Resources for teachers

Fast tools, slow thinking.

Biochemistrypedia is a set of free biology courses: short readings, films of the experiments, simulations you can change, and questions with checked answers. You can use any of it with your students. This page collects what I would hand a middle or high school life science teacher who is wondering what to do with AI on Monday.

Prompts you can use

Copy a prompt, fill in the [square brackets], and paste it into whichever AI tool your district allows. Each one is built to protect slow thinking: students commit to a reason before they see an answer, the AI is told to judge the reasoning rather than the correctness, and it is told never to invent a source. Everything it writes is a draft for you to check.

Privacy first. Strip names and IDs before pasting anything a student wrote, and use only tools your district has approved.

1. Predict-then-reveal pre-work on a Virginia SOL topic

Protects: Students commit to a guess and a reason before they see anything.

Show the prompt

You are helping me write pre-work for my [grade] biology class on this topic: [paste the Virginia SOL biology standard text or your own topic description].

Write 5 predict-then-reveal items. For each item give me:
1. A short scenario or data description a student can read in under a minute (no outside knowledge needed beyond what we have covered: [list what you have taught]).
2. A prediction question with 3 or 4 choices. Make the wrong choices tempting for a real, named misconception, and tell me which misconception each one targets.
3. A prompt that asks the student to write one or two sentences on why they chose it, BEFORE they see anything else.
4. A "reveal" paragraph with the real answer and a short explanation.
5. A one-line note for me on what a good reason looks like and what a weak reason looks like.

Do not write any question whose answer is stated in its own stem.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

2. Turn anonymous answers into a "where you split" summary

Protects: The room sees its own words, and learns in the first minute that the pre-work was read.

Student writing goes in here. Remove every name and ID first.

Show the prompt

Below are anonymous answers from my class to this question: [paste the question]. Each answer includes the student's reason. All names and IDs have been removed.

[paste anonymous answers, one per line]

Please:
1. Group the answers by the idea behind them, not by whether they are right. Give each group a plain label.
2. For each group, tell me how many answers are in it and quote one short phrase from the students' own words (copy exactly; do not rewrite).
3. Point out the single most useful split in the room: the place where two reasonable groups disagree.
4. Suggest one question I could ask out loud that makes the two groups argue with each other without telling them who is right.
5. Tell me anything in the answers you could not interpret, rather than guessing.

Only use what is in the answers above. If there are fewer than 8 answers, say that the picture is thin.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

3. A short focus note for one student, from their own answers

Protects: Each student gets a custom start, and it is built from their thinking, not from a template.

Student writing goes in here. Remove every name and ID first.

Show the prompt

Here is one student's pre-work: the questions, what the student predicted, the reason they wrote, and their confidence before and after. The name and ID have been removed.

[paste one student's anonymous answers]

Write a focus note to the student of 120 to 200 words, in a warm, direct voice, with three parts:
- Where you are: one or two sentences on what the student seems to understand, based only on their answers.
- One or two things you said: quote or closely paraphrase a specific point from their own reasoning that was good or interesting.
- Two or three things to focus on in class: phrased as questions to think about, not as corrections.

Do not say a student did or did not do the work unless it is clearly shown in the text above. If the text is too thin to write a note, say so and write nothing else. I will add the student's name, compare the note with their raw answers, and send it myself.

4. Draft a misconception check

Protects: It finds the wrong idea the student is actually holding, instead of rewarding a lucky guess.

Show the prompt

My [grade] class is learning: [topic]. List the 5 most common student misconceptions about this topic that are documented in biology education. For each one:
1. State the misconception in the words a student would use.
2. Write one short question where a student holding that misconception would pick a specific wrong answer, and a student without it would not.
3. Write a one-sentence follow-up that asks the student to explain their thinking, without telling them they are wrong.

If you are not confident a misconception is a well-documented one, mark it "less certain". Do not name studies or authors unless you are sure they exist.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

5. Send a wrong answer back to a specific lesson section

Protects: A miss becomes a pointer to where to look, not a verdict.

Show the prompt

Here is a question I use and the lesson or reading it belongs to.

Question and choices: [paste]
Lesson or reading text (or its list of section headings): [paste]

For each WRONG choice:
1. Describe the thinking that would lead a student to pick it.
2. Name the one section of the lesson (by its heading) that a student should reread, and say in one sentence what to look for there. Do not give the answer.
3. Write a one-line question the student can ask themselves after rereading.

Use only the section headings and text I pasted. If no section addresses a wrong choice, say so; do not make one up.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

6. Fact-check a generated passage, claim by claim

Protects: Humans verify what AI drafts. This prompt makes the check visible instead of trusting a smooth paragraph.

Show the prompt

Below is a passage that was written by an AI tool for my students. Treat it as untrusted.

[paste passage]

1. Split the passage into separate factual claims, numbered.
2. For each claim, label it: "well established", "imprecise or oversimplified", "probably wrong", or "I cannot tell".
3. For anything not "well established", say what is wrong or missing and propose a corrected sentence.
4. Do not give a source, a date, a name, or a number unless you are certain of it. When you are not, write "needs a source" and tell me what to search for.
5. At the end, list the 3 claims I should check against my textbook first.

Be suspicious. Assume there are at least three problems in the passage, and say honestly if you find fewer.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

7. A rubric that grades reasoning, not correctness

Protects: A wrong answer argued well earns full credit for thinking.

Show the prompt

Write a 4-level rubric for grading student reasoning on this task: [paste the prediction question].

The rubric must score the reasoning only. It must give the same credit to a wrong prediction with a careful reason as to a right prediction with a careful reason. Describe each level in one sentence a student could understand, using observable features such as: names a mechanism, uses evidence given in the problem, states what would change their mind, or notices a competing explanation.

Then give me two short example student reasons for each level: one attached to a correct answer and one attached to a wrong answer. Mark the examples as invented illustrations.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

8. Turn a "where I'm stuck" note into a next question

Protects: The student has to say where they are stuck in writing before anything is revealed. The AI answers with a question, not an answer.

Student writing goes in here. Remove every name and ID first.

Show the prompt

A student wrote this note about where they are stuck. Name and ID removed.

Topic: [topic]
Stuck note: [paste]

Do not explain the topic. Instead:
1. Say in one sentence what you think the student is actually confused about, and how sure you are.
2. Write two questions I could ask them that would help them find the way out themselves.
3. Suggest one thing in our materials for them to reread ([list your readings]), described by heading, not by page number.

If the note is too vague to work with (fewer than about 25 words, or no specific confusion), tell me what to ask the student to add.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

9. A "state the rule and what would prove it wrong" item

Protects: Students must say what evidence would change their mind, which is the opposite of recalling a fact.

Show the prompt

For this topic in my [grade] biology class: [topic], write 3 "keystone" prompts. Each one asks the student to do two things in writing:
1. State, in their own words, the general rule or idea behind what we just studied.
2. Describe a finding or experimental result that would prove their rule wrong.

For each, give me a short note on what a strong answer contains and one common weak answer. Do not write model answers longer than two sentences. Base everything on standard introductory biology; flag anything that is a simplification.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

10. Check an AI summary against the raw answers

Protects: It catches the AI telling you a student did nothing when they did.

Student writing goes in here. Remove every name and ID first.

Show the prompt

I will give you (A) an AI-written summary of one student's pre-work and (B) the raw anonymous answers it was based on. Your job is to audit the summary.

(A) Summary: [paste]
(B) Raw answers: [paste]

List every statement in the summary that is NOT supported by the raw answers, every statement that contradicts them, and anything important in the raw answers that the summary left out. Pay special attention to any claim of "no activity", "did not complete", or "struggled", and check each against the raw text. Quote the raw text that supports your finding. If everything is supported, say so.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

11. Move up a level of abstraction

Protects: It is about ambition, not about speed. Use the time saved to ask a bigger question, not to do the same lesson faster.

Show the prompt

I have just finished building this: [describe a lesson, a unit, or an activity you already have].

Help me go up one level of abstraction. Suggest 5 more ambitious versions of the same goal, for example: one lesson becoming a whole unit, a standard question becoming a question that points each student back to the specific section they need, or a one-class activity that other teachers could reuse. For each, tell me:
1. What I would have to build.
2. Which part still needs a human expert to check before students see it.
3. The biggest way it could go wrong.

Be realistic about what one teacher can maintain. Do not invent tools or products; if you suggest software, describe the kind of tool rather than naming a product.

Rules for this task:
- Grade or comment on the quality of the reasoning, not on whether the final answer is correct. A wrong answer argued well is a good answer.
- Do not invent sources, citations, quotations, statistics or standards. If you are not sure something is true, say "I am not sure" instead of guessing.
- Do not do the students' thinking for them. Ask questions or point to where to look; do not hand over the answer unless I ask for an answer key.
- Keep it short and in plain language for a middle or high school class.
- Anything you produce is a draft for me to check before it reaches a student.

Things to think about

1. Be more ambitious

When you finish a goal, move up one level of abstraction. One lesson becomes a unit. A standard question becomes a question that sends each student back to the exact section they need. Tools that make drafting cheap are only worth it if the saved time goes into a bigger question, not into the same lesson done faster. Production and distribution get cheap. Checking that something is true does not, and checking is now the scarce part.

2. Make thinking visible before class

Have students predict, commit to a reason, and only then see the result, as pre-work. The idea is not new: it is Just-in-Time Teaching (Novak and colleagues, 1999) and formative assessment (Black and Wiliam, 1998). What AI changes is that you can read what a whole room thought before class starts: who did the work, where the room splits, and how each student reasons. That also catches the student who talks a lot in class and sounds as if they know what is going on, but did not do the work.

3. The real risk is lazy thinking

The danger is not that students cheat. It is that everyone, teachers included, lets the tool do the part of thinking that matters. Design so it cannot.

Grade the reasoning, not the correctness. A wrong answer argued well costs nothing; a right answer with no reason earns little.
Require a written “where I’m stuck” note (about 25 words) before a student is allowed to skip a step.
Show the room its own words. Open class with anonymous quotes from the pre-work. Students learn in the first minute that it was read.
Budget for it. In my room one predict, argue, reveal cycle takes 8 to 10 minutes, not 4.

4. AI drafts; humans check and send

I use AI to draft a short note to each student about what to focus on before class. I read it, and I send it myself. That check matters. An AI-written summary once told me there was “no activity” for a student who had in fact finished. Always compare a summary with the raw answers. Prompt 10 above is built for that check.

5. Minors’ privacy

Student work is an education record. In the United States, FERPA governs who may see it, and COPPA limits what online services may collect from children under 13. Check what your district has approved before you paste anything.
Anonymize by default. Remove names, IDs and anything that identifies a student, and put the name back yourself afterward.
Do not record or store student voices. Text you can anonymize is safer than audio.
This is practical advice, not legal advice. Your district’s technology office has the final word.

Try it yourself

The best way to understand predict-then-reveal pre-work is to do some. This short module is about the talk itself and takes about five minutes. You predict, say why, see the real answer, and see how the room compares. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Try the demo as a student

Watch the explainer

Fast tools, slow thinking: a short explainer.

The courses

All of these are free and need no account. Lessons run from molecules to ecosystems, and each ends with questions that come with an answer and an explanation. Take what is useful.

These courses were written for college students, so read ahead before assigning.

How it is built

The pipeline, the tools, what it cost, and what a teacher can do on a small budget are in a plain-language supplement.

How it’s built

Questions or corrections: contact. These pages use only facts that come from the talk or from this site’s own repository.