Inspired by the former Cybersecurity CTF training site - Cyberstart - I wanted to create programming challenges that followed a theme. Cyberstart had an alien-themed storyline to their challenges, and I started with something similar before quickly switching to the heart of Oregon - Sasquatch. The challenges here emphasize chatGPT's ability to:

• Generate programming challenges and generate instructions for existing challenges

• Generate thematic stories to those challenges

• Generate images to represent the challenges

SaxonCTF

You could use this in your classroom to Gamify your course content.

Inspired by a programming challenge assigned by SkillsUSA in 2024 and the food kiosk in Costco's food court, I took on the challenge to act as the web developer for a fictitious food truck, developing an app to act as an ordering kiosk. I used AI to act as the content developer to provide me with the content (texts, images, recipes, etc) while I covered writing the code. The programs were unfinished, but demonstrated basic functionality for a food kiosk.

The Fizz & Frost - Advanced

The Fizz & Frost - Simple

The story of the AI Food Truck App Process

Students introduced me to the game Connections (developed by the New York Times), which I instantly was intrigued by. The general idea of the game is really simple. Generate a huge list of 4-item connection sets, divided into 4 different "difficulty" levels. Each game, you randomly select 1 set of connections from each dificulty level, shuffle the items, and display them in a 4x4 grid. The user is supposed to scan through the set and identify the connected items.

I probably could have had AI write the whole program for me, but I just wanted it to do what I considered the harder, more time consuming part - Generating the huge list of connection sets. Some sets were better than others, and there were entire sets I didn't want at all, but in the end, I had a large enough list that I was happy with.

myConnections Game

I explored AI's ability to solve programming challenges with mixed results. It was really good at writing the typical classroom programming challenges (HiLo/Guess My Number game, for example), and if given a relatively easy programming challenge from a site like CodeWars, it solved them without too much trouble (though, sometimes it took a couple iterations of prompts to get the right code), but sometimes no matter what was said, the AI couldn't solve the problem - these were usually more complex problems that contained statements that the AI would focus on and struggle to see the bigger picture.

I decided to see how well AI could do a relatively simple web game app - so I had it develop the HTML, CSS, and JS for a game from my childhood - Simon - a pattern matching game - the computer generates a sequence of button presses, simulates the first n items in the sequence, then has you match it. Once you've successfully repeated it, you go another round with 1 extra button press. This repeats, using the same pattern sequence, until you mess up.

When I asked ChatGPT to write the entire HTML, CSS, and JS, it did an okay job, but the game didn't actually function correctly, and it didn't quite look right. I had to help it with the final touches (mostly revolving around CSS improvements and JS fixing), but if I was to guess how much of the project was completed by ChatGPT and how much of it was completed by me, I'd probably say 80% AI, 20% me.

Retro Recall

I think this would have been a better program if I'd have asked ChatGPT to help me create a plan for this program, then with that plan ask it to do 1 thing at a time (write the HTML for the project, write the CSS for the content, [after testing] improve the look of the site by...)

During Parent/Teacher conferences I had a colleague mention that they asked chatGPT to tell them something they didn't even know about themselves.

This led me down a rabbit hole of quesitons to see how ChatGPT views me.

What does ChatGPT think about me?

It explores ChatGPT's view of my personality and how it fits into mainstream media concepts like the ninja turtles, harry potter, lord of the rings, etc.

A few years ago I decided to take a political test to see whether the party I was in was actually the correct party based on my ideologies. I also wanted to test whether it was actually accurate or biased. That test helped me realize I'm more central on the political spectrum than I realized. I don't really fit well on the left or the right. Too conservative to be liberal, too liberal to be conservative. Now, with ChatGPT, I wanted to test if it would do the same. I was pleased that it didn't just pick a party based on my profession or the religion it thinks I am. It asked me questions regarding my perspectives on many issues and because I was so central on the political spectrum, it continued to hesitate to put me into any party. I was, however disappointed it wasn't more willing to suggest any party, even 3rd parties. I'm curious as to how this experiment would go with others who are more decisive on political issues than I am.

With only a few exceptions, all images on this site are AI Generated. The few that were not AI generated were screenshots of Apps I developed (with the help of AI).

There are limitations. There are setbacks. But you can make some pretty awesome images with AI. I've had AI make:

• Photorealistic Images to represent a recipe

• Depictions of Sasquatch

• Decorated objects (like a Sasquatch Coin)

• Adventure Maps styled like a Lord of the Rings map

• Political Cartoons

• Pixar-style images for themed programming problems

• Game art

• Maker Ideas

Just know that image-generation is far from perfect... You'll see very quickly - But, it is getting better.

I've only just begun exploring AI in Recipe Development, but it's been good so far.

I got started with this idea when I explored the idea of creating a fake foodtruck for a class assignment (see Website Content Generations above). I was impressed by AI'd ability to:

• Generate menus

• Generate descriptions for items on that menu

• Generate Images for those items

• Generate recipes for those items

• Generate nutrition info for those items.

• Generate adaptations for those items.

• Generate recipes based on available ingredients.

• Take suggestions to match dietary restrictions or regional preferences.

Now, I need to make this clear - this is AI generated. 

• It's essentially just seeing what others have done with that recipe

• If it's a common food (Mashed Potatoes), the recipe is likely AI's acknowledgement of the 1000's of other recipes that are essentially identical, so it uses the same ingredients and steps.

• All recipes should be analyzed and compared to existing recipes to ensure that the recipe makes sense.

I did follow a recipe to make a Butternut-Squash Cobbler (essentially a pumpkin cobbler), and it turned out delicious!

I won't however, try the Chicken & Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.

Classroom idea: Imagine a culinary class where students are given an image of an AI generated food and they have to try to develop a recipe that matches the food and the plating/display.

AI Recipe Book In Progress (Temporary Availability)

Avoid wasting food or the frustrating question of "What should we eat?". Let an AI agent tell you what to make for the next 2 weeks.

• Tell the agent what you just bought (and/or what you already have)

• Emphasize that you want to focus on making the most of the food you have.

• Emphasize likely due dates of "perishables"

• Determine limitations (should all ingredients only be what you have, or can you buy additional items, such as seasonings or that 1 ingredient that would go well in tacos but wasn't something you bought)

• List meals you regularly eat or genres you like

• List things you don't like

• Give it a timeframe and how many meals you're planning for (do you need every lunch planned for?)

Our school is in the process of adding IB MYP (Middle Years Programs - IB for 9th & 10th graders) and I'm having to provide Unit Plans that match the IB Rubric.

AI knows what IB MYP is. It knows what the rubrics entail. If you give it a summary of your unit, it will fill out the entire IB Unit Plan for you.

If you want to create an assignment that uses an IB rubric, it'll generate it for you.

If you want to get ideas for AVID strategies to be used in your classroom, it'll come up with ideas.

If you want to use specific educational strategies in your classroom, ask AI to help you figure out how to add it to your class.

If you want your lesson to incorporate a specific pattern, AI will help you with that.

If you want AI to generate a worksheet, vocab, quiz, assignment idea, [add more items here...] it will.

• Worksheets for a specific topic

• Guided Notes for a Youtube Video

• Suggested slides for a slideshow

• Proficiency/Standards Alignment

• Generate an 18-week outline of a course

(Image Prompt: Draw a picture of a teacher sitting back and relaxing while AI generates his lesson plans. - notice anything weird?)

We're heading in the direction of having real-time conversation translation at our fingertips (It's already here to some degree, but most devices still are turn-based). In the meantime, learning languages is still an incredibly valuable skill. But learning a language takes time and can be difficult to do alone. Why not hold conversations with AI and leverage its ability to know languages and communicate with you, even testing you on words and phrases and correcting you when you mess up.

This idea applies to more than just languages. AI could be used to help you learn programming, cooking, history, etc.

Have a rubric and lots of grading to do?

Get help with grading. Feed AI your rubric and a student's work, see what happens.

Double check to see how well it's working. It might not always be up to par.

You can ask it to generate a python program to grade student coding problems.

You can ask it to give feedback on grammar and spelling.

You can ask it to give suggestions for improvement.

You can ask it to find patterns based on all the grading that was done so you can address something that students struggled with.

Our school's retired front desk person was a good friend of mine. Prior to her retirement she informed me that she really didn't like my casual use of the word "Hey" as an opening line in emails - "Hey everyone!" She found it to be unprofessional. I assumed she meant specifically when I sent out all-staff emails. I was surprised when she called me out on it again in a personal email I sent to her, starting with "Hey Rhonda." Knowing I needed to avoid any such infraction in the future, I allowed ChatGPT to write the next email I needed to send to her. I fed it a simple request of writing a medieval letter for me asking for specific set of hall passes (there was more to my prompt than that). She was humorously pleased to see my next email and replied with "I got the hint"

"Hark, Rhonda Miller of Macleay, Guardian of the Front Desk in the noble halls of South Salem Saxony,

I doth extend my salutations to thee in this epistle, wishing thee prosperity and contentment. In this hour of need, I beseech thy aid. Wouldst thou, in thy kindness, dispatch a parcel containing the set slips unto me?

Mayhaps, a loyal office serf, swift of step and devoted in duty, could convey this humble entreaty unto thee and bring forth the aforesaid set slips to my dwelling. Alternatively, an arrangement to place the parcel within the sanctum of my mailbox would be most appreciated.

I have faith in thy benevolence and efficiency, O Rhonda Miller, and offer my thanks for thy forthcoming assistance. If thou couldst bestow thy kindness upon this matter, thou wouldst alleviate my burdens.

With utmost respect and gratitude,"

When you need your writings to be proofed, when you need them to have a certain tone, let AI do it for you.

Want to take a college-level research paper and make it readable for middle school students? AI can simplify it or even change the writing style to make it age-appropriate.

Want to write modern material to the style of Shakespeare? Check Out Shakespeare's Green Eggs and Ham.

You could consider using this to differentiate student reading assignments.

You could use this to generate poetry & song lyrics.

You could generate Bell Ringer readings in the style of a 13 yr old girl, a scientist, a poet, a religious figure, etc.

Google's AI Studios allows users to upload content and "build, train, and deploy their own AI Models".

I haven't dived muched into this yet, but I discovered that it has the ability to analyze an image. One example Google gives is the ability for it to take an image of food and generate a picture and potential recipe.

What I chose to use it for was to feed it an image of a recipe and ask it if it is able to find the different recipe portions in the image (title, description, ingredients, instructions) and it was able to do so with 100% accuracy - now there's tools that allow text to be read from images already (OCR), but I've never explored tools that divide the pulled text into different parts automatically.

The only thing I couldn't get it to do was isolate images within the image (like the final dish) and crop it.

If trained properly, you could teach Google's AI Studio exactly what items you want found in recipes (cook times, prep times, etc), exactly how you want the content stored (HTML, JSON, XML), exactly how you want the content displayed/styled, and use it to make your own personalized recipe book from a collection of recipe images. Now every image will get its data extracted in the exact same way to make the generation of a recipe book way easier than it would have been otherwise.

You could then take this and explain dietary restrictions and get Google to adjust recipes accordingly.

• Lactose intolerance.

• Sodium restrictions

• Sugar substitutes

AI models can do this, but good ones will provide a disclaimer like the following: "I am an AI and cannot provide medical or nutritional advice. This is just a modification to the original recipe; If you have health conditions or specific dietary needs, it's important to consult with a registered dietitian or a health professional for personalized guidance on your sodium intake and suitable recipe modifications. "

How should students use AI?

How should teachers use AI?

What can we allow AI to do while not crossing an ethical line?

I think it all comes down to this: What are we allowing it to do and how much of that were we expected to do?

My Rule: Anything that a student is being graded on (think standards/learning targets), they should do. Anything they are not being graded on, AI could be allowed to assist (notice, I didn't say AI should be allowed to do).

If a student is being graded on their writing (grammar, ideas, arguments), AI probably should not help with this, although, if given the right prompt, and if allowed, students can probably use it to help with spelling and finding errors in past/present/future contexts.

If a student is being graded on designing a website, and the focus is on HTML & CSS (code), what does it matter where the content came from? Let AI generate the text & images.

Teachers should address this issue - what is and isn't appropriate in their class. Students should be aware of how they can use it, how they can't use it, and be taught by us that there are appropriate and inappropriate uses - If we don't tell them, they may come to the wrong conclusions.

I believe AI should act as an assistant/secretary - they shouldn't be responsible for coming up with the ideas or completing tasks, they should be responsible for being the sounding board for our ideas to help us improve them, organize them, flesh them out.