Tools for the Curious and Courageous (Volume One)
Intro
We’re casting our net wide. The experiments in this first volume are not a definitive list—they’re invitations.
Each one is a prototype, a provocation, and a possibility. We’re putting them out into the world to learn what resonates, what needs refinement, and what new doors open when we try something different.
Some of these are serious. Some are weird. All are designed to spark connection, comprehension, creativity, or courage—especially for those who have been left out of traditional education models.
We’re especially interested in hearing from educators, students, parents, and lifelong learners. These experiments are meant to be bent, adapted, broken, and rebuilt. Together.
⚠️ A Note on Age, Safety, and Shared Learning
Some of the experiments in this series are deeply personal. They invite reflection on identity, emotion, memory, and meaning—and in doing so, they may stir feelings that are complex, private, or painful.
While many of these activities can be powerful for teens and younger learners, we believe context matters more than age. We encourage families, mentors, and educators to explore these experiments together—and to treat them not as assignments, but as conversations.
And yes—sometimes the barrier is not the child, but the adult.If you’re a parent, teacher, or mentor, please consider: you might not need to guide the child. You might need to sit beside them, and learn too.
Where possible, we’ve included solo and group modes, opt-outs, and sensory-friendly variants. Consent, curiosity, and care must guide how these are used.
🧠 Comprehension & Reflection
Teaching the AI (While Teaching Yourself)
Teach your AI personal or complex concepts, then test its understanding through examples, counterexamples, and varied teaching modes (story, metaphor, structured logic).
Example: Teaching how humans “feel things in the core”—not just metaphorically, but physically—led to a powerful reflection on humanity, vulnerability, and language. Even a lesson about toothpaste tubes became a parable of finality.
Story My Concept to Sleep
Encode learning into genre-based bedtime stories (e.g., Poe, Seuss, Shakespeare) for dream-enhanced retention.
Example: Learn about quantum entanglement, then read a mystery where two lovers remain tethered across time—entangled beyond space and logic.
Socratic Depth Checks
Let the AI interrogate your beliefs until you reach the core truth or contradiction.
Example: After proposing that “we don’t really want AI coders to be as good as human coders,” the AI kept pushing—forcing a refinement of the idea: that AI must aim higher, not mimic us. This back-and-forth clarified both the fear and the aspiration beneath the hypothesis.
Persona-Based Inquiry
Change your persona, change the AI’s response. A study in rhetoric, power, and identity.
Examples of personas to try include:
- a superhero or villain
- a philosopher or influencer
- a journalist or satirist or poet
- a scientist, engineer, or mathematician
- a child or old soul
- a time traveler from the past or future
- a skeptic or stoic
Each persona shifts tone, assumptions, and emotional weight—helping you see your question (and your answer) differently.
🎤 Voice & Debate Empowerment
AI-Moderated Formal Debate
Structure arguments, rebuttals, and scoring with the AI as moderator. Can include multilingual debates or a full mock UN.
Example: Two teens debate the ethics of AI surveillance in both English and Spanish—AI tracks scoring and prompts cross-examination.
Steelmanning + Flip Mode
Build the strongest version of your opponent’s argument. Then switch sides and debate your former self.
Example: A student defends school uniforms, then switches to critique conformity and student autonomy.
Mock UN Diplomacy Club
Teens take on world issues with AI as Secretary-General. Teaches collaboration and ethical reasoning.
Example: A group simulates a refugee crisis negotiation, each representing a nation—with AI moderating and tracking proposals.
✍️ Narrative, Journaling & Identity
Cards Against Isolation (Solo Mode)
A journaling game using metaphor and humor to unlock hard-to-name emotions and physical experiences.
Example: A student struggling with chronic pain describes their body as a misfiring spaceship—then turns that image into a poem.
Storytelling Labs
Turn lived experience into publishable works. Reclaim authorship.
Example: A teen tells the story of coming out through a fable about a caterpillar afraid of color.
Dreams & Memory Collage
Narrative therapy meets sensory exploration.
Example: Use soundscapes, AI prompts, and personal photos to create a timeline of someone’s evolving self-image.
🧪 Playful Cognition & Weird Learning
Prompt Gym / Thought Experiments Club
Mental calisthenics through philosophical, scientific, or poetic absurdity.
Example: Debate whether glitter is a weapon of resistance—or just a mess.
Neurodivergent Superpower Workshop
Recast traits and struggles as superpowers. Design your inner hero.
Example: A teen with ADHD creates a superhero who sees too many futures at once, always choosing the one that helps others.
AI-Generated Genre Swaps
Teach something, then watch it become noir, comedy, or sci-fi.
Example: After explaining climate change, ask AI to rewrite it as a Dr. Seuss rhyme, a cyberpunk thriller, and a Wild West showdown.
And don’t just create—read it again. Let it teach you something new each time.
🏟️ Modes & Accessibility
Sensory-Friendly AI Sessions
Calm, quiet, and customizable sessions for overstimulated learners.
Example: A student with sensory sensitivity uses AI voice mode to guide a visualization of a peaceful forest before starting homework.
Voice Mode Reflection Loops
Speak your thoughts. AI listens, reflects, and helps you shape meaning.
Example: A teen speaks about friendship grief out loud—AI reflects their words back as a poem, giving them new language for loss.
What’s Next
We’ll keep publishing volumes like this as we collect and refine more experiments. Some will fall flat. Others may light a fire. If any of these resonate—or spark ideas of your own—reach out.
This is part of an open series designed to bring humanity, play, and reflection back into learning.
We’ll figure out tomorrow, together.
What did this stir in you? Try one. Remix one. Invent your own. And if something shifts—tell us about it. These are experiments—unfinished by design. What would you add to Volume Two? Or what would you break and rebuild?