Session 13 — The AI That Creates

Duration: 60 min · Format: live online · Ages: 8–11

Session goal: by the end, students can tell "sorting AI" from "creating AI," explain how generative AI guesses the next word, and name the rules for using it safely and kindly.

Before class — prep (5 min)

• Have a kid-safe generative-AI tool ready to screen-share from a grown-up account (e.g. a chatbot you control). You'll type the prompts; students only watch and suggest.
• Open AutoDraw in a tab — you'll demo it and screen-share.
• Have the two diagrams below ready to share on screen (sorting vs creating and guess the next word).
• Ask students to have paper and a pencil ready.

Agenda

0:00 · Hook (5 min)

Ask the class to finish this out loud (chat or unmute):

• "Once upon a time, there was a dragon who was afraid of ___."

Take 2–3 different endings. Point out that everyone made something new — nobody looked up the "right" answer, they created one. Tell them that today they'll meet an AI that does exactly this: it makes brand-new things from your words.

0:05 · Teach — Two kinds of AI (12 min)

Explain, writing the key words on your shared screen:

• Earlier in the course we trained AI to sort pictures into groups (cat or dog?).
• Generative AI is a newer kind — instead of sorting, it creates something brand-new.

Share this diagram and point out the difference:

• Sorting AI: you show it a picture → it gives a label ("Cat").
• Generative AI: you give it words (a prompt) → it makes a new picture, story, or song.

⚠ Watch for the safety point: students often think "if the AI made it, it must be true." Land this early — generative AI can be confidently wrong and just make things up. It creates; it does not check the facts. A grown-up or a real book still decides what's true.

Ask: "So which one gives you a label, and which one gives you a new thing?" (Take a couple of answers to check they've got sorting vs creating.)

0:17 · Teach — How does it create? It guesses what's next! (13 min)

Explain: generative AI writes by guessing the most likely next word, again and again. Share the diagram:

Walk through it out loud:

1. It learned patterns from millions of sentences.
2. So for "The cat sat on the…" it thinks "mat" is most likely, "moon" is unlikely.
3. It picks a next word, then guesses the next, and the next — string enough together and you get a whole story.

Key point to land: pictures work the same way, but with tiny dots instead of words. It's all guessing what comes next from patterns.

Ask the class: "If it's just guessing the next likely word, could it ever guess wrong and write something silly or untrue?" (Answer: yes — that's why we always check. This mistake even has a name: a hallucination.)

0:30 · Activity (20 min)

Activity 1 — Be a generative AI (≈10 min, no computer). Sit the class in a circle (or go around the chat). Build one story one word at a time — each student adds the next word that makes sense: "The… robot… ate… my…"

• Ask as you go: "Why did that word fit? What word would not have made sense here?"
• Point out: "That's exactly what the AI does — guessing the next word from patterns."

Activity 2 — Draw with AI (≈10 min). Open AutoDraw. Demo one scribble yourself, then have students try on their own devices (or take turns if you're sharing one screen). Watch the AI guess and finish the drawing.

• Point out: it learned from millions of doodles other people made.
• Ask as they play: "When did it guess right? When did it get confused? Why?"

Debrief: "Whether it's words or drawings, generative AI is guessing what comes next from the patterns it learned."

0:50 · Check for understanding (7 min)

Ask these aloud or drop them in the chat. Answer key (for you):

1. What does generative AI do that sorting AI doesn't? → It creates brand-new things (text, pictures, music) instead of just giving a label.
2. How does an AI write a sentence? → By guessing the most likely next word, over and over.
3. True or False: if the AI says it, it must be true. → False — it can make things up (a hallucination). Always check with a grown-up or a real book.

0:57 · Wrap-up + homework (3 min)

• Ask one student to finish the sentence: "Generative AI is…"
• Homework — Smart Checker: with a grown-up, ask a chatbot to "write a funny 4-line poem about a sleepy cat." Find one thing it got a little silly or wrong, and note it down. Bring it to Session 14.

Teaching notes

• Correct this misconception: "If the AI made it, it's true." Reframe as it guesses; it doesn't check — so a person always checks.
• Responsible-AI rules to repeat all lesson: always check what it says with a grown-up or a real book; never share private stuff (your name, school, address, photos); and always be kind in what you ask for and make. Students only watch or suggest — you drive the tool from a grown-up account.
• Fast finishers (extension): introduce tokens — the AI doesn't read whole words, it breaks text into little chunks called tokens and predicts them one by one. Ask a chatbot the same question twice: did it answer differently? It adds a little randomness so it stays creative, not a copy machine. Then have them name one helpful and one risky way someone their age might use generative AI.
• Low-tech fallback: if devices are limited, screen-share AutoDraw yourself and run Activity 1 (the one-word-at-a-time story) as a whole class on paper.

Vocabulary

Resources

• AutoDraw — draw and let AI finish it (free, no login; main demo).
• Quick, Draw! — see AI recognise your doodles.
• For grown-ups: try a chatbot together with your child and talk about what it got right and wrong.

Next session

Session 14 — Prompt Power: students learn the secret to getting amazing results from AI — how to ask a clear, specific question.