Strategic Curriculum Design

Mountainside Curriculum Development

At Mountainside, we partner with independent, international, and charter schools to develop a custom Generative Thinking Curriculum™. This forward-thinking framework features age-appropriate, spiraled lessons that teach students both the incredible power and the very real dangers of AI.  By using different lesson types at different ages, we greatly minimize concerns about cognitive off-loading. In lower grades when students are learning about AI, they are not using for its content. In later grades they employ the AI skills they’ve learned to address complex real-world problems like climate change and the homeless crisis.  We are careful to ensure that AI is used to augment critical thinking skills not replace them.

Our approach beautifully pairs two crucial elements:

• Mastery Lessons: Empowering students to master the essential skills of AI safely and productively.

• Cautionary Lessons: Helping students critically evaluate when, where, and—just as importantly—when not to use it. 

At Mountainside we provide a framework that produces a healthy, well-balance relationship between the student and AI.  We show schools how to use AI to augment critical thinking and enhance problem solving skills.  We do this with age-appropriate lessons spiraled through you’re K-12 curriculum.  We teach both mastery lessons and cautionary lessons.  In the early grades we teach about AI – the powers and the pitfalls.  In later grades we begin teaching how to harness the power of AI to analyze large data sets and dramatically improve research to create greater insights into complex problems like climate change and the homeless crisis.

At Mountainside we created the Generative Thinking Model™, a comprehensive framework for creating a healthy student AI relationship. It pairs lessons on AI mastery with cautionary explorations of the tool’s ethical issues and limitations. This model is built on three fundamental hallmarks:

1. Cognitive Agency: The ability to leverage AI for augmentation without surrendering individual judgment. The student is never a passive spectator; they are always in the driver’s seat.

2. Ethical Discernment: A clear-eyed understanding of the biases, hallucinations, and societal impacts inherent in algorithmic decision-making.

3. Iterative Prompting: Moving away from the "answer machine" mentality. Students learn to view AI as a collaborative partner, refusing to accept the first response and constantly pushing the tool to do more.

By framing AI education through both a "Mastery" and a "Cautionary" lens, we can ensure that technology enhances human intelligence rather than replacing it. Here is how that journey evolves from the early grades through high school.