Feature
On the Frontiers of Innovation:
AI and Brophy
To ban or to embrace AI in the classroom, that is the question educators continue to grapple with despite the introduction of ChatGPT nearly two years ago. In the broader context of the many platforms and apps that use some type of artificial intelligence (think Siri, self-driving cars, the robotic dog and Roomba® vacuum), programs that create generative AI like ChatGPT center on deep learning models and can be used to create original and realistic content, including text, images, audio and other types of media. Rather than simply processing or analyzing existing data, this latest wave of AI, often referred to as “the next frontier of artificial intelligence,” can assimilate information quickly — and draw conclusions.
Case in point, when we recently entered the prompt in ChatGPT, “Are schools banning or embracing AI in the classroom?” it was quick to respond:
"The response to AI in the classroom varies widely among schools…Overall, while schools are increasingly exploring and integrating AI technologies due to their potential benefits, there remains significant caution driving by ethical, privacy and practical considerations.”
“Significant caution” wasn’t exactly an option at Brophy as pushing boundaries to make a societal impact runs deep in Jesuit education. Since founding their first school in 1548, the Jesuits sought to improve upon the best educational models available, pushing the frontiers of knowledge as a powerful force to develop leaders who influence and transform society. In this tradition, when Brophy administrators began hearing rumblings about developments in the world of artificial intelligence in the summer 2022, conversations quickly ensued. As Mica Mulloy, assistant principal for Instruction and Innovation, explains, this latest advancement in AI was met with curiosity and excitement: “We were asking each other, ‘Have you seen this? It’s wild if it’s true’ and saying, ‘Let’s try it out!’”
According to Mr. Mulloy, many viewed AI as a huge resource, not as a deviant tool to be avoided — a far cry from the knee-jerk reactions of schools across the country that were dominating headlines, saying they would block it immediately because kids were going to use it to cheat. “I found that to be incredibly shortsighted instead of viewing it as an opportunity to transform education,” he said.
“When ChatGPT dropped in November 2022, we were eager to explore it and harness it as a tool to help teachers teach effectively and help students access infinite knowledge to ultimately, make an impact. So, we quickly leaned into it and started digging in.”
Early on, Brophy administrators were decisive in determining they weren’t going to block it; also, they were hesitant to immediately craft specific and limiting policies with the technology that was evolving so quickly. Mr. Mulloy notes, “We were intentionally patient, watching how rapidly things were developing around generative AI. It was our job to provide clarity to students and parents, so we sent an initial communication to provide guidance and let them know we were actively exploring this amazing tool and dedicated to coming up with thoughtful policies and student expectations.”
It was essential to get all perspectives, he added. “Particularly, participation by our students as we were writing guidelines — not necessarily policies—to maintain academic integrity on the use of AI at Brophy. Regardless of the resource used to complete an assignment — AI or otherwise — it really came down to maintaining the trust relationship between the student and teacher.”
Brophy’s existing academic ethics policy provided the springboard for students to understand the use of AI tools. The Brophy Student Handbook states in part:
“When a teacher gives a student an assignment — homework, essay, project, lab, etc. — or when a quiz or exam is given, that teacher is building the framework for the student’s learning. When the student returns the assignment or takes the quiz or exam, his name at the top of the assignment indicates that he has followed the teacher’s directions and has not taken credit for any work that is not his own.”
"Regardless of the resource used to complete an assignment — AI or otherwise — it really came down to maintaining the trust relationship between the student and teacher.”
Flint AI Partnership Leads to ‘Explosive Adoption’
Important conversations among students, parents, administrators, and faculty not only covered academic integrity, but also, finding a way to provide everyone with access to the latest-greatest technology. Mr. Mulloy adds, “In the rapidly evolving technology landscape, there’s an obvious academic advantage for students who have the ability for a subscription; we knew disparities would eventually show up, so we were looking at solutions.”
After extensive teacher testing in the classroom with Flint, an AI platform exclusively designed to help teachers provide personalized learning for K-12 schools, Brophy partnered with the provider in December 2023, to embrace AI in a manner that would benefit students.
According to the Flint case study, “How Brophy Prep democratized creative and personalized AI for the classroom,” published in March 2024:
“In just three months, Brophy’s teachers and students have found many specific and diverse ways that AI helps assist in education. Nearly every Brophy student now has a Flint account in which they can safely leverage AI for practice, exploration, learning, and more, all with oversight from administrators and teachers. Students have been using Flint hundreds of times a day, with a total of almost 11,000 sessions hosted as of early March 2023 — a truly explosive adoption of AI.”
These early results and “explosive adoption” of AI came as no surprise to Brophy President Bob Ryan. “Jesuits have always done their best work on the frontiers of innovation,” he said. “While the role of artificial intelligence in education continues to evolve and we don’t know what the next wave will bring, we will always take the stance of examining and embracing it as a mechanism for acquiring knowledge for the greater good — we are simply doing what our mission calls us to do.”
The spirit of innovation and creativity is a hallmark of Brophy’s academic philosophy which, notes Principal Jim Bopp, reflects the Jesuits’ openness to embracing new ideas and tools for creativity for the last five centuries. After all, Brophy was among the first schools to launch a one-on-one computer initiative and create a space like the Innovation Commons. “Because Brophy has a culture of being early adopters, we have learned what it means to quickly see beyond the bells and whistles and discern with real depth the core impact that any new technology can have on teaching and learning.
“That said, there have been real moments of vertigo as this technology is progressing so quickly and the technology skills necessary to make use of it are incredibly low. But what most teachers and students have seen already is that it offers us a powerful way to accelerate learning by providing comprehensive and individually tailored experiences of academic dialogue, equivalent to what you might experience with a very skilled and patient private tutor,” he said.
With teachers now tasked with ensuring that students will use AI to help them gain a greater depth of understanding — not just use technology to do the work for them — this has placed much more emphasis on verbal communication, presentations and in-person engagement. Mr. Bopp adds, “Despite all the concerns that have surfaced about students spending too much time on devices, this could be a very welcome change in approach.”
For Zeke Rolando ’25, the integration of Flint AI has made a positive impact on his learning experience with little to no disruption in the flow of learning. “One way to use Flint is almost like a TA (teacher’s assistant), someone I can ask for help or questions I have while the teacher is busy. I’ve found that to be extremely helpful and beneficial.”
Rolando notes, “The only issues I have seen have been with adjusting to the idea of using AI itself, but much like with any new school-related technology, the classroom can adjust and be better off for it.”
“ …we will always take the stance of examining and embracing it (artificial intelligence) as a mechanism for acquiring knowledge for the greater good — we are simply doing what our mission calls us to do.”
Here’s a look at how other Brophy students and teachers alike have balanced traditional teaching methods with innovative, AI-based learning approaches:
Mike Welty ’83
Mr. Welty teaches in the Science, Math and Social Studies departments.
Mike Welty ’83 believes AI in education is here to stay. He explains that it can be an invaluable tool of research in quickly and efficiently gaining information, and a robust tutor to hold students to high expectations and for sophisticated analysis. “However, AI can also be an intoxicating shortcut that prevents students from engagement at all, replacing and replicating months of hard work with a few keystrokes.”
He cautions, “Instilling in students a desire for authenticity and complete engagement in their education is essential—that way, these powerful tools can find their proper place.”
‘Under the Unwavering Eye of an AI Chatbot’
While teaching AP Seminar, Mr. Welty found the Flint Assignments to be essential, providing freshman students opportunities to “talk through” the meaning and value of the reading. “With an informed and skeptical tutor willing to push back when they gave simple or surface answers to complex questions, I found they took a deeper dive and were more thoughtful in their analysis.”
“Given the large class and dozens of sources, this approach provided immediate value to the students since we simply didn’t have the time for each student to engage in this level of discourse through the regular course activities and meetings.”
The Flint Assignments also helped students explore the stimulus materials for the second semester’s large writing and presentation project. It consists of seven source types, ranging from poetry/literature to social science articles to visual art or historical essays and peer-reviewed research. AI assignments were used to query the students’ understanding of the pieces both in isolation and in conversations with each other.
“The kids had to identify unifying themes, construct a thesis they could argue from that perspective, and select evidence from the sources to support that argument—all under the unwavering eye of the AI chatbot. I could inform the chatbot of the criteria I was looking for and it would assign a grade at the end of the exercise.”
Student Engagement is Key
Showing the students he was more interested in the process of their engagement (“I could read their AI conversations!”), Mr. Welty’s use of AI helped break them of bad habits and eventually, increased engagement. However, he notes, this will remain a challenge going forward. “Chatbot-moderated conversations with appropriate guardrails are an intellectual challenging exercise that requires understanding and preparation. The rewards are great, but it requires student buy-in to work properly.”
Consensus.com, an AI ‘Ah ha!’ Moment
Mr. Welty explains that young researchers frequently get frustrated by the research and reading process. “Finding the right search terms and reading dozens of articles that aren’t what you’re looking for make it a huge slog, particularly at the start of the project when we want energy and engagement to be high. Consensus.com takes a simple question posed by the student and links to specific articles with text that provides answers to those questions. It’s a huge boon to kicking off the research project since finding the first few relevant and quality sources is the biggest hurdle to cross.”
Art & Innovation Department Offers New Courses in AI and More
In a continued effort to enrich Brophy’s educational experience on the frontiers of imagination and innovation, the Fine Arts and Technology-Business Departments have merged into one: the Art & Innovation Department. As part of the expanded offering, there are eight new Introductory Innovation courses, open to all students, available for the 2024-’25 school year:
Advanced Concepts in Design & Technology
Advanced Robotics
AI Frontiers
AP Computer Science Principles
Architectural Drawing
Design & Technology Foundations
Digital Production
Introduction to Robotics
Stay tuned for more to come from this department and the exciting fusion of imagination and innovation!
“…there have been real moments of vertigo as this technology is progressing so quickly… But what most teachers and students have seen already is that it offers us a powerful way to accelerate learning…”
Shelby Stringer
Mrs. Stringer teaches in the English department.
Shelby Stringer views AI as moving education away from “busy work” for teachers and students, making homework more obsolete and allowing students the adjacency to apply their knowledge in real-world projects. Since she began using ChatGPT in 2022, she maintains that her teaching practice has become more innovative and efficient as she’s quickly able to design and differentiate lessons. For example, she’ll have an idea for a project and lean into AI to flesh out various student roles and responsibilities.
She shares her concern that AI may take away human connection in many schools across the country, leading to a more carceral education system. “Of course, I do not see this impacting a school like Brophy given our mission, but as the number of teachers continues to decline, educators do worry about computer-based education models becoming a real possibility.”
Enter Socratic Tutors
Notwithstanding, she has found a way to utilize AI while teaching AP English. Over the course of a school year, Brophy students will write more than 15 essays in Mrs. Stringer’s class—all in a timed writing format and LockDown browser.
While AI isn’t used in Mrs. Stringer’s classroom for these essays, it’s used when students are introduced to rhetorical analysis. She explains, “As a predictive language model, ChatGPT can be helpful in teaching students the patterns of rhetorical analysis because typically certain devices are used to elicit similar effects. On the Flint AI platform, I have used Socratic tutors to help students’ workshop theses for the AP exam.”
In her sophomore English class, the research project culminates with a nonprofit venture pitch. To help students arrive at refined ideas, students used AI-based Socratic tutors to help present their ventures and ponder ethical considerations. Mrs. Stringer adds, “But, at the end of the day, students are still required to stand in front of the room and present with confidence and knowledgeability about their proposal, which I believe is one of the most prized skills in the workplace of the future.”
Ronin Patel ’25
In AP English Language, Ronin Patel used the Flint AI interface to design a tutor to help his fellow students adequately prepare for the AP exam. By uploading the College Board’s rubric for scoring the Argument, Synthesis and Rhetorical Analysis essays, Patel initially designed the tutor to simply score essays. Then, through Flint AI’s integrated tools, he asked the AI editor to add the ability for the tutor to create prompts for students to practice writing for the AP exam. Here, Patel explains how the tutor works:
“The tutor first asks the student if he would like to practice an Argument, Synthesis or Rhetorical Analysis essay. After the student responds, the AI asks what topic or general idea they would like to practice, or if they would prefer the AI to pick for them. When I created the tutor, I gave it a list of commonly tested topics so that students could pick the one where they needed the most help (e.g., history, pop culture, science/technology, etc.). The tutor then gives the student a prompt—either with a quote (argument essay), a series of several readings (synthesis essay) or a single passage (rhetorical analysis essay)—just like how the College Board presents to students on an exam.
“The AI’s advanced machine learning skills allow the AI to recount historical events and provide quotes/excerpts based on real events. The AI will generate its own articles for students to practice using. After the student responds with their essay, the AI will give them line-by-line feedback based on the College Board’s rubric, scoring them on their Thesis, Evidence and Sophistication. It will detail how they can improve upon their essay, and choices to consider for the future. After the student submits their session, the AI will give them their score out of six, just like the AP Exam, indicate their strengths and areas for improvement and allow them to create a follow-up tutor to focus on their weaknesses.”
Charlie Nelles ’26
For Charlie Nelles, AI delivers a significant amount of personalization when integrated into traditional learning. “We can’t expect teachers to prepare resources for each student based on their own individual needs and sometimes you can’t easily get in touch with your teachers,” he said. “However, AI can solve this problem by offering students quick access to explanations and very personalized resources. If you can correctly write a prompt and know how to guide AI to what you are looking for, it can become a very powerful tool.”
He’s used AI to help him study for tests in addition to reviewing flashcards and rereading notes. “In these circumstances, I give an AI chatbot some context (the class, grade level, and the specific study topic) and ask it for grade level practice questions. This functionality is not something you can get by just looking around on the internet.”
Nelles also uses AI for ideation and brainstorming. “In some of my classes, I often use AI chat engines to generate a list of potential ideas or topics to further research. For example, in my Advanced Photography class, we often use AI to brainstorm ideas and explain what our plan is so the AI can critique it and offer suggestions. This type of brainstorming really helped me flesh out my plans for the assignments in that class.
Using AI to help learn a chemistry concept led Nelles to an “Ah ha!” moment: “I was preparing for the final lab, using Flint to explain concepts I didn’t understand. One of the concepts was thermochemistry and after asking Flint a series of questions, it all just clicked for me!”
Kevin Millar ’26
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I can have a conversation with an artificial intelligence program as if it is an Instagram chat, because when you take the time to think about that, it’ll mess with your head,” says Kevin Millar. “For example, if I need to study for a test, I can type a few things into Flint or ChatGPT or insert an AI program and it can help me study like a real person — which is out of this world.”
As far as the learning impact of AI and his experiences with it, Millar gets excited to see how teachers incorporate AI into their lesson plans. “One day we could use AI to check an essay in English — Shoutout to Dr. K! (Dani Kachorsky, Ph.D) — and the next we could use it in preparation for a test in U.S. History.
“In my Environmental Science class (Shoutout to Mr. Kolb!), we were tasked with reading an article on carbon, discerning it for ourselves and then putting it in ChatGPT to see what it spits out and compare. I could not gain an effective comprehension of the article upon initial reading, but when I put it in an AI program, it broke it down into key sections which made it a lot easier to understand — breaking down larger concepts into smaller, more comprehensible concepts has assisted me a great deal.”
Images created by Mica Mulloy, using ChatGPT 4