Students examine real AI systems, test their limits and form their own conclusions.
Students have lived with generative AI tools since they became publicly available in 2022. UNESCO's framework for students sets out what they need in response: to understand how AI works, to examine it critically, and to use it responsibly while people stay in charge.1
This is still a new area of education. In UNESCO's survey of 190 countries, about 15 were developing or implementing AI curricula for school education.1 Families and schools that begin now are among the first to give students this foundation.
First Sight's curriculum is aligned with UNESCO's AI competency framework for students (2024). It is written for school-age learners, so students build these skills through hands-on projects and discussion, and no technical background is needed.
Weighing AI's benefits and risks from a human-centred view, and understanding that people stay in charge of AI and accountable for it.
Understanding the ethical principles that guide AI, such as fairness, inclusion and privacy, and applying them across AI's life cycle.
Building foundational knowledge of how AI works, from data and models to predictions, and the practical skills to use AI tools well.
Learning how AI systems are scoped, built, trained and tested, and practising designing systems for the people they will affect.
Aligned with UNESCO (2024), AI competency framework for students.1 Aspect names are UNESCO's; descriptions are First Sight's.
Each lesson is built around an Investigation Challenge: a question about a real AI system.
Students examine real tools, analyse where and why they fall short, and form and defend their own conclusions.
The aim is lasting critical judgement: evaluating an AI system before relying on it.
Students examine how AI systems learn from data, train a simple model to see what it actually learns, and consider what AI can infer about them from their personal data and images.
Students examine how recommendation systems shape what people see, how AI translation and writing tools change meaning, how misinformation spreads, and who is excluded when access to AI is unequal.
Students analyse AI decisions in hiring, criminal justice, healthcare and sport, and weigh the trade-offs between different definitions of fairness.
Students consider the human and environmental costs behind AI, practise designing with the people an AI affects, and decide which uses should not be built. They then plan and prototype an AI idea of their own and present it.
Students examine how AI systems are designed, who they serve, and what happens when they fail at scale. They audit systems directly, debate the trade-offs, and build their own positions.
Apply →Curiosity-first inquiry for younger students. Built on the same core principle: experiment with the system before explaining the concept.
Join the Interest List →First Sight’s curriculum is aligned with UNESCO’s AI competency framework for students (2024)1. The framework was written for school-age learners and sets out what young people need to understand about AI. Every First Sight lesson is mapped to one of its four aspects. First Sight is independent; UNESCO has not reviewed or endorsed our program.