Unit 1, Day 1: Ask AI a Good Question

Lesson 1 of 6 in Unit 1, Use It, Check It, Own It

School-year day: Day 1 of 180
Time: 20-minute core + 30-minute extension (50 minutes in all)

Teacher Talk with MystrS. Checked October 25, 2026 (Pacific time). Tags: Cyber, AI.

Existing lesson: /ai/ask-ai-a-good-question/

Goal: Students will be able to:

Explain why a vague question gets a vague answer.
Rewrite a weak prompt with four upgrades: who it is for, what format, ask for options, ask for sources.
Judge whether the better prompt actually produced a better answer.

Materials:

Projector and one teacher-run chatbot your district allows (no student accounts)
"Four Upgrades" card for each student
Three weak prompts on the board, such as "help with my essay"

Core (20 min)

Run "help with my essay" live and ask: is this useful? Why not? (4 min)
Add the four upgrades one at a time and rerun the prompt after each. (8 min)
Pairs upgrade one board prompt on paper, using at least two upgrades. (5 min)
Check for understanding. (3 min)

Extension (up to 30 min)

Two or three pairs read their prompts aloud and you run them. (10 min)
The class votes on which answer would help a student most, and says why. (10 min)
Pairs upgrade a second prompt using all four upgrades. (10 min)

Check for understanding: "Here is a weak prompt: 'tell me about volcanoes.' Rewrite it with at least two of the four upgrades and label the ones you used."

Standards (from our standards map):

CSTA 2026: HS-ALG-PS-05; MS-SOC-ET-40

Talk about it at home