AI for Questioning Minds — Free Course
03 · Think First

03.1 The Question: Think First

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THE HUMAN QUESTION

Chapter 03 / Lesson 1   ·   The question

Start with your own thinking.

Give your own ideas a chance before asking a machine. Practice creating an initial response, using AI to challenge it, and making the final work your own.

Video · 2:12Activity time is additionalStudent course

Your next moves

Make the lesson yours.

  1. Before watching, write your first answer: What ideas would you have if you were bored for twenty minutes?
  2. Watch the story. Pause when a choice or claim needs checking.
  3. Open the Think First activity below and complete it before any AI use.
  4. Revise your answer in your own words. Explain what you changed and why.

Your activity / Right here

Bring a notebook. Begin below.

The activity is included on this page. Work on paper or in your own document; keep your first attempt and the evidence you checked.

Warm-up: Dr. Q's Question

What ideas would you have if you were bored for twenty minutes?

My first answer: ________________________________________________

Mike's Mix-Up: The Idea Machine

Made-Up Example.

Here is what Mike did before his twenty minutes:

1. He opened a chatbot before he had one thought of his own.

2. He asked for ten ideas and took the first one.

3. He never asked what made the idea typical, or what only he could make.

4. His pitch matched two classmates' pitches.

5. When he tried alone, he quit after four minutes and reached for his phone.

What went wrong? Talk it through with a partner, then write your answers.

• Which step skipped the Solo pass?

• Using this chapter's research, why might three students end up with the same idea?

• Why wasn't four minutes enough? What changed around minute 13?

• If AI were allowed on this assignment, where in the loop should it come in, and what rule should it follow?

Think First: Twenty Bored Minutes, Thirty Ideas

No devices. Pen, paper, and a clock that is not a phone. About 40 minutes.

Part 1: The boredom block (20 minutes). Put your phone in another room, or powered off in a bag. No music, no book. Sit with a blank page. You may stare out the window, doodle, or do something easy with your hands, like folding paper. In the 2012 study, an easy task during the break beat plain rest. Let your mind wander instead of trying to have ideas.

Part 2: The idea sprint (15 minutes). Write this question at the top of the page, or use your instructor's: "What is something at my school or in my neighborhood that could be better, more fun, or more fair?" Number the page 1 to 30 and fill every line.

• Quantity first. Judge later.

• Strange is welcome. Small is welcome.

• Stuck? Flip an idea (do the opposite), shrink it (make it tiny), or hand it to someone else (who else could use this?).

Part 3: Choose (5 minutes). Circle your three best ideas. Put a star next to the one that surprised you most.

Pause & reflect

What changed in your thinking?

Write one sentence in your notebook. Name what you checked, what you chose, or what you want to explore next.

Read the video transcript

Read along, pause, or return to an idea. This transcript follows the selected lesson video.

I'm Carla, an AI avatar. Quick question before we start. When was the last time you were bored, with nothing to reach for? What ideas would you have if you were bored for twenty minutes? Mike found out the hard way. Dr. Q asked for a pitch: a sixty second video about something at school that nobody notices. Mike asked a chatbot for ten ideas and took the first one, the secret life of the lunch line. Two other students pitched the lunch line too. If chatbots didn't exist, what would you make? I... don't know. Mike isn't the only one. Here's why it happens. Stephen Wolfram explained that ChatGPT is always trying to produce a "reasonable continuation" of the text it has so far. Reasonable usually means likely. And likely usually means common. In a 2024 study, stories written with AI ideas were rated more creative on average. They were also "more similar to each other than stories by humans alone." The researchers called it a social dilemma: each writer did better, and the group ended up with less variety. So Dr. Q gave Mike a pencil, a blank page, and twenty minutes. No phone. No music. At minute nine, Mike decided it was the worst assignment in history. At minute thirteen, he noticed the lost-and-found bin. By minute eighteen, he was writing fast: a film told by the objects in the lost-and-found, each one guessing who its owner was. So where did Mike's idea come from? Researchers call it incubation. When you step away from a problem, your mind can keep working on it. In one 2012 study, an easy task that let the mind wander beat a hard task, rest, or no break at all. Small studies on boredom and mind wandering suggest that empty time can help ideas show up. So here's your week: twenty bored minutes, thirty ideas on paper, and then AI, with rules. Its one job is to challenge your ideas, never to replace them. Think first.
Before you use an AI tool

Follow your course or institution's rules. Use an instructor-approved tool that permits your age, and meet any required consent conditions. Keep names, contact details, school records, and other private information out of prompts. Use fictional examples when you can.

Learning without an AI account

Follow the demonstration, pause before each answer, and do the reasoning on paper. Discuss what you would ask, how you would check it, and which decisions would remain yours.

About the characters and voices

This course uses AI-created characters and synthetic voices. Carla is an AI avatar. They help tell the story; they are not real students sharing testimonials.

Designed for high-school and community-college learners. Choose examples from your classes, work, and everyday life. Keep your completed work in your course portfolio.