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AI and You 9-12 / Week 02 / Explorer Quest
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Week 02 · The Lifecycle and Its People

Explorer Quest

Explorer Quest: The lifecycle of a family plan
// Who designs, builds, deploys, runs and checks SH-1, and how they manage risk
⏱ about 20 min

Explorer Quest: The Lifecycle of a Family Plan

On Saturday, Comet sketches a garden bed in her spiral notebook. "My family is planting tomatoes this spring," she says. "No AI anywhere."

Wren looks over her shoulder. "What does the evidence say? Someone designed the bed. Someone waters it. Someone checks for bugs. That sounds like a lifecycle."

Comet laughs. "And the risk is that the bugs win."

Nova floats over the notebook and sketches a small 3-by-3 grid of light. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "Ask how likely the risk is and how big the harm would be."

Wren grins at you. "Reviewer, find a lifecycle in a plan at your home."

  1. A lifecycle has design, development, deployment, and operation and monitoring, with checking all the way through.
  2. Ideally, the people who check work are not the people who did it.
  3. Risk combines how likely something is with how big the harm would be.
◇ THE LIFECYCLE OF A FAMILY PLAN
Sit with a family member who has a few minutes to talk.
Choose one family plan, such as a trip, a garden or a chore chart.
Together, name who designs the plan and who sets it up. Then name who runs it day to day and who checks how it is going.
Talk about whether the person who checks is the same person who did the work, and whether that matters.
On paper, draw a 3-by-3 grid with Likelihood along the bottom and Harm up the side, each Low, Medium and High.
Pick one thing that could go wrong with the plan. Agree on its likelihood and its harm, and place it on the grid.
Last, name one change that would make it less likely or less harmful.
Example planSomething that could go wrongLikelihoodHarm
A gardenBugs eat the young plantsMediumMedium
A chore chartSomeone forgets their turnHighLow
A day tripThe trip runs lateMediumLow
For a grown-up
This week your student learned that AI systems have a lifecycle with people at every stage. Risk combines likelihood and harm.
Ask: in our plan, who checks the work? Is it the same person who did it?
Ask: what is one thing that could go wrong, and how could we make it less likely or less harmful?
Talk about roles and plans only. Nobody needs to write down personal details.
QUEST CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Someone forgets their chore turn often, but the harm is small. Where does it go on the grid?
In the garden plan, a family member who did not plant the bed checks it for bugs. Why can that help?
Watering the garden every day matches which lifecycle stage?

Great quest, reviewer. Next week the crew trains a tiny model by hand to see how models learn.

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