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AI and You 9-12 / Week 06 / Wednesday
3/6
Week 06 · Bias, Fairness and Sameness

Wednesday

Explorer Lab: The sameness sample
// Does SH-1 serve every student equally well?
⏱ about 20 min

Wednesday: Explorer Lab: The Sameness Sample

Librarian Joss sets two stacks on the table. "Twelve practice quizzes SH-1 wrote. Twelve the teachers wrote. Same topics."

Comet flips through SH-1's stack. "These look so tidy. Every one is neat and clear."

Wren flips through it too, slower. "Every one starts the same way. What do you notice?"

Comet flips again. "Which of the following. Which of the following. Which of the following."

Nova hovers over both stacks. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "Tally the kind of question each quiz uses, then put the two tallies side by side."

Comet sharpens her pencil. "Bar graphs, here we come."

Your mission

You will tally the question types in two sets of 12 quizzes and draw a bar graph of each.

Then you will decide whether SH-1's quizzes show homogenization.

  • Paper and a pencil
  • The QZ-12 table below
QuizSH-1 quiz: kind of questionSH-1 quiz: first wordsTeacher quiz: kind of question
1multiple choiceWhich of the followingmultiple choice
2multiple choiceWhich of the followingshort answer
3multiple choiceWhich of the followingexplain
4multiple choiceWhat isdraw and label
5multiple choiceWhich of the followingtrue or false
6multiple choiceWhich of the followingmultiple choice
7multiple choiceWhich of the followingshort answer
8multiple choiceWhich of the followingexplain
9multiple choiceWhat istrue or false
10multiple choiceWhich of the followingdraw and label
11multiple choiceWhich of the followingmultiple choice
12multiple choiceWhich of the followingshort answer

This is QZ-12 from the SH-1 review story, a made-up example. Every SH-1 quiz has four answer choices.

PREDICT FIRST
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Before you tally: which set do you think uses more kinds of question?
  1. On paper, list five kinds of question: multiple choice, short answer, explain, draw and label, true or false.
  2. Go down the SH-1 column and make a tally mark beside the kind each quiz uses.
  3. Do the same for the teacher column, in a second set of tallies.
  4. Count each tally and check that each set adds up to 12.
  5. Count how many SH-1 quizzes begin "Which of the following".
  6. Draw two bar graphs with the same five bars, one for SH-1 and one for the teachers.
CHECK YOUR TALLIES
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
How many kinds of question do SH-1's 12 quizzes use?
How many kinds of question do the teachers' 12 quizzes use?
How many teacher quizzes are multiple choice?
How many SH-1 quizzes begin "Which of the following"?
Teacher tallies: 3 plus 3 plus 2 plus 2 plus 2 is what?

Homogenization

Homogenization is when generative AI outputs are too much alike, such as repeated styles and less variety.

Overly uniform outputs can be wrong, can lead to poor decisions, or can amplify bias.

A quiz set that never asks students to explain or draw practices only one kind of thinking.

Lab findingTrue or false?
SH-1's quizzes show homogenization.?
None of SH-1's quizzes asks a student to explain or draw.?
The teachers' quizzes use more kinds of question than SH-1's.?
Outputs that are all alike are always correct.?
WHY THIS EXERCISESameness in what a model makes is a risk the crew must add to the register.
On paper, draw your two bar graphs side by side, with the five kinds of question on the bottom of each.

Great lab work, reviewer. Tomorrow you will ask whether fixing a problem is the same as being fair.

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