Artificial Intelligence & Ethics
Artificial Intelligence Grades 9–12 4-day unit 41 deliverables Most lessons on AI ethics are a debate. Four complete days that teach students to check who an AI tool works for, decide when a person must review a machine's decision, ask what a number about AI's cost really counted, and use what AI makes without taking from the people whose work it learned from. The lessons run on paper, and the online games are optional.
● Instant download · Lifetime access · Editable & print-ready
Print + digitalPDF, PowerPoint, Word & Google
Self-grading Google FormsThe quiz and all 4 exit tickets
3 online gamesComputer or tablet, no account
Every page keyedNothing says “answers will vary”
Short browser games that practice each day's lesson with new examples. Students play on a computer or tablet, with no account and nothing to install. Use one with the lesson or instead of the paper activity.
See the gamesWhat does this unit cover?
Most lessons on AI ethics are a debate. This one gives students four questions they can ask about any AI tool, and the evidence to answer them. Day 1 asks whether it works for everyone. A tool can be right for most people and still fail a group, so students read the results group by group. Day 2 asks who decides. When a decision can change a person's life, a person should check the tool's answer, and the person it affects should be able to ask why and appeal.
Day 3 asks what it costs. Many chatbots run on servers in data centers that use electricity and water for cooling, and two honest numbers can disagree because they counted different things, so students ask who measured and what they counted. Day 4 asks whose work it used. Image and writing tools learned patterns from work people made, so students check that a use is allowed, get consent from the people in it, and credit the work they used.
Every number a student reads is made-up practice data, and the pages say so. The published research behind each day prints in the teacher guide only, each note with what it measured. The unit never tells students that using AI is wrong. Everything follows the same open-and-teach folders as the rest of the line: 00 Start Here / 01 Present / 02 Student Handouts / 03 Scenarios / 04 Activities / 05 Assessment / 06 Answer Keys.
The Mural Contest — Whose Work Is It?
The town of Maple Hill is choosing a design for a new mural in the park. Soren typed the name of Odette Novak, a painter who lives in town, into an image tool and entered the picture it made as his own design. The page prints the contest rules and Odette's post: someone showed her an entry that looks just like her paintings, and she never said anyone could use her name that way. Students say what the entry takes from her, which contest rules Soren broke, and what an honest entry would look like. Two pages, three questions and 6 points, with a key that gives what to look for, a model response and what to accept or reject.
Everything that's included
00 Start Here: Teacher
- READ FIRST teacher guide: what to print, in what order, and how to use the online games
- Teacher guide and pacing: each day's four time slots, minute by minute, plus each online game's link, play time and a question to ask afterward
- Skills Map and state standards, each code checked against its official wording, plus a ready-to-paste prompt for your own state
01 Present: Whole class
- One editable PowerPoint deck per day (52 slides, 13 a day), with speaker notes
- The slide script: every speaker note, printed in order
- Four printable bell ringers, one warm-up per day
02 Student Handouts
- Guided notes for all four days, in editable Word and print PDF
- Vocabulary glossary: all 40 terms, ten a day, defined
03 Scenarios
- The Placement List — Who Checked the Tool? — Day 2, two pages, 6 points, keyed
- The Mural Contest — Whose Work Is It? — Day 4, two pages, 6 points, keyed
04 Activities
- Check the Results — Day 1: a school's test report for a speech-to-text tool, read group by group
- Who Should Decide? — Day 2: six school jobs, each marked Tool can decide or Person must review
- What Did They Count? — Day 3: four made-up claims about one chatbot answer's water, matched to how each was counted
- Fix the Plan — Day 4: an art club's six-step sticker plan; mark each step OK or Needs a fix and rewrite the ones that take from someone
- Two pages and 7 points each, and each one is a different shape. Everything prints on the sheet students write on — nothing to cut out or laminate
05 Assessment
- Four exit tickets, one per day: 2 multiple choice and 1 written, 4 points each
- Unit quiz: 28 points, 20 multiple choice and 4 written, about 25 minutes
Digital: Google Forms™ and Google Slides™
- Five ready-to-assign Google Forms — the unit quiz and all four exit tickets — with 28 auto-graded items
- Multiple choice grades itself on submit, with feedback on every wrong answer; the written answers land in your response sheet for you to mark
- Four Google Slides decks, one per day, with the same slides as the PowerPoint files
- Every link makes a copy in your own Drive
Online games
- Test Before You Trust — Day 1, about 8 to 11 minutes: build a test group that includes everyone, and find the group a new tool fails
- The Review Desk — Day 2, about 8 to 11 minutes: check a tool's decision against a person's record, then keep it, override it or ask for more facts
- Count It Up — Day 3, about 7 to 9 minutes: switch what gets counted and watch the same answer's number change
- Day 4 has no game on purpose: rewriting the plan on paper is the practice
- They play in the browser on a computer or tablet, with no account. Use one in addition to the lesson or instead of that day's paper activity. Each game's short link prints on its day's activity sheet and answer key, and the teacher guide lists all three
06 Answer Keys
- Seven key PDFs, 23 pages: every day's bell ringer, guided notes and exit ticket, every activity, both scenarios and the quiz
- Every written prompt keyed with what to look for, a model response and what to accept or reject — and every activity item carries a sample answer and a rule for the point
See the actual pages
One slide or page from four real files in the download, exactly as they appear.
One editable deck per day
Thirteen slides a day, low text, with the icons and layouts built as real shapes rather than flat images. The speaker notes say what to point to and what to say, and every deck also comes as Google Slides.
- ✓ 52 slides across the four days
- ✓ PowerPoint, plus a Google Slides copy of every deck
- ✓ 20 pictures, five a day
Notes students fill in as you teach
Two pages per day, following the slides in order, with that day's ten terms in a word bank on the page. Editable Word and print-ready PDF, and every one has a complete key.
- ✓ Four days, Word and PDF
- ✓ 40 terms, every one also in the glossary
- ✓ Full answer key for every page
The mural entry that used a painter's name
Two long-form cases, two pages each. Every person, town and tool in them is invented. Students read the rules and the posts printed on the page, then answer three questions in one or two sentences each.
- ✓ The Placement List and The Mural Contest
- ✓ A sentence starter under the first question
- ✓ Scored out of 6, with a full key
Find the groups the average hides
A school's test report for a speech-to-text tool prints on the sheet, one row per group. The company's ad says “Only 5 words wrong out of every 100!” Students find the two groups that number hides, name the stakeholders and a harm, and write a recommendation to the principal.
- ✓ Two pages, 7 points, Day 1
- ✓ Nothing to cut out or laminate
- ✓ A sample answer and a rule for every point
Why teachers pick this unit
Four questions, not a debateStudents learn four questions they can ask about any AI tool, and how to answer them with evidence: does it work for everyone, who decides, what does it cost, and whose work did it use.
It teaches weighing, not a verdictIt never tells students that using AI is wrong. It teaches them to weigh a use, and it leaves room for more than one fair answer where the evidence allows it.
Nothing says “answers will vary”Every written question ships with what to look for, a model response, and what to accept or reject. Every activity item has a sample answer and a rule for the point.
Safe to hand out as it isNo student opens an AI tool or makes an account. Every person, school, tool, company, artist and number a student reads is invented, and the real research stays in the teacher guide.
Three online gamesTest Before You Trust, The Review Desk and Count It Up practice Days 1 to 3 with new cases, in the browser on a computer or tablet, with no account.
Print and digitalPrint-ready PDFs, every deck in PowerPoint and Google Slides™, and five self-grading Google Forms™ for the quiz and all four exit tickets.
What Teachers Say
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How do I get the files after I buy?
Instant download right after checkout. You get editable PowerPoint and Word, print-ready PDF of everything, and the copy links for the five self-grading Google Forms™ and the four Google Slides™ decks.
Is this a debate unit?
No. It gives students four questions they can ask about any AI tool — does it work for everyone, who decides, what does it cost, and whose work did it use — and the evidence to answer them. It never tells students that using AI is wrong, and it leaves room for more than one fair answer where the evidence allows it.
Do I need a technical background to teach it?
No. The READ FIRST guide says you don't need any tech background to teach it. Each slide's speaker notes say what to point to and what to say, the pacing guide gives every day minute by minute, and every page has a key.
Is it safe to hand out as-is?
Yes. No activity asks a student to open a real AI tool, sign up for anything or type a prompt into a live product, and every test report, claim, letter and listing was written for the unit. Every person, school, tool, company, artist and number a student reads is invented, and no student page names a real company, product or court case. The only web addresses printed are the Google Forms and Google Slides copy links and the online games' short links. The published research behind each day prints in the teacher guide only. One legal fact reaches students: in the United States, the Copyright Office says work made entirely by AI can't be copyrighted.
Day 1 talks about groups a tool works worse for. How do I handle that?
The READ FIRST guide covers it. Day 1 names groups a tool can work worse for, like students learning English and students who stutter. If a student in your class is in one of those groups, keep the talk about the tool, never about the student.
Where are the online games?
On this site, at /activities/ai/ethics. The unit has three: Test Before You Trust on Day 1 (about 8 to 11 minutes), The Review Desk on Day 2 (about 8 to 11 minutes) and Count It Up on Day 3 (about 7 to 9 minutes). Day 4 has none on purpose, because rewriting the plan on paper is the practice. Each game's short link prints on its day's activity sheet and at the top of its answer key, and the teacher guide lists all three with a question to ask afterward. They play in the browser on a computer or tablet, with no account, and they aren't made for phones. Use a game in addition to the lesson or instead of that day's paper activity. If a game replaces the activity, grade that day by its exit ticket.
When does the unit quiz happen?
It sits after the four lessons, not inside them. The quiz is about 25 minutes and all four periods are full lessons — the pacing check measures 41, 42, 41 and 42 minutes of work in a 45-minute period. Run it as a Day 5 in class or set it as a take-home with the self-grading Google Form. Either way you already have a grade for every student from the four exit tickets.
What if I have fewer than four days?
Teach Days 1, 2 and 4. Day 3 adds what it costs to run AI, which matters most in science and environmental classes. If you skip it, use the exit tickets for Days 1, 2 and 4 as the check, or leave out quiz questions 11 to 15 and 23 and grade the quiz out of 21 instead of 28.
What standards does it map to?
The Skills Map lists codes from the 2026 CSTA computer science standards, including its high school Artificial Intelligence specialty: HS-ALG-ML-07, HS-ALG-IM-10 and S1-AIN-HR-09 on Day 1; HS-SOC-HU-43 and S1-AIN-HR-08 on Day 2; HS-SOC-ET-41, HS-DAT-IM-27 and S1-AIN-HR-10 on Day 3, with RST.9-10.8 and RST.11-12.8; and HS-PRO-PD-14 and S1-AIN-PP-13 on Day 4. Where a day covers only part of a code, the map says so. Every code was checked against its official wording, and page 2 has a ready-to-paste prompt for your own state's standards.
Can I buy this with the other Artificial Intelligence units?
Yes. The Artificial Intelligence Unit Bundle holds this unit and five more — 25 teaching days and 254 files in one download, for less than buying them one at a time.