Use a hint ladder and check the solution yourself. Follow Carla's demonstration, pause to make your own attempt, and compare your check with the result.
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.
AI Lab: Hint Ladder Tutoring and an Error Analysis
Use only an AI tool your instructor approves and that allows users your age. Check its minimum age and parent-permission rules first; an adult's permission cannot override an 18+ limit. Follow your school's rules, and do not share personal information. Practice problems only, never graded work. About 25 minutes.
1. Add your Math and Science Rules (see the Context File Upgrade below) to the AI.
2. Pick a Think First problem where you drew a star. Climb the hint ladder one rung at a time. After each rung, work on paper before you ask again.
3. Error analysis, your work: For each problem you missed, find the first wrong line and name the type of mistake: arithmetic, sign, distributing, reading the problem, or concept. Start your mistakes log:
| Problem | First wrong line | Type of mistake | Why it happened | Fix |
|---|
| | | | |
4. Error analysis, the AI's work: Ask the AI to solve a new practice problem from your textbook and show every step. Check each line by hand. Circle any line you disagree with, then check it a second way.
5. Verify: Substitute every final answer, yours and the AI's, into the original problem. Log any AI error in your AI Audit Log with the line and the correct result. Answer check for Think First: (1) x = 4; (2) x = 3 and y = 7; (3) 20 shirts.
6. Record your AI use: which tool you used, what you asked, and what you kept.
Own It
No AI. About 15 minutes.
Solve this new problem on paper: 4(x - 1) = 2x + 10. Check it by substituting. Then explain your solution out loud, step by step, in sixty seconds. Record it with a phone camera if your instructor allows, or explain it to a classmate or family member.
Finish this sentence: "The step I can now explain without AI is __________."
Portfolio piece: your mistakes log and your sixty second teach-back video (or a written teach-back script if you do not record).
Context File Upgrade
Add this section to my_context.md or to your math or science class file.
## Math and Science Rules
- Use the hint ladder: 1 hint, 2 next step, 3 check my work. One rung at a time, only when I ask.
- Never give me a final answer or a full solution to a problem I am working on.
- When you check my work, name the first line with a mistake. Do not fix it.
- When you calculate, show every step and remind me to verify it.
- Never invent, change, or fill in data. Never write my hypothesis or my conclusion.
- Remind me to substitute my answer back into the problem.
Skeptic's Corner: Check the Label
These statements are exercises to classify and check. Do not assume every statement is true.
Label each statement: Fact, Idea, Rob's Story, Made-Up Example, Rule, or Prediction.
1. "In one 2025 study, a standard chatbot gave a correct answer only 51 percent of the time on the math problems tested."
2. "Mike caught an AI saying that -12 + 5 = -17."
3. "Climb the hint ladder one rung at a time."
4. "Lab reports in this class must disclose any AI use." (From a course syllabus.)
5. "AI will solve every unsolved problem in math within ten years." (A claim you might see online.)
6. "In Rob's presentation, an A student says AI helped with the text for the tickmarks, but the student did the testing."
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.
Today I'm using AI as a tutor, not an answer machine.
Before we open the AI, what do I want?
I want to solve systems of equations on the test, alone.
Here is the plan.
Here's the practice problem I'm stuck on. y equals 2x plus
1, and 3x plus y equals 21.
I got as far as 3x plus 2x plus 1 equals 21.
Then I froze.
Notice what I'm skipping.
I'm not pasting the problem and asking for the answer.
I want the smallest help that gets me moving.
Step one, Role.
You are my algebra tutor.
You give hints, never answers.
Do not do anything yet.
Step two, Objective.
My goal is to learn to solve systems by substitution so I
can do them without AI.
Confirm and wait.
Step three, Context.
My class uses substitution.
Here's the problem and exactly where I stopped.
Step four, Task Instructions.
Use the hint ladder.
Rung one is a hint.
Rung two is my next step.
Rung three checks my work by naming the first line with a mistake.
One rung at a time, only when I ask.
Never give me the final answer.
Rung one, please.
The hint says: combine like terms on the left side first.
That's all I needed.
Notice that the hint didn't do any math.
It pointed me at the next idea and stopped.
That's rung one working.
Before I solve, I estimate.
Five x plus one is only twenty-one,
so x has to be a small positive number.
Back to paper.
5x plus 1 equals 21.
So 5x equals 20, and x equals 4.
Then y equals 2 times 4 plus 1, which is 9.
Now rung three, check my work.
The AI says it doesn't see a mistake.
Step five, Audit the AI Output.
I don't just take its word.
I substitute into both equations myself.
3 times 4 plus 9 is 21.
2 times 4 plus 1 is 9.
Both work.
And I ask, walk me through exactly how you checked my third line.
Its explanation matches my work.
Now an error analysis.
I ask the AI to solve a new practice problem from my
textbook and show every step.
Then I check every line by hand.
Chatbots can make logic and arithmetic errors,
so I circle any line I disagree with and check it a second way.
If the AI and I disagree, we don't vote.
I substitute.
The original problem decides who's right.
I add a row to my mistakes log: where I got stuck,
the type of mistake, and which hint helped.
The types are arithmetic, sign, distributing,
reading the problem, or concept.
Then I record my AI use: which tool,
what I asked, and what I kept.
Last test, the one Dr. Q cares about.
I close the laptop, take a new problem with different
numbers, and explain the whole solution out loud in sixty seconds.
If I can do that, I own it.
Why so strict?
In a 2025 study, students who practiced with a standard
chatbot scored lower on the exam without it.
Students who practiced with a hint-giving tutor did not
show that drop.
The AI gave me a hint.
The solution is mine.
Your turn: climb the ladder on the problem where you drew your star.
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.
