Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Zufelt is Instructor in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts. He was recently appointed Resident Scholar in AI and Education at the school's Tang Institute. He trained as a mathematician, earning a graduate degree and completing a postdoc, then decided research wasn't his path and chose the classroom over a data-science career in tech.

Nick taught himself most of his computer science and machine learning. He now teaches Andover's advanced Machine Learning course, where students build neurons from scratch before touching any library. The day ChatGPT launched, he put it in front of his students and asked, "What do we do with this?" He has been working out the answer with them ever since. As a Tang Fellow, he co-led the ethi{CS} project, which builds ethical deliberation into STEM courses. He is also a founding member and editor of explorations at AI Co-Lab, the teacher-led, peer-to-peer AI professional development network co-founded by Maureen Russo Rodríguez and Nate Green, which has grown to thousands of educators.

In this episode, Nick talks with Svenia Busson about:

• Why computer science still matters when AI writes the code — programming vs. computer science as a liberal art
• Explaining AI to a tenth grader: "code that makes more human-like decisions" — and why "AI" is partly a buzzword
• Metacognition as the core AI skill — the "barometer" (measurement) and the "navigator" (control)
• When and how younger students should meet AI — shared-screen, whole-class use before individual access
• "Practice outside, perform inside, create in both" — a framework for assessment in the age of AI, including oral exams and assessments tightly coupled to learning objectives
• Why teachers shouldn't hand drafting over to AI — lesson plans, parent emails, and protecting your own voice
• Inside the AI Co-Lab model — monthly explorations, intermediary artifacts, and teacher-to-teacher learning
• Two quick wins for teachers: "name the verb" the AI is doing, and the "right-hand side of the chat" reflection prompt