Use of these resources for completing a submission to the Your AI Horizons Challenge is optional and not required by the U.S. Department of Education.
Getting started
Organize your team, collect your school information, and begin working on your submission.
Ready to get started? You can begin here:
- Listen to this audio overview of the challenge.
- Share this one-page overview with your students.
- Register your team in Luminary Lightbox.
- Share details of the challenge with principals or district administrators to receive approval.
More resources to help you get started
- Download and use this administration approval email to receive permission from your school’s principal or district-level administrator to participate in the challenge.
- Explore project planning tips and planning resources for students.
Explore and discuss AI
Access resources that can be used to discuss AI with your students.
As you begin to develop your submission, you can use the resources below to help your students build foundational knowledge about AI.
Learn more about AI topics
- Introduction to AI: A 10-minute video from Khan Academy featuring leading AI experts Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick.
- AI for Everyone: A free introductory course that discusses AI in non-technical terms.
- How can AI Help People in the Trades?: An overview of how AI can enhance the experience of workers in various trades.
Brainstorm workplace challenges and AI solutions
Collaborate with your team to identify opportunities to improve day-to-day workplace activities using AI.
Once you understand AI basics, work with your team to identify real workplace challenges that could benefit from AI and design thoughtful AI solutions for specific careers or industries.
Learn more about identifying problems and designing solutions
- O*NET OnLine: A U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored database to help you understand job expectations for a wide range of careers.
- How to Facilitate a Brainstorming Session: A helpful guide from Mural with step-by-step instructions for structuring a brainstorming session.
- The 5W + H questioning framework: A helpful approach to breaking down a workplace problem:
- What problems do employees in this industry or career face at work?
- Who experiences the problem at work?
- When does this problem occur most often?
- Where in the workplace does this happen?
- Why is this problem significant?
- How do people currently handle the challenge?
- Design Thinking Resources: A collection of guided activities and additional resources for using design thinking to develop solutions.
Create an implementation plan
Identify the steps, skills, and resources needed to implement your AI solution in a local workplace.
Now that you have identified a problem and developed a solution concept, it’s time to create a realistic plan for how your solution could be implemented with a local employer.
Think about the following as you develop a plan:
- Identify the key activities needed to implement the plan.
- Create a timeframe for the implementation of your solution and identify major milestones.
- Determine the budget and/or resources needed to implement your solution.
Consider the impact
Help students envision how they would evaluate solution effectiveness and address any ethical concerns or safety considerations.
A successful AI solution considers not just technical feasibility, but practical usability and impacts in real-world settings.
Consider the following as you plan your approach to evaluation:
- What specific metrics would you track to demonstrate the effectiveness of your proposed solution?
- How would you gather feedback from employees using AI tools?
- What unexpected impacts might occur?
- How will potential costs compare to anticipated benefits?
You can also consider the following AI risks:
- Job impact: Could your solution eliminate jobs? How might this be addressed?
- Over-reliance: What backup plans exist if the AI stops working?
- Data security: How will sensitive information be protected?
- System failures: What happens when technology doesn’t work as expected?
- Skills gap: Will workers need retraining to use your solution effectively?
Learn more about evaluating impact and addressing ethical and safety concerns
- Responsible AI: Microsoft-developed principles for designing responsible AI solutions.
- Teaching Students AI Ethics: A guide from The Learning Accelerator to help students develop an ethical understanding of how AI works and critically examine their use of the technology’s outputs.