Summary Statement

Summary Statement

This capstone will be facilitated by Dr. Starlynn Nance, Dr. Amanda Brewer, and Director Andi Dieckman.  The students involved in the Secondary Pre-Service Teachers and AI: Enhancing the  50- Hour Experience course are secondary education juniors placed in public schools to observe and teach lessons in their content area.  This course will take the students on four quests (assignments) that begin with the basics of AI, teaching about Chatbots and Generative AI, Learner-centered Approaches, and creating a Culturally Relevant and Responsive AI learning environment.  This course is needed to allow the pre-service teachers to learn the basics of AI, but also practice it with "real" students in a secondary setting.  Practicing at this stage in their education can build confidence with AI lessons while implementing them in public schools, during student teaching, and their first year as a new teacher.  This course supports the students in meeting the MEES standards (required for certification by the state) and the ISTE standards by allowing the students hands on, student-center assignments, rather than attending a lecture over AI.  The pre-service teachers have a supportive faculty to help them through the assignments building skills and knowledge for their future career.