Generative AI Literacy · TEKS Technology Applications

Gen AI Literacy Breakouts

A suite of Critical Thinking Online Breakouts for grades K–8. Students read clues, reason through four locks, and learn to think clearly about AI — what it is, how it learns from data, and when to check its work. Multilingual, and it runs entirely in the browser.

Grades K–2 Grades 3–5 Grades 6–8 🕹️ Arcade 🔎 Browse library Teacher guide
18
Activities
9
Free featured
9
Full lessons
K–8
Grades
7
Languages

Featured lessons — free

One free featured breakout per grade — fully playable, no login, nothing collected. Share the link and go.

Grade K · §126.5
Robot Helpers
A robot helper can guess. A puppy is alive. Can you tell them apart? Open four locks and meet a helper that guesses.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 1 · §126.6
Good Guessers
An AI helper is a good guesser. It looks at many examples first. How does it guess? Open four locks to find out.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 2 · §126.7
Say It Clearly
An AI helper guesses from what you say. If you say it clearly, you get a better answer. Open four locks to become a clear asker.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 3 · §126.8
AI All Around
AI is hiding in things you use every day. A voice helper, a video list, a photo app. Can you spot it? Crack four locks to find AI all around you.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 4 · §126.9
Teach the Machine
You are training a helper to tell cats from dogs. It learns from the examples you show it. Crack four locks to learn how a machine learns.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 5 · §126.10
Ask It Clearly
Two friends asked an AI about the same thing. One asked a fuzzy question and got a fuzzy answer. The other asked clearly and got just what they needed. Crack four locks to learn how to ask an AI a good question.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 6 · §126.17
Double-Check the Bot
An AI assistant just gave you an answer — fast, clear, and totally sure of itself. But is it right? Crack four locks to learn how to check before you trust.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 7 · §126.18
Who's Missing?
An AI works great for some people — and gets things wrong for others. The reason hides in who was in its data. Crack four locks to find out who's missing.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 8 · §126.19
Give AI Credit
An AI helper can save you time on schoolwork — but honesty means you say when you used it. Crack four locks to learn how to use AI the honest way.
FREE Start the breakout →

The full per-grade lessons

The complete lesson for each grade — free and open, just like the featured set. Jump straight in, or preview the premise and standards on each teacher page.

Grade K · §126.5
Meet AI, Ask a Grown-Up
A little AI helper wants to help you. But first you learn the rules. Open four locks to use AI the safe way.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 1 · §126.6
Check the Robot
An AI helper made a guess. Is it right? A smart kid always checks. Open four locks to learn how to check a robot.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 2 · §126.7
Use AI Honestly
An AI helper can help you make things. But it can be wrong, and you must tell the truth about its help. Open four locks to use AI the honest way.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 3 · §126.8
Meet the Machine that Guesses
A helper robot in the classroom keeps making guesses. How does it know things? Crack four locks to find out how a guessing machine really works.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 4 · §126.9
Garbage In, Garbage Out
An AI helper keeps giving wrong and unfair answers. The problem isn't magic — it's the data. Crack four locks to find out why.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 5 · §126.10
The Prompt Lab
Two students typed the same idea into an AI and got very different results. The secret was in the prompt. Crack four locks to learn how to ask an AI well.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 6 · §126.17
Real or Generated?
A photo and a quote are spreading fast online — and neither one is real. Generative AI made them. Crack four locks to learn how to tell.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 7 · §126.18
Bias in the Machine
An AI keeps giving answers that quietly favor one side. It isn't an accident — it's the data. Crack four locks to trace where bias comes from.
FREE Start the breakout → Grade 8 · §126.19
Build with AI, Responsibly
You're allowed to create with AI — but doing it honestly takes judgment. Crack four locks to learn how to use AI as a tool without crossing a line.
FREE Start the breakout →

Why Critical Thinking Online Breakouts (CTOBs)?

A Critical Thinking Online Breakout (CTOB) is a browser-based digital escape room built for reasoning, not recall. Students read six short clues — one a deliberate decoy — and use them to open four locks. Each lock reveals a one-sentence reason that names why the answer follows from the evidence. There are no logins, nothing is graded, and Start over is always one tap away, so the cost of thinking out loud and being wrong is zero.

CTOBs run on the CLEAR thinking process — a simple critical-thinking checklist students can carry into any claim they meet online. Every lock is a small CLEAR rep: the decoy trains students to weigh Evidence and reject a true-but-irrelevant fact; the “strong evidence” lock makes the strong / weak / missing distinction explicit; and the revealed reason models the Response. With generative AI — where a confident answer can still be wrong — testing a claim before you trust it is the whole point.

The CLEAR thinking process

A simple critical-thinking checklist. Students walk it on every breakout and can carry it into any claim, message, or source they meet online.

C

Claim What exactly is being said?

  • Make the claim specific.
  • Make it testable.
L

Lens What assumptions am I bringing?

  • What do I already believe?
  • Am I reacting to evidence or past experience?
E

Evidence What supports the claim?

  • Strong: facts, data, direct observations
  • Weak: rumors, impressions
  • Missing: what do I still need to know?
A

Alternatives What else could explain this?

  • Consider other causes.
  • Consider other viewpoints.
  • Avoid oversimplifying.
R

Response What should I do now?

  • Ask a question · gather more information · challenge the claim
  • Document the issue · speak up · wait
Quick reminder: What do I think? Why do I think it? What might I be missing? What should I do next?

Full teacher materials: curriculum guide · scope & sequence · lesson-plan guide · TEKS correlation · UDL & ELPS supports.