NDP ONE OF FIVE IN THE U.S. WITH AI PILOT PROGRAM

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December 4, 2024

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here. 

Artificial intelligence pilot program will launch concurrently with engineering and empathy course, which begins again in January.

Notre Dame Prep's groundbreaking engineering and empathy course has been tabbed by Project Invent to create an artificial intelligence pilot program that will be tested along with four other schools across the country.

According to science teacher Louise Palardy, Notre Dame Prep's STEM specialist and manager of the school's robotics center, the school was chosen due to its early adoption of the Project Invent pedagogy and the fact that the engineering and empathy class has experienced a more than 150-percent increase in female student participation over the last year.

Currently in its fifth year, NDP's engineering and empathy course, which is based on the Project Invent academic model, remains an elective for the school's science students. 

During a typical engineering and empathy class, students team up to create inventions that impact their communities. The class involves creating an impactful technological invention, a business plan and marketing strategy.

"Our E&E class is all about creating change and opportunity for our students, but typically it is male-dominated," she said. "Last year the class only had 17 percent female students. This school year, when the class begins in January, we will have 43 percent female students, which meets one of the criteria for this pilot program." 

Project Invent initiated the AI pilot after receiving a grant from the Oakland, Calif.-based Kapor Foundation to help get the program started at five schools across the country. Kapor Foundation's mission is to rebuild a more equal representation in the tech ecosystem starting with creating more ways to influence change and opportunity, including in secondary education.

In addition to Notre Dame Prep, Bostonia Global School in El Cajon, Calif., Claremont International High School in New York City, Jordan High School in Los Angeles, and the Young Women's College Preparatory Academy in Houston, Tex., will be undergoing the same pilot program.

Palardy said the new AI pilot program is defined by three modules: 

Module 1: Responsible use of AI tools, including prompt engineering and bias: Lessons on prompt engineering include how to use the CRAFT framework to help students get the best results from AI. The lessons on bias include common types of bias, bias detection, and how to rewrite our engineering prompts to reduce bias.

Module 2: Ethical use of AI: Lessons build the students knowledge of AI and LLM (large language models) history as they learn how to build an argument for and against AI use in education. The lesson concludes with a class debate where they build both a pro case and a con case based on their research.

Module 3: AI integration with Project Invent: this unit includes market research steps of the class, coding assistance for programming student inventions, hardware suggestions, and brainstorming and research aspects of the engineering and empathy class.

"As part of the AI pilot program we will provide feedback after each module," Palardy added. "At the end of the semester, we will reflect on the use of AI on the overall process of the engineering and empathy course’s goal of creating a technological invention to make someone else's life better."

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndprep.org.