Innovators Session 10 — Capstone Showcase + Ethics & Responsibility (Instructor Guide)

Duration: 90 minutes | Goal: Every student demos their capstone confidently AND can hold a real conversation about responsible AI.

Brochure promises this delivers

Final outcomes:
- Understand how AI works ✓
- Build their own AI-powered projects ✓
- Use AI responsibly ← today's main focus
- Present their ideas confidently ← today's main focus

Ethics & responsible AI (woven throughout, emphasized today)

Format

A formal Showcase + a structured Ethics Panel discussion. The Showcase celebrates what they built. The Ethics Panel makes sure they leave thinking critically.

Materials

Devices, projector
Each student's capstone ready to demo
Workbook + slides
Printed certificates (template at end of file)
Optional: a small panel of judges (other instructors, parents, alumni)
Camera for class photo (with consent)

Time breakdown

Time	Block	Activity
0:00–0:10	Recovery	Last 10 min for anyone whose v1 isn't running. Others practice.
0:10–0:50	Capstone Demos	Each student gets 3 minutes. ~12 students fit if you keep tight.
0:50–1:15	Ethics Panel	Structured discussion on 4 real scenarios
1:15–1:25	Certificates + photo	Hand out, photo, applause
1:25–1:30	Goodbye	Keep learning + final words

If you have more than 12 students, run two parallel rooms for the demos with one instructor in each, then come back together for ethics + certificates.

Pre-class checklist

[ ] Every student has a working v1 (or knows their plan B)
[ ] Demo order set (random or sign-up)
[ ] Timer visible to everyone
[ ] Certificates printed
[ ] If parents are invited: chairs set up, intro for them

Capstone demos (40 min)

Format

3 minutes per demo. Strict.
30 seconds for class questions after each
Instructor times. Bell at 2:30. Stop at 3:00.
Class claps for everyone.

Scoring (instructor uses, students don't see)

For each demo, mark on the rubric (printed before class):

Student	Problem clear?	Demo worked?	Could explain stack?	Could explain trade-offs?

This becomes the final grade input.

Helping nervous students

Sit them in a friendly part of the class
Let them have their workbook open while presenting
If they freeze, prompt them: "What problem does it solve?"

What to ask during the 30-second Q&A

Vary the questions. Use these:

"What's one thing you'd change with another day?"
"Where could this go wrong?"
"Would you use this yourself? Honestly?"
"What was the hardest debug?"
"What would a 10x version of this look like?"

Ethics Panel (25 min)

Reorganize the room into a circle or U-shape. Project the 4 scenarios on the screen, one at a time.

The 4 scenarios

Frame upfront: "There's no single right answer. We're practicing how to think about these. Disagreement is welcome."

Scenario 1 — The "homework helper" bot

A 14-year-old uses an AI to write 80% of their school essay. They submit it as their own. The AI's writing is good enough that the teacher doesn't notice.

Is this cheating?
Where's the line?
What about AI-helped ideas (brainstorming) vs AI-written paragraphs?
What rule would YOU make for your school?

Scenario 2 — The biased hiring AI

A company uses an AI to screen job applications. They train it on 10 years of past hires. The AI learns to prefer certain names, schools, and zip codes. Qualified people get rejected without a human ever seeing their application.

Whose fault is it?
The company? The engineers? The AI?
How would you catch this before it shipped?
Should AI ever be used to decide hiring? Where's the limit?

Scenario 3 — The deepfake of your friend

Someone uses image AI to make a fake photo of your classmate doing something embarrassing. It spreads. The classmate didn't do it. By the time the photo is taken down, everyone's seen it.

Is the AI tool responsible?
The person who made it?
The platform that hosted it?
What's the right response (legal, social, technical)?

Scenario 4 — The unreliable medical AI

A free chatbot gives medical advice. It's wrong some of the time, but it's free and fast, and many people without doctors use it.

Should this exist?
Is wrong-but-free worse than no-advice-at-all?
What disclaimers / safeguards should it have?
Who's responsible when it gets someone hurt?

Discussion technique

Read scenario aloud
30 seconds of silent thinking
Pair share for 1 minute
3-4 students share with the class
You synthesize, don't lecture
Move to next scenario

Land this point: AI doesn't take responsibility — people do. Engineers, companies, users, schools.

The Responsible Builder's Pledge

End the panel by reading this aloud, then having students sign in their workbook:

"As a builder of AI, I commit to:

1. Being clear about what's AI and what's me.
2. Checking the data my models learn from for fairness.
3. Asking 'who could this hurt?' before I ship.
4. Owning my mistakes, not blaming the tool.
5. Speaking up when I see AI being used badly."

Certificates (10 min)

Hand out one by one. Read each name out loud. Have the class clap. Write a 1-line personal note on each one if you can.

Class photo + goodbye (5 min)

Group photo with certificates. Final words:

"You started this camp using AI. You're leaving it as someone who builds with AI — and someone who can hold a serious conversation about how AI should be built. That's rare. That's powerful. Use it well."

Tell them where to keep going:

All the projects they built are theirs to keep editing
Free tier accounts they signed up for are theirs to use
If they want to go deeper: open-source ML courses, AI hackathons, etc.
Your contact info if you want to be a resource

Certificate template

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

           AI SUMMER CAMP 2026 — INNOVATORS

                  This certifies that

                  ___________________

      has completed 15 hours of applied AI training,
      built four AI-powered projects including a capstone,
       and demonstrated them in the camp showcase.

       ✓ Understands AI & ML fundamentals
       ✓ Builds with generative AI tools
       ✓ Engineers prompts at a professional level
       ✓ Designs AI applications and automation
       ✓ Reasons about AI ethics and responsibility

      Date: __________     Instructor: ____________

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Final showcase rubric

For each student, mark ✓:

Student	Capstone working	Demo delivered	All 3 prior builds shown	Engaged in ethics panel	Certificate

Anyone with 3+ ✓ gets the certificate. For anyone with 2 or fewer — pull aside, chat about what got in the way, give them something to take home.

Don't let anyone leave without a certificate — find a way to recognize what they DID accomplish.