Next Steps | Exercise & Material
Exercise: AI-Assisted Concept Stretching (15 minutes)
Tools: Advanced AI chatbot
Objective: Apply AI-assisted concept stretching to a topic from your own teaching area, exploring its boundaries, analogies, and abstract connections.
Instructions
Don’t overthink this exercise! If you’re unsure what to say to the AI, then tell it what you’re trying to do, and have it ask you questions until it is satisfied that it has enough information to answer.
1. Choose a Concept
Select a key concept from a subject you teach which students often struggle to apply outside of its original context or understand the full scope of the concept.
Select a key concept from a subject you teach which students often struggle to apply outside of its original context or understand the full scope of the concept.
2. Explore Concept Boundaries
- Get the AI to generate several examples in different contexts of situations where the concept does and does not apply.
- Review the AI's response. Note any surprising or particularly useful examples.
3. Create Analogies
- Prompt the AI to provide analogies to the concept in far-flung domains, especially in ones the students know well.
- Consider how you might use these analogies to help students grasp the concept more deeply.
4. Find Abstract Connections
- Prompt the AI to identify an abstract principle that might connect the concept with other challenges or disciplines.
- Reflect on how this abstract principle might help students see the broader applicability of the concept.