K12 AI Labs

Coding and Gaming Design - Debugging with AI

$15.00

K12 AI Labs: Module 5, Lesson 15

Debugging with AI teaches students one of the most important and underrated skills in software development—finding and fixing what's broken—with AI as a collaborator rather than a solution provider. Working through intentionally flawed scripts, students develop the systematic thinking that separates good programmers from those who just copy and paste until something works.

Students begin with a structured introduction to common categories of coding errors: syntax errors, logic errors, runtime errors, and edge case failures. They learn to read error messages, trace execution flow, and form hypotheses about what's going wrong before reaching for any tool.

From there, students use AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot to assist in the debugging process—submitting broken code with clear problem descriptions and evaluating the AI's suggestions critically. They practice the essential judgment call of deciding when the AI's fix addresses the real problem versus when it just makes the error message go away.

The lesson builds metacognitive habits around coding: thinking out loud about what code is supposed to do, what it's actually doing, and why the gap exists. These habits improve debugging with or without AI assistance.

Students leave with hands-on experience debugging real code, a systematic process for approaching errors, and a clear sense of how to use AI as a thinking partner rather than an answer machine.

ISTE Standards 1 and 5 aligned.

This is a digital lesson accessed via lesson PDF and PowerPoint presentation—no physical product will be shipped.

AI Labs is designed for middle and high school classrooms but is adaptable across grade levels. It fits naturally into computer science, media, elective, or STEM programs—and can be taught as a semester course, stretched to a full-year, or a flexible collection of standalone lessons with 10 Cumulative Project options with teacher materials and student pacing guide.

Details
  • Course Level
    Middle School, High School

What's Included
  • A full instructor guide with debugging exercises
  • Error analysis frameworks and differentiation supports
  • A matching PowerPoint presentation

This is a digital lesson accessed via lesson PDF and PowerPoint presentation—no physical product will be shipped.

Materials Needed
  • Pre-written faulty Python scripts (syntax errors, logic errors, indentation issues)
  • Access to AI coding assistants: ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot
  • Debugging reflection worksheet (for recording process, AI feedback, and outcomes)
  • Code editor (VS Code, Replit, or similar)

ABOUT

K12 AI Labs

AI Labs is a hands-on, project-based curriculum that prepares students to understand, use, and think critically about artificial intelligence. Across 25 lessons and seven content modules, students move from foundational AI ethics through real creative and technical work—writing prompts, generating music, designing characters, coding games, training machine learning models, and producing video with AI avatars.

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