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Unlocking AI Ethics

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Lesson Plan

Ethics Exploration Guide

Guide 7th graders through real-life AI dilemmas to help them identify ethical risks and make responsible choices, culminating in a personal reflection that builds digital responsibility.

Early engagement with AI ethics empowers students to navigate technology responsibly, fostering critical thinking and awareness of digital impacts on society.

Audience

7th Grade Students

Time

20 minutes

Approach

Interactive scenarios and reflective journaling.

Materials

AI Dilemma Visuals, Ethical Choice Scenarios, and Personal Reflection Prompts

Prep

Prepare Materials

5 minutes

Step 1

Introduction to AI Ethics

3 minutes

  • Welcome students and explain that AI tools are powerful but can raise ethical questions.
  • Show the first slide of AI Dilemma Visuals illustrating a simple AI scenario.
  • Pose: “What might go wrong if we rely on AI without thinking about values?”

Step 2

Explore Real-Life Dilemmas

5 minutes

  • Advance through 2–3 additional slides in AI Dilemma Visuals depicting common ethical challenges (e.g., bias, privacy).
  • After each slide, ask students to identify the main concern and share briefly (1–2 sentences).

Step 3

Worksheet Activity

7 minutes

  • Distribute Ethical Choice Scenarios.
  • Students read two scenarios individually and choose the most ethical action, writing a brief rationale for each.
  • Circulate to support thinking and prompt deeper reasoning (e.g., “What values are at stake?”).

Step 4

Personal Reflection Journaling

3 minutes

  • Hand out Personal Reflection Prompts.
  • Students respond to one prompt: either how they’d use AI responsibly or a time they faced an ethical choice.
  • Encourage honesty and personal connection to the topic.

Step 5

Wrap-Up and Share

2 minutes

  • Invite 2–3 volunteers to read one highlight from their reflection.
  • Summarize key takeaways: thinking critically about AI and respecting privacy, fairness, and accuracy.
  • Encourage students to apply these ethics in future tech use.
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Slide Deck

AI Dilemma Visuals

Explore these AI scenarios to identify ethical challenges and spark discussion.

Welcome students to this module. Explain that each slide shows a real-world AI dilemma. Encourage them to think critically and share their ideas.

Scenario 1: Biased Recommendations

An AI app suggests books to classmates. One student always sees books about science, while another only sees fairy tales.

Guiding Question: What might be unfair about these suggestions?

Point out how recommendation systems can favor certain groups. Ask: “Who benefits? Who might be left out?”

Scenario 2: Privacy Pitfall

A classroom assistant bot records student voices to improve pronunciation feedback—but parents weren’t told recordings would be stored.

Guiding Question: How could this affect trust and privacy?

Highlight data collection without consent. Prompt: “What information is being gathered, and by whom?”

Scenario 3: Deepfake Deception

An AI tool creates a video of a school principal saying something they never did. It goes viral online.

Guiding Question: What problems arise if people can’t tell real from fake?

Explain how deepfakes can spread misinformation. Ask: “How can we verify what we see?”

Key Ethics Terms

• Bias: When an AI system favors one group over another.
• Privacy: Protecting personal data from unwanted access.
• Transparency: Knowing how and why AI makes decisions.
• Accountability: Taking responsibility for AI’s impact.

Review each term with examples from scenarios. Encourage students to write their own definitions.

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Worksheet

Ethical Choice Scenarios

Scenario 1: An AI tool offers to summarize today’s science reading assignment for you. You know your teacher wants you to understand and write summaries in your own words.

A. Use the AI summary as your answer and submit it.
B. Use the AI summary as a guide, then write your own summary in your own words and mention you used an AI tool.
C. Write the summary entirely on your own without using the AI tool.

Which action is the most ethical? Circle A, B, or C.

Rationale: Explain why you chose that option.





Scenario 2: A classmate asks you for a copy of your AI-generated translation of a foreign language passage they did not translate themselves. They plan to submit it as their own work.

A. Give them the AI translation file so they can copy it.
B. Offer to help them understand and translate it themselves without sharing the file.
C. Refuse and tell them they should do their own work.

Which action is the most ethical? Circle A, B, or C.

Rationale: Explain why you chose that option.





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Journal

Personal Reflection Prompts

Choose one prompt and write your reflection below.

  1. Think of a task or assignment where you might use an AI tool to help. Describe how you would use it responsibly. What strategies would you apply to ensure fairness, accuracy, and honesty in your work?






  1. Recall a time you faced an ethical decision (e.g., honesty, privacy, fairness) in your life. How might the involvement of an AI tool change that situation? Would you make different choices? Explain why.






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