Master the fundamentals. Solve ambitious challenges.
THE CHALLENGE
Learning and assessment in the age of AI
AI can solve and explain a chemistry problem. So can I. In both cases, the student still has to do the work of learning.
Following an explanation and solving a problem yourself are fundamentally different tasks. A student can understand someone else’s solution and still be unable to work through the same type of problem independently. That guides both my course design and my mentoring: students move from clear explanations to independent practice and development of mastery.
AI makes it easier to bypass essential practice and still submit convincing work. The student loses an opportunity to learn, and the instructor loses reliable evidence of what the student understands. A good grade can conceal a gap that still needs attention.
I want students to develop knowledge they can use independently and learn to use AI to accomplish more.
INDEPENDENT MASTERY
Build knowledge students can use independently.
I direct Skills Track Chemistry at the Air Force Academy Preparatory School for cadet candidates who need stronger scientific foundations. Learning depends on each student attempting problems, using feedback, and revisiting ideas until they can apply them independently.
Students contribute while I model the reasoning, then work while I coach. I gradually remove support so they take responsibility for each step. Short quizzes and exit tickets reveal gaps and prompt extra instruction; later Flight Checks revisit foundational skills.
Students may use AI for help and additional practice. They demonstrate their own knowledge on supervised quizzes, exams, and lab practicals, which account for about 80% of the grade. The remaining 20% is homework.
SKILLS TRACK CHEMISTRY · COURSE DESIGN
Come back to it.
Getting a skill right during the lesson is a beginning. Students need to be able to use it weeks later, when another problem depends on it.
I build spaced repetition into the course through practice over days and returns weeks later. Exit tickets and worksheets follow new material; starter quizzes draw on recent lessons. Flight Checks bring back foundational skills after longer gaps, and exams ask students to use their learning again.
Spaced repetition
Short returns over days. Longer returns over weeks.
1Day of the lesson
Learn & check
Guided practice
Work through problems with explanation and coaching.
Exit ticket
Try independently. Find gaps while there is time for extra instruction.
2Next few classes
Practice & retrieve
Worksheet
Practice after the lesson; receive written feedback.
Starter quizzes
Recall and apply material from recent lessons.
3Weeks later
Revisit & apply
Flight Checks
Return to foundational skills at intervals across the quarter.
Exams
Use the learning on graded reviews and the cumulative final.
PRACTICALS I DESIGNED · SKILLS TRACK
Put the science to work.
These practicals are from the fourth-quarter Skills Track course I taught in 2024. Each asks students to connect their reasoning with measurements they make in the lab.
The launcher’s angle is fixed. Students choose measurements, calculate its launch velocity, and work out where to place a target when the launcher moves to a desk.
They explain their method before collecting data. Then they get two test shots, with a chance to check calculations and adjust after the first.
Skills Track · Quarter 4
Predict it. Then take the shot.
1Choose measurements
2Calculate velocity
3Predict the landing
4Test & adjust
The assessment connects the plan, measurements, calculations, and test shot.
MY OWN COURSE PREPARATION
Keep the learning objectives in charge.
When I revised the chemistry course sequence, I used AI to compare the actual content of slides, worksheets, and keys with the new objectives. Matching filenames would have put some materials in the wrong lessons.
I also use AI to develop targeted chemistry practice and audit calculations and answer keys, then review the outputs for scientific accuracy.
Routine checks include proofreading directions, dates, and point totals, and checking alignment among the syllabus, learning objectives, lesson plans, and assignments. AI also carries approved changes into the online course.
I directed the review to preserve deliberate callbacks to earlier topics and flag prerequisites students had not yet learned. AI helped organize and check the materials; I made the instructional decisions.
Existing materials + new learning objectives
Compare content and map the sequence
CONTENT-BASED COURSE MAP
Existing course materials mapped to the revised lesson sequence
AY26 source
Topic
AY27 lesson
Lesson 3
Periodic trends
Lesson 2
Lesson 4
Ions & bonding
Lesson 3
Lesson 5
Naming & formulas
Lesson 4
Proofread
Typos, point totals, dates, and directions; alignment among the syllabus, learning objectives, lesson plans, and assignments.
Update online
Automatically apply approved changes to course materials and assignments.
Instructional judgment
Keep deliberate review. Flag missing prerequisites.
GREATER AMBITION
Use AI to tackle more ambitious work.
AI makes unfamiliar fields and ambitious projects more accessible. That should change what we ask students to learn and accomplish. Learning objectives can reach further when students can learn new tools and build with AI.
Building software with AI has taught me to define a worthwhile goal, direct and revise the work, and test the result. These are habits I want cadets to develop. They must own the core task and assess whether the result is useful, correct, and complete. That responsibility matters in officer development: delegating execution leaves the officer responsible for the purpose and outcome.
A proposed course
A course in learning and working with AI would put these principles into practice. Students would develop and check their understanding of something they are studying, then pursue a project they do not yet know how to complete.
Assessment would consider both the work and the reasoning behind it. Students would explain their decisions and check technical claims against first principles, data, experiment, or an independent calculation.