Curiosity is key for impactful learning. The AI “Genius Cafe” allows students to safely explore burning questions—together. This student-driven activity develops critical thinking, problem-solving, and AI literacy skills by getting students to work individually and together to analyze, discuss, and reflect on AI responses. Here’s how it’s structured:
💡 The AI Genius Cafe Experience:
- Student Questions: Students ask questions they’re curious about.
- AI Answers: AI, such as ChatGPT, provides instant answers.
- Class Discussion: The class, guided by the teacher, discusses and evaluates these answers.
- Follow-Up: Students can ask follow-up questions for deeper understanding.
- Wrap-Up Discussion: Key insights and takeaways are summarized.
Why “Genius Cafe”?
Cafés have always been known as centers for the exchange of ideas. In fact, they were referred to as “penny universities” in Oxford because, for the cost of a cup of coffee, individuals could participate in intellectual discussions and debates.
Through the AI Genius Cafe, we are answering the call of the times by incorporating skills for the digital age. Not only are students leading through inquiry, they are also gaining AI literacy skills and critical thinking skills that will help them in the age of misinformation and disinformation.
The AI Genius Cafe activity can be adapted to fit any subject area and grade level. Follow this guide to launch meaningful live conversations that bring clarity and understanding.
The Genius Cafe facilitates:
- Student-driven inquiry in a judgement-free zone
- Collective critical thinking to evaluate AI responses
- Shared accountability to stay focused and appropriate
Key benefits include:
- Sparking wonder through open-ended exploration
- Developing collaborative analysis abilities
- Building student agency and ownership
⚡ How to Run an Engaging Genius Cafe
Set Expectations
- Explain that ChatGPT will answer questions, but responses need verification.
- Have students submit questions ahead of time for review.
- Remind students to stay on-topic and appropriate.
Prep the Session
- Prior to starting the Genius Cafe, give the students a “menu” of sentence stems for class discussions (flashed on screen, written on the board, or given as handouts)
- This is to aid in students for their conversations later on.
- Quickly go through sentence stems/starters (e.g. “To be clear, you’re saying that…”, “Z’s point about X was important because…”) like the ones from this article.
- Use these sentence stems to frame their thinking for discussions.
- Student submits an initial question. Teacher reviews and loads it.
- Let’s pretend that you’re a high school science teacher and you’d like to talk about climate change. Let’s say that your student beings by asking something simple: “What are the main causes of climate change?”
- Teacher sits with the student leading the session.
Pose the Initial Question
- Student reads their question aloud and hits “Send Message” arrow icon.
- ChatGPT provides an initial response.
Here’s a sample student prompt: “What are the main causes of climate change?”
Discuss the Initial Response
- Students analyze the response together as a class.
- Sometimes, the response might be overwhelming for a student. When this happens, allow the student to ask ChatGPT follow up questions for clarification or simplification.
- Let them speak as they would with a peer. The goal isn’t to teach them prompt engineering or perfect grammar. The point is to let them ask questions.If the response is too long, complicated, or overwhelming, let the student ask for what they need to understand it. For example:
- Sometimes, the response might be overwhelming for a student. When this happens, allow the student to ask ChatGPT follow up questions for clarification or simplification.
Sample Student Follow-up Prompt: “Can you give me examples of each along with links if possible?”
- Teacher facilitates a healthy discussion and/or debate.
- What’s most important is that this step is repeated after every question. Give students time to think about this and discuss. Let them take the lead. To aid in their discussion, have sentence stems written on the board like the ones from this article.
Ask Follow-Up Questions
- The student poses 1-2 follow-up questions to dig deeper. Sample Student Follow-up Prompt 1: “Which of these are most relevant in [community]? How does it affect the community?”
Sample Student Follow-up Prompt 2: “Is there anything that I can do as a teen for any of these things? Help me think things through. I don’t know where to start because climate change is such a big thing affecting everyone!”
- While ChatGPT provides responses, teachers could have students use other chatbots, as well.
- Note: ChatGPT 4 now has real-time internet access thanks to its Beta feature using Bing. However, ChatGPT 3.5, which is the free version does not.
- Instead of relying solely on ChatGPT for Genius Hour, you could also switch chatbots and try other bots like Bard, Bing, or Perplexity.ai, especially if students would like to find links to current, real-life news that could help them make sense of the practical, real-world applications of the lesson at hand.Here’s an example:
- Sample Student Prompt 3 on Bard: “Please give me a list of ways the youth are taking action on climate change around the world. Specifically link me to youth groups in Houston as well”
- Don’t stop there. Have students verify these responses by fact-checking through research and lateral reading.
- Always remind them to ask: What do other sources have to say?
Wrap-Up Discussion
- Students share takeaways and remaining questions.
- Teacher summarizes key insights.
- End the session with an Exit Ticket. Here are some examples:
- I used to think, now I think: Have students synthesize their learnings through this one-liner exit ticket
- Visual representation: Ask students to express their understanding of today’s session through visuals. This could be a drawing, diagram, mind map, or anything else that helps them to express their understanding in a creative way.
🎉 Make Genius Cafes Routine
With thoughtful oversight, Genius Cafes unlock the power of AI for collaborative learning. The student-driven format promotes agency and critical thinking. Make live chats a fun routine that illuminates!