Lesson Plan: “Audit the AI” Across the Curriculum

ByDenise Thompson

As Computer Science teachers, we are often the “First Responders” when a new technology hits the building. When it comes to Generative AI, our colleagues in the staff room believe: “Students will just use AI to cheat”

The solution isn’t about blocking the tools—it’s about teaching Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) oversight.

The latest lesson plan from Responsible AI Fellow Denise Thompson, “Audit the AI,” is designed as a plug-and-play model you can share with your Science, Social Studies, and ELA departments to show them how AI can actually enhance formative assessment.

The Hook: AI is Confidently Wrong!  The best way to engage a skeptical colleague? Show them an AI “hallucination.” In this lesson, we use a diagram of the Water Cycle that includes nonsensical labels like “FNOBAL COLLECTION” and misspellings like “EVAPRATION”.  By presenting an “imperfect” AI model, teachers can efficiently assess if a student actually understands the content. If a student can’t spot that precipitation is missing, they haven’t mastered the concept yet. 

This lesson allows you to lead your school in Responsible AI Use by hitting heavy-hitting CSTA Standards in every classroom:

  • Ethical Evaluation (CSTA 3A-AP-21): Students move from passive consumers to critical auditors
  • Data Reliability (CSTA 2-DA-08): Students learn to treat AI output as data that must be transformed and verified to be useful
  • Systemic Debugging: Critiquing a diagram is essentially “debugging” a visual algorithm

The lesson uses a “Slow Complexity Thinking Routine” from Harvard’s Project Zero to explore an AI generated visualization which can be used in any subject. Students aren’t just looking at a picture; they are: capturing the parts,  exploring the interactions, evaluating if the relationships actually make sense, and refining the model.

We’ve already drafted the examples for your colleagues in Science: Auditing DNA replication diagrams, Social Studies: Fact-checking a visualization of the First Amendment and ELA: Deconstructing the storyline of Moby Dick.  The applications are endless and it works with any content and any generative AI tool. 

To view this lesson plan, click Audit the AI

Denise Thompson

Denise Thompson teaches computer science at Orting High School. She is a CSTA Responsible AI Fellow for 2025-26 and the Vice-President I-5 Corridor of CSTA Washington

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