Campfire Session — Project Planning

Learn how to integrate AI tools like Flint into project-based learning frameworks, empowering students to create their own activities and chats to establish agency and organization in their projects.

Lulu Gao, Head of Teacher Experience at Flint | LinkedIn

In this session, our team explored how educators can leverage Flint within various project design frameworks to create more engaging, student-centered learning experiences. We demonstrated practical strategies for designing activities that students can use throughout their projects, while also showing how students can independently create their own chats and activities to support their project work. This approach empowers learners to take ownership of their learning process while giving teachers flexible tools to guide and assess project-based learning.

Content covered in this session included:

• Flint in frameworks, including project-based learning, the inquiry model, and design thinking
• Examples of activities for projects
• Student-driven planning with AI

Slides from the presentation can be found here.

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Introduction • 00:00

• Lulu introduces the session and agenda.

Ice-breaking news • 01:05

• The group discusses current AI-driven video tools and their potential impact on entertainment and education. A quick icebreaker covers recent AI releases, including a new social media platform for AI-generated deepfakes and a second generation tool capable of realistic physics simulations, followed by notes on safety and user familiarity.

Flint use in project frameworks • 04:54

• The team discusses educational activity structures and how Flint can support project-based learning, inquiry model, and design thinking projects. They outline activities, assessment approaches, and how Sparky can aid brainstorming and feedback processes.

• Examples of Flint activities span coding copilot roles and project management. Flint also serves as a research helper for town-specific topics.

Student-driven planning • 12:25

• Discussion shifts to student-driven planning, highlighting three ways Flint can support learners: teacher-made activities, student-created activities, and on-demand assistance. Flows include outlining best uses for chats and recurring queries.

• The group explores how Flint can tailor Sparky’s follow-up activities to student needs, emphasizing contextual feedback and guided coaching. It is noted that topics range from broad to specific based on student strengths, and students are encouraged to test the system and adjust contextual input as needed.

• A discussion highlights memory and profile features, proposing that Sparky should remember learner details already stored in Flint and be connected to existing student profiles. Participants consider a “build manually” approach and the benefits of a learner-facing profile that persists across chats.

• The speaker demonstrates how students are already creating activity groups with varied roles and tools for learning. The example highlights translation helpers, research aids, and tutoring functions to support peers.

• A demonstration of designing a reflection-focused activity for fifth graders is provided, including project guidelines, daily focus, and a rubric. The process emphasizes persona, grade level, and daily conversations to scaffold reflection.

Teacher shareout and discussion • 33:03

• The speaker describes a range of design-thinking activities and hands-on projects. It is noted that many students lack ideas and rely on prompts, so the educator encourages generating questions and guiding them through an anti-idea technique to uncover authentic student concepts.

• An emphasis is placed on student ownership, with students investing in their own ideas and solving their own problems. The speaker shares experiences with different age groups, including first through sixth grades, and highlights the value of student-generated outcomes.

• The presenter explains how students choose their own problems and prototypes, increasing engagement and ownership.

• The facilitator highlights flexible, student-driven projects and the benefit of prototyping with available materials. The approach shifts from guided tasks to supporting individual ideas.

• The group discusses measuring Flint's impact, acknowledging varied school approaches and the difficulty in quantifying results. Some note anecdotal evidence, while others point to project quality, student outcomes, and assessment grades as potential metrics.

• Analytical discussions focus on measuring engagement and analytics within Flint's use. The team notes anecdotal engagement gains and the need for systematic, objective measurement. It is discussed that teachers see faster project navigation and higher-level sources, prompting a push for better metrics to capture impact.

• Product analytics and student-facing insights are highlighted as upcoming priorities. Jacob Edington emphasizes ongoing work with engineering to develop both teacher-facing and student-facing analytics, including year-long group analytics and potential data integrations from other activities. The team invites input to ensure missing data are addressed.

Conclusion • 54:32

• Lulu concludes the session and highlights the plan for upcoming campfires.

• Lulu also shares QR codes for people to check out the Campfire Calendar, Flint's Instagram (which has a bunch of teacher-facing content), and the Flint Community.