Computers

STEM Tuesday — Computers–Questions to Ask Yourself About AI Use in the Classroom

By on September 29, 2026   /   Computers, STEM Tuesday   /   Leave a comment

AI in Schools Has a Cost: Impacts and Responses

by Kamilla Milligan and Alexandra Millarhouse

 

Are you being asked to incorporate AI into your work or classroom? How do you feel about that?

The push for AI seems to be everywhere these days, including in many classrooms. As educators, parents, and creatives, we have concerns.

What does it mean for students? For our future?

We wanted to offer you some of the research we have gathered about AI use in the classroom. We believe that it is important to take into account all of the issues with AI when considering how you can contribute to the conversation in your own district.

While this post aimed at educators, we hope that this information serves anyone who is interested in learning more about the costs and impacts of AI on students and beyond.

AI Impacts in the Classroom

Let’s start with how AI affects students in the classroom. Research conducted by Abdulrahman (2024) identifies ten categories of potential negative impact from AI (see Table) while Ahmad et al. (2021) points out six risk areas. Some of these include:

  • Loss of human connection. Students report a reduction in connections with teachers and other students.
  • Reduced critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Research has shown a link between AI use and cognitive decline in students. When machines generate solutions, students lose opportunities for learning and development of creative solutions. For example, there is a cost to using AI at any stage of the writing process.
  • Social knowledge and skill-building risks. AI use has been found to reduce interpersonal skills and tolerance for difference. Current AI models are sycophantic, agreeing with and supporting the logic of users. Those who use AI regularly show reduced ability to respect different perspectives, and increased rigidity in the rightness of their viewpoints.
  • Accuracy and functional risks. AI has significant errors in output and frequent hallucinations, including false information and research citations. 

The Big Picture of AI Impacts

In addition to classroom use, educators should be aware of the larger drawbacks of AI. The harms caused by widespread adoption of AI technologies* to our physical, social and economic environments are well documented, including: 

The Classroom Context: Pressures on Teachers

The push to adopt AI is creating practical and ethical challenges. While many want to take a thoughtful approach to adopting a brand-new technology, they may not have been given time or support to understand the full scale of AI’s potential impacts, let alone make independent choices about if or how it might belong in a classroom. As you look into AI, it’s crucial to understand the context within which AI is being rolled out. 

It’s also important to note that while AI is being pushed in some districts, it’s being paused in others, including NYC and Los Angeles, for many of the reasons noted below. 

Time savings/personalized learning. Educators face increased responsibilities: learning shortfalls and exacerbated gaps in learning; lower attention spans among students; and funding cuts that are deeply impacting school resources (as well as publishing). 

Many schools and school boards assume that AI addresses these systemic problems, for example, by providing time savings (such as in filling out report cards) or by personalizing assignments. This is not necessarily true.

The push for AI use can increase pressures on educators as they are assumed capable of taking on more responsibilities. Instead, they have to manage, review and edit AI products as well as deal with the unintended impacts in the classroom, along with the other, ongoing parts of their jobs.

Additionally, AI creates an even thinner overall system by committing limited resources to AI programs instead of addressing real resource needs since human learning requires interactions with humans, even if technology can play a role. 

“Future-proofing” students’ skills. Some argue that students must learn to use AI to be competitive in the job market. But this assumes a future where AI is ubiquitous. It also assumes that we can “future-proof” students’ skills using current technology. 

However, as one example, writing code was touted and prioritized a decade ago as the skill every student needed to succeed. Yet, as those students enter the job market, coding is now increasingly considered redundant as it is outsourced to AI. 

A future based in AI is also far from guaranteed. Currently (and foreseeably), AI is unsustainable economically and environmentally, and is running out of training materials required to continue to grow. 

"Is AI Profitable Yet?" No. Comparisons of expenses and revenue for major AI companies.

[from https://isaiprofitable.com/]

No matter what the future holds, students will need skills in reading, writing, scientific and math literacy, and critical thinking. 

No Single Solution

We recognize that each school, each classroom, each person is different. But no matter your context or circumstances, the most important thing is to educate yourself enough to make an intentional, researched plan so that you can help guide the conversation in your own area. Recognizing the complexity of this topic, we will leave you with questions rather than answers:

How can we continue to think and talk critically about this technology, and who benefits from its use and widespread rollout?

What choices do we have as individuals in our interactions with AI? What other options are possible, even with systemic pressures encouraging its use?

How can we have higher-level conversations about the root causes that are driving the push to implement AI?

What skills are needed to create a sustainable, equitable future for all on the planet? How is the use of AI building or destroying those skills in students? 

And ultimately, how do we develop informed citizens who are equipped to navigate a changing world, and are capable of understanding their choices and the impacts of those choices on each other and the planet? 

The world is changing. We all need to be problem-solvers, to have the full functioning of our brains, bodies, and humanity actively engaged in facing the challenges we’ll encounter over the coming decades. 

*AI encompasses a wide range of technologies and applications. This overview focuses on those more commonly used in classrooms and by the public, including generative AI, chatbots, use of AI by teachers to generate content or reports, and AI companions.

 

********************************

Kamilla Milligan is a kidlit writer who explores themes of home, connection with nature, and cultural diversity in her stories. Kamilla has lived in Canada, the southern US, and Russia, and applies her PhD in education to her work in equity and human rights. Outside of reading, Kamilla enjoys gardening, fibre projects, and nature walks. Visit Kamilla online at kamillamilligan.com

Alexandra Millarhouse is a researcher, science communication professional, and writer focused on the intersection of nature, science, and self. Her nonfiction picture book, THE ANIMAL QUEENDOM, comes out in Jan 19, 2027 with Simon & Schuster. Living in Vermont, Alexandra is often tracking wildlife across a cemetery, or sitting by the water with a sketchbook. Visit Alexandra online at: foxandindigo.com

Back to Top

STEM Tuesday– Computers– Author Interview

By on August 25, 2026   /   Computers, STEM Tuesday  

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today, we’re interviewing Martha Brockenbrough author of Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence and How It Will Change Everything (Feiwel & Friends, March 2024). This 23-chapter deep dive into the history, prevalence, and future of artificial intelligence is sprinkled with black-and-white photos and sidebars.

About the book:

Unlike the wheel, combustion engines, or electricity, AI does the thing that humans do best: think. While AI hasn’t reproduced the marvelously complex human brain, it has been able to accomplish astonishing things. AI has defeated our players at games like chess, Go, and Jeopardy!. It’s learned to recognize objects and speech. It can create art and music. It’s even allowed grieving people to feel as though they were talking with their dead loved ones.

On the flip side, it’s put innocent people in jail, manipulated the emotions of social media users, and tricked people into believing untrue things.

In this nonfiction book for teens, acclaimed author and teacher Martha Brockenbrough guides readers through the development of this world-changing technology, exploring how AI has touched every corner of our world, including education, healthcare, work, politics, war, international relations, and even romance. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how artificial intelligence got here, how to make the best use of it, and how we can expect it to transform our lives.

Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence and How It Will Change Everything

Linda: This is a timely subject that affects writers, publishers, and other creatives. What inspired you to take on this project?

Martha: I started research on this book after my biography of Donald Trump, UNPRESIDENTED, came out. During his first run for the presidency, bots attempted to influence opinions and divide Americans. This got me interested in the many ways artificial intelligence will affect our lives. So I started researching everything I could. 

Linda: You covered a lot of ground in this book: the history of AI, the pros and cons, relationships with AI, the future, and more. What was your research process like, and how did you keep track of so much information?

Martha: I’m not gonna lie, Linda! It was an enormous challenge. I wanted there to be a lot of ways into the book for readers. Some people are really into tech. Some are more into the history of science. Some people like reading stories about people. I read books about the history of science. I read some books that got into the implications (I agreed with some and disagreed with others). I listened to tons of podcasts. Watched videos. 

When I am first researching a subject, I’m trying to get a sense of the big picture. I didn’t know anything about A.I., really. To understand it fully, I wanted to understand the history. Also, the practical bits of how it works. And that’s what helped me write the later chapters, where I engaged in some predicting. Those chapters were very much guided by my questions. Honestly, the whole book was. That’s how I write, most of the time. Questions and my best shot at answers.  

As I learn, I write about what I’m learning and where I learned it, and the deeper I get into things, the more I start to see the shape of the story. When you’re writing nonfiction, it is so important that you keep track of what you’re learning and where it came from, because you will need to demonstrate that for fact-checkers and to make footnotes, if you’re using them (I always use them in longer works). There are tools like Zotero that you can use to keep track of your research, but I am a big fan of spreadsheets and tabs. Also? I put the footnotes in as I write. It does slow the writing down, but the saddest writers in the world I’ve met are the ones who are “finished” with their books and suddenly realize they haven’t done their footnotes.

Linda: Do you have any fun facts that you learned about AI that you’d like to share?

Martha: I don’t know that this is fun, but it’s useful. Human beings have a propensity to form emotional bonds with bots. When I was working on my book, this was not something people were talking about. Now, it is. But I really wanted readers to understand this tendency and how vulnerable it makes us. So, put up some guardrails. Don’t personify any AI tools you use. Don’t disclose information to them that you wouldn’t tell a stranger. Understand that bots are primarily designed not to serve you, but to make a profit or influence you in some way. Now, we can get some utility out of certain kinds of AI, even generative AI. But there is always a cost to it. 

OK, now this is more fun. AI is being used for all sorts of cool purposes, including understanding what animals are saying. Maybe someday, my dream will come true, and I’ll be able to talk with animals. 

Linda: Now, that would certainly be entertaining. Martha, what do you hope readers take away from this book?

Martha: I hope they’ll have a deep understanding of why humans make tools, why AI represents a change in the type of tool we make, and that the “is it good/is it bad” question is an oversimplification. Like any tool, it can make life better. It can also cause harm—both intended and unintended. We are at a turning point in technological history, as well as a turning point in political history, where the very wealthy—many of whom are profiting from this technology—have a great deal of political power. I want readers to understand this technology and become engaged citizens so we can ensure AI serves humanity and the planet. Unless we ensure AI is optimized to serve humanity instead of simply being profitable, it represents an existential threat. We cannot prepare for things we don’t understand, and I wanted to prepare the next generation as well as I could. 

Linda: The book has a wealth of information about AI that could benefit students, and the chapter about AI in the world today was enlightening. Technology teachers might find it useful in their classrooms. How do you envision the book being used by students, teachers, and librarians?

Martha: I hope people get from it what interests them. There’s history, there’s some computer science, there’s futurism and a splash of biography—follow your interests. That’s what we should ideally be doing as readers. I hope that the information is such that readers recognize AI where they’re seeing it in the world, and that they have gained enough understanding of how it works to ensure their safety and prosperity. 

Linda: Ironically, technology is changing technology jobs. I programmed computers for fifteen years. I’ve always embraced technological advancements; however, if my job had become obsolete because of AI, I don’t think I would have welcomed it. How do you feel about AI?

Martha: Generative AI that is based on intellectual property theft is an outrage. The people who designed these tools protect their IP vigorously and absolutely knew better. That said, these same tools, trained responsibly, could save a lot of labor. Let’s say you’re a coder and AI does a first draft for you, and then you fine-tune. I can see where that would be useful. But I think we need to be measured in our glee about this. Lots of tech has saved certain kinds of labor, and we aren’t working shorter days or work weeks. In the end, the only people who benefit from the saved labor are the people at the top, who are highly paid and have company ownership and other benefits. 

With AI, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. The solution to this is to have a universal basic income and adequate housing, health care, and the rest. Otherwise, we are going to see a lot of suffering. 

Certain jobs, I don’t think, should be replaced by AI. For example, writing stories or making art. No problem is being solved when you have generative AI gush this stuff out. These are human pleasures and human challenges, and AI-produced art is grotesque. The purpose of art is to make us feel something, and if it’s a machine that cannot feel doing that, well, it’s being emotionally manipulated by a machine. Does anyone actually want that? Is that what we want to subject our children to? 

On the flip side, there is great potential with AI to solve complex problems based on pattern recognition and production. Say, for example, taking novel viruses and rapidly developing vaccines to prevent infection. That’s cool. I love it when technology is a solution to a problem and not just an engine of profit. That’s when humanity and our tools are at our best. 

Linda: I totally agree. When AI helps us find cures and solutions, it’s a hero. When it’s being fed pirated work, it’s a thief. Martha, you certainly opened my eyes to the many places where we encounter artificial intelligence and how it is transforming our world. Thank you so much for joining us!

Martha Brockenbrough (rhymes with “broken toe”) is the author of 29 books, including YA fiction and nonfiction, picture books, middle-grade novels, and a chapter book series.

She is the Program Director for the MFA in Writing for Young Readers at the University of San Francisco. She founded National Grammar Day, wrote game questions for Cranium and Trivial Pursuit, was the editor of MSN.com, and has interviewed lots of celebrities, including the Jonas Brothers, Jason Bateman, Mike Myers, and Slash. She also wrote an educational humor column for Encarta for nine years. 

She lives in Seattle with her family. Besides reading and writing, she likes dogs, cats, cooking, working out, and laughing. 

Linda Zajac is the author of Robo-Motion: Robots That Move Like Animals and eight Minecraft books for kids. She is an award-winning science writer and a former computer programmer and systems analyst. Find her at www.lindarosezajac.com

Back to Top

STEM Tuesday– Computers– Writing Tips & Resources

By on August 18, 2026   /   Computers, STEM Tuesday  

Hello, Everyone, allow me to introduce myself, I’m Dr. Miral A Khalil, a pediatrician who studies child and adolescent psychiatry. I’m new to STEM Tuesday and I am excited to dive into this month’s topic of Computers.

I want to discuss AI and how it might work in a classroom.

WHY USE AI?

I’m aware of how polarizing the use of AI is within kid-lit and academia — and I must say that’s warranted, given the legitimate fear of plagiarism, cheating, and theft of intellectual property. But I do insist that, used with some SOP, AI is an incredible tool to teach children anything. Who am I to talk about AI? Teenagers and children alike might assume that as a physician I only look at how AI is revolutionizing biotechnology and medicine. Some might even assume that I must not know what AI is — because 39 years old, is dinosaur era old to many of them.

I, on the other hand, grew up watching The Jetsons [the cartoon from the future], Mission Impossible movies, and Indiana Jones; to their immense dismay, I do know quite a lot about technology.

But what nobody can fathom is my deep admiration for how villains and evil geniuses are portrayed in kid lit and film bypassing technology. Think of a laser trip wire meant to protect museum art — and the burglar who steals it anyway.

HUMANS ARE INTRIGUED BY IT

In short, I absolutely adore how the human mind is able to surmount an apparently insurmountable problem — just like zigzagging through an impossible maze of infrared trip wire without triggering an alarm.

I study child and adolescent psychiatry, so I can say this with some authority: children, adolescents, teens, heck even adults, are often more intrigued by an apparently complex problem being solved. That’s part of why AI has gained such a large footprint in all walks of our life so quickly.

Instead of fearing AI  technology, we must embrace it, learn from it, and command it — not the other way around. This fear trickles down from adults to children, and it’s counterproductive. An ongoing, open conversation around the ethics of usage — even challenging students to find the blind spots in AI — is an incredible way to strengthen their faith in their own intelligence; always being superior to whatever technological advances are being made. The human mind reigns supreme.

ACITIVITIES YOU CAN USE

Today, I’ve brought you a few practical activities that can be done with a group of middle and upper elementary students. But first, I want to highlight two books that I’ve used with my own children and have recommended to other parents.

Atlas Obscura bookBook 1 is Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide to Inventing the World, written by Jennifer Swanson and Dylan Thuras and illustrated by Ruby Fresson (2025). This book can be read aloud to children as young as third grade, as it combines both science and geography. I love when a book allows you to travel around the world within its pages — recognizing how human beings ALL around the world have contributed to the technological advances we enjoy today. Giving credit to ALL people isn’t only intellectual honesty; it’s important in today’s ever-polarized society.

 

 

 

 

Future Tense bookBook 2 is Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence — and How It Will Change Everything, by Martha Brockenbrough (2024). This book is geared toward middle grade, but my rising 5th grader enjoyed it read aloud just as much as my rising 7th grader did. What I truly enjoyed is that it gave me a segue to have a conversation with my almost-teenage son about how AI has its limitations and is NOT superior to the human mind.

 

 

 

 

Now on to the three practical activities that can be done in a classroom. These activities can help students break down AI and understand how it works for us.

Activity 1 — Drumroll please: build a trip-wire escape room.

Have students design and then attempt to beat their own “laser” security system — the same logic, in miniature, as the museum heist scenes they’ve seen in movies.

Materials: yarn or string in a bright color, painter’s tape, small bells tied to each strand as “alarms,” and a stopwatch. (For older or more advanced students, you can upgrade to a simple circuit kit with a photoresistor and buzzer, or a laser pointer and a small mirror — supervised closely.)

In teams, students string yarn across a doorway or taped-off area at varying heights and angles, tying a bell to each strand. Before they build, have them map their layout on paper first — this is the “algorithm”: a precise, ordered set of instructions for exactly where each strand goes. Then teams swap rooms and try to cross another team’s course without triggering a single bell, timing their attempt.

Debrief as a class: What made a course harder to solve? Did more trip wires make it more secure, or just more predictable? This makes the concept of an algorithm physical — a fixed set of rules a system follows — and it’s a direct, hands-on bridge to how AI systems themselves are built on layered, patterned instructions.

Activity 2 — Investigate the origin of the word “algorithm,” and who pioneered this work.

Algorithm being the basis of most AI technology, we must recognize the role of the people behind it. Have students research where the word comes from (it traces to the 9th-century Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi), what problems his work originally solved, and how that math eventually became the foundation of modern computing. Have them also find one modern example of an algorithm they encounter daily — a search engine, a recommendation feed, a video game’s difficulty setting.

Activity 3 — Investigate “Web War I”: the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia.

In 2007, Estonia became the target of one of the first large-scale, coordinated cyberattacks on an entire country. Over several weeks, government ministries, banks, and news outlets were knocked offline by waves of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks — essentially a flood of automated, algorithm-driven requests overwhelming a system until it collapses. The attack coincided with a heated political dispute between Estonia and Russia; while much of the malicious traffic was traced to Russian sources, the Russian government denied any official involvement, and it was never definitively proven who ordered the attacks.

Have students research what happened, why it’s sometimes called “Web War I,” and why it led NATO to open a cyber defense research center in Tallinn the following year. It’s a great chance to also talk about attribution — why figuring out who is really behind an attack is one of the hardest problems in cybersecurity, then and now.

Any of these three activities can be assigned as a classroom project and will lead to an incredibly rich discussion covering history, geography, and electronic engineering.

Every one of them asks students to do the same thing a movie villain, a cybersecurity researcher, or an inventor does: look at a system built to be hard to beat, and beat it anyway. That’s not a reason to fear AI.

It’s the best argument for teaching kids to understand it — because the mind that can map a trip-wire course, trace a word to a 9th-century mathematician, or make sense of a real-world cyberattack is the same mind that will never be obsolete.

Dr. Miral A Khalil is a CO-RA for SCBWI MDDEWV. She is a globe trotting pediatrician who homeschools her four children whilst on medical missions.

Back to Top