AI, Ethics & The Image of God — a course about what it means to be human in an age of artificial intelligence.
Explore the CourseThe Human Code is a first-of-its-kind middle school course that places AI literacy inside a Catholic ethical framework. Students learn what AI actually is, how it works, where it succeeds and where it fails — and they wrestle with what it means to use these tools responsibly as people made in the image and likeness of God.
This isn't a coding class. It's a course about values, judgment, and what makes us human. AI is the lens. Human dignity is the point.
AI doesn't create — it recombines. Understanding this distinction is foundational to using it honestly and giving proper credit to human creativity and divine authorship.
What you learn matters more than what you submit. The struggle to understand something is the point — not the output you hand in.
Papal guidance on AI, the theology of human dignity, and the Church's long tradition of engaging science and culture shape every lesson in this course.
Students experience AI before they analyze it — being deceived by deepfakes, hitting AI hallucinations head-on, and testing its limits firsthand before drawing conclusions.
Fourteen classes in. Each one building on the last. The course compresses quickly — these students grasp concepts faster than expected, which means the real work is always pushing them further.
Students encounter AI directly before any definitions are given. The cold-open approach: experience first, explanation second. No framing, no setup — just hands on it and react.
CompleteA theologian sets the philosophical foundation: What does the Catholic Church say about AI? Students work through the Imago Dei, the nature of the human soul, and why AI is rearrangement — not creation. The framework that anchors the entire course.
Guest Speaker CompleteUnder the hood: pattern recognition, trial and error, and training by humans. Students watch how AI learns and realize that nobody — not even the engineers — fully understands what's happening inside.
CompleteFirst time AI runs live on the projector in front of the class. Students debate grading criteria and co-create the evaluation rubric with the teacher — then feed their own answers into AI to see what it produces.
CompletePost-it note activity: green for what makes AI good, yellow for what's uncertain, red for what worries you. Students read each other's notes, spot patterns, and surface the real questions underneath the conversation. Grading finalized: 75% participation, 25% quizzes. No homework. Ever.
CompleteFour sessions on how technology has always killed old jobs and created new ones — agricultural era, industrial era, digital era, and now this. Students write eulogies for dead jobs, debate what flexibility really means, and wrestle with what skills will matter when AI can do most of what we currently call “work.”
CompleteThe school principal visits to make the case that education is about struggle, not answers. If AI does the thinking, you don't actually learn — you just get a product. Students push back, ask hard questions, and walk away with a clearer line between using AI as a tool and letting it replace the work that makes you smarter.
Guest Speaker CompleteFirst fully hands-on class with Gemini. Each student gets a topic they know nothing about — the physics of a curveball, how the Spanish Armada was defeated, how noise-canceling headphones work — and 10 minutes to learn it using only AI. Then they teach it to the class. Can you actually learn something real from a machine?
CompleteStudents write a one-minute piece entirely on their own — no AI, no help. Then AI generates the same thing. They compare: What did you say that it didn’t? What did it get right that surprised you? Introduction of the final project rubric and what “redeeming value” actually means.
CompletePop quiz covering everything: the rearrangement framework, how AI learns, prompting, hallucinations, process vs. product in education, and what makes AI different from humans. Students choose their best 10 of 14 questions. They grade each other’s papers together out loud.
CompleteCold open: Nixon delivers a speech about the Apollo 11 astronauts dying on the moon. Students debate whether it’s real before anyone says a word about deepfakes. The reveal lands hard. When seeing is no longer believing — what do you trust, and why?
CompleteStudents design and build original AI-powered projects from scratch. Must have redeeming value, honor human dignity, benefit society, and align with Catholic teaching. Projects include an AI prayer app that synthesizes theological concepts with real questions people actually ask.
In ProgressEvery final project is evaluated against five pillars developed in class. These aren't just grading criteria — they're a framework for thinking about whether technology is actually good.
Does it genuinely help or teach someone beyond the creator?
Would you proudly show this to a teacher, parent, or principal?
Does it respect people — their worth, privacy, and rights?
Does it make the world even slightly better for people beyond yourself?
Can you say what it does, why it matters, and how it works — clearly?
Each student's project was evaluated against all 5 pillars. Results are password-protected — use your personal code to see your evaluation.
View Evaluations →