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ARKAI Readiness Kollective
AI Fluent · Grades 9-12Module 4

Facilitator guide: AI & the Future of Work

75 minutesReview status: Being checked
Open the lessonsSlide deck (Google Drive)

Materials

  • Projector.
  • Paper for each student's job list.
  • Devices with an AI tool your school allows, or three printed sample AI answers for the restaurant manager tasks.
  • Role cards for the interns debate.

Lesson steps

  1. 1. Break a job into tasks (Explainer, 5 min)
  2. 2. Reading a forecast (Explainer, 7 min)
  3. 3. Who trains the experts? (Explainer, 7 min)
  4. 4. Grade the AI on real tasks (Activity, 10 min)
  5. 5. The internship (Scenario, 6 min)
  6. 6. Quick check (Quick check, 4 min)
  7. 7. One skill this year (Reflect, 5 min)
  8. 8. Recap (Recap, 3 min)

Timing for a 75-minute class

For 60 minutes, skip the second reflection prompt and shorten the debate. For 90 minutes, have pairs present their graded tasks and defend their grades.

Minutes What happens Format
0-3 Pre-check Individual
3-13 Step 1 job lists Individual, then pairs
13-25 Step 2: sort the four kinds of numbers by what they measured Small groups
25-37 Step 3 and the 2040 question Whole class
37-50 Step 4 Try it Pairs
50-58 Step 5 internship scenario Pairs
58-63 Step 6 quick check Individual
63-71 Step 7: ARK’s view, reflect, then the interns debate Individual, then whole class
71-75 Step 8 recap and post-check Whole class

Before you start

  • Some students have family members who have lost work or worry about losing it. Keep examples about tasks and systems, and never ask whose parent works where.
  • Avoid both doom and hype. The honest answer for 2026 is that measured effects are small overall, with early signs for young workers in some jobs.
  • Labor numbers change often. Check the Stanford, Yale, and Anthropic pages for newer updates before you teach.
  • ARK’s view is an opinion, labeled as one. Invite students to argue with it. No grade depends on agreeing.

Discussion prompts

Use the deck’s interns debate: CEO, interns, manager, customer. Then ask the class which choice in Step 5 they would actually make.

Answer notes

Quick check: 1 B, 2 D, 3 B, 4 A, 5 B. Pre/post: 1 B, 2 A, 3 C. If learners choose A on quick check question 5, point out that the AI group still finished the task. The gap was in what they could do afterward.

Words to know

automation
A machine doing a task that a person used to do.
augmentation
A tool that makes a person more effective at a task.
exposure
How much of a job's tasks an AI system could affect. Exposure is not the same as job loss.
displacement
When workers lose jobs or hours to a change in technology.
reskilling
Learning new skills to move into different work.

Workshop quick checks

Learners can answer these on their own phones with no account. Answers count toward ARK's anonymous totals.