
A vague prompt is like telling your class "Work on your project" without explaining what the project is, what success looks like, or what steps to take. Some students might figure it out. Most won't.
A specific prompt is like giving clear, scaffolded instructions: "Here's what we're creating, here's who it's for, here's the process step-by-step, here's the tone we're using." Everyone can succeed because the expectations are explicit.
You've seen what happens when you tell students "Write a 5 paragraph essay that discusses earthquakes" versus when you give them a rubric, models, and step-by-step guidance. Let's look at the same thing with AI prompts.
"Create a tool that helps students with their research questions."
What's missing? Who are the students? What grade? What do they struggle with? What should the tool actually do? What's the process? This is like posting "Research assignment due Friday" with no rubric.
"Create an interactive tool for 9th grade biology students who struggle to move from surface-level curiosity to genuine inquiry questions. The tool should guide them through this process:
Step 1: Ask 'What phenomenon in nature caught your attention recently?'
Step 2: Ask 'What made you curious about it?'
Step 3: Help them identify what they genuinely want to understand
Step 4: Guide them in turning that into an open-ended, investigable question
Step 5: Provide gentle feedback on whether their question supports inquiry
Tone: Encouraging and conversational, like a coach not a lecturer. Use simple, direct language. Avoid jargon.
Features: Include a 'Save My Question' button so students can track their progress across sessions."
What's included? Clear audience, explicit process, specific tone, concrete features. This is like a lesson plan with learning objectives, scaffolded steps, and success criteria.
When you plan a lesson, you think about: What's the learning objective? Who are my students? How will we get there? What's my teaching voice? What materials do we need? Writing an AI prompt works the same way. Here are the five essential elements:
What type of tool are you creating? What's its educational purpose?
Educator examples: "A reflection journal that guides students through the six phases of inquiry," "A question development coach that scaffolds open-ended thinking," "An observation tracker that helps students identify patterns over time"
Who will use this tool? Be as specific as you'd be about your actual students' needs.
Educator examples: "9th grade biology students who excel at memorization but struggle with open-ended inquiry," "Teachers new to inquiry-based learning who need structured guidance," "11th graders preparing for independent research projects"
What's the step-by-step process? How should the tool interact with users?
Educator examples: "First, ask students to describe what they observed. Then, ask what patterns they noticed. Finally, help them articulate what they want to investigate," "Present three inquiry question stems and let students choose which resonates with their curiosity"
What should the tool's voice sound like? How do you want students to experience it?
Educator examples: "Encouraging and warm, like a supportive coach. Never lecturing or correcting harshly," "Curious and wondering alongside the student, not telling them the 'right' answer," "Professional but accessible, avoiding academic jargon"
What specific elements should the tool include to support learning?
Educator examples: "A save button so students can return to their work," "Color-coded sections for each phase of the inquiry process," "Examples of strong vs. weak inquiry questions for reference," "Space for students to track observations over time"
Now it's your turn. Fill in each element below just like you'd complete a lesson planning template. Think about what your students need, what the learning process should look like, and how the tool can support that. Be as explicit as you'd be with your most literal student—specificity helps AI just like it helps learners.
If you're stuck, think about a time you had to explain something complex to a student who learns very literally. What level of detail did you provide? That's the level of detail your prompt needs. AI won't infer your intentions any more than that student would—spell it out.
This is your complete instructional prompt—think of it as your "lesson plan for AI." You can edit it directly here to add more detail, adjust the language, or refine any section. This is what you'll give to ChatGPT or Claude to build your tool.
Just like you might ask a colleague to review your lesson plan, you can use this AI assistant to get feedback on your prompt. Ask questions like "Is this specific enough?" or "How can I make the instructional sequence clearer?" or "What am I missing?"
Before Week 2 begins, we encourage you to:
Remember: This week is about clarity of vision. Take your time. A well-crafted prompt makes Week 2 (building) much smoother.