Formative Feedback with Science Buddies AI

If you are having trouble with this project, please read the FAQ below. You may find the answer to your question.

Select Science Buddies assignments are now enhanced with instant feedback for students to improve their science projects. Your students receive short, actionable feedback that prompts reflection and refinement of their science project — generated with AI, guided by Science Buddies rubrics.

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Suggestions point to what elements need further clarification or consideration (e.g., What variable will you change? How will you measure the effect? What will you keep the same for a fair test?) and encourage concrete next steps. It’s also positive and constructive by design: phrased as questions that invite rethinking, not criticism, so students stay motivated and in ownership of their work. The result is more iteration, clearer reasoning, and stronger final responses always written in the student’s own words.

This new feature encourages self-paced learning, iteration and improvement. Students can receive feedback that their response is proficient but there’s no requirement that they reach proficiency. The goal is to reflect, refine and reinforce student understanding of science and engineering practices.

Enhanced Assignments

Teachers can preview all AI-enabled fields on our mock assignment. Our AI Evaluation feature is available for students on the following assignments:

Define Your Project Question (Beginner and Intermediate)
My Science Project Topic (worksheet)
Define Your Variables (worksheet)
Variables In My Science Project (worksheet)
Write a Testable Hypothesis (Beginner and Intermediate)
My Science Project Hypothesis (worksheet)

We'll be adding more so keep an eye out for additional assignments enabled with AI Evaluate.

Our Commitment

We acknowledge, and we remind students, that AI can make mistakes. We also remind students to ensure that their project is conducted safely and follows the rules set by their teacher or science fair.

We’re committed to a measured, education-first approach: keep students in their own words, keep teachers in control, and improve the tool based on real classroom use.

If something isn’t working, we’ll fix it - and we welcome your feedback to help us do that.

FAQ

Q: What exactly is the AI doing?

A: It compares the student’s response to Science Buddies criteria for that field and returns a short checklist plus guiding questions. It’s designed to avoid rewriting or directly improving the student’s work.

Q: How is this different from a chatbot?

A: Students don’t chat. They type their own answer, click Evaluate, and get focused hints to revise. This keeps them inside the assignment rather than in an open conversation. The AI knows that the students can’t have a conversation and structures its responses appropriately.

Q: Will it write my students’ work?

A: No. It’s designed to never write the answer. It only suggests questions the student might consider to improve their work on their own. AI can make mistakes though and rarely may include information students could use to directly improve their work.

Q: Does it grade student work?

A: No. It’s formative feedback only for students to improve their responses before you review or grade.

Q: What if the AI gets something wrong?

A: AI can make mistakes. Students can provide simple thumbs up or down feedback for our team to review. We’ll be keeping a very close eye on this feedback. Since this is a new feature, we also welcome your feedback.

Q: What student information is shared with the AI?

A: Only the text entered in AI‑enabled workbook fields are sent to generate feedback—nothing else. We do not send student names or other identifying information.

Q: Which grades is this best for?

A: Designed for grades 6–8, but you can try it with younger or older students as appropriate.

Q: Can students over rely on it?

A: We’ve kept responses brief and question focused. Set classroom norms (e.g., two Evaluate cycles) and emphasize that students should make the edits—not the AI.

Q: Can I see what a student was asked?

A: In this first release, you’ll see the student’s final submission as usual. We’re exploring simple teacher summaries in the future.

Q: Does this require extra setup?

A: No. Add the assignments to your Pathway and assign as usual. Students will see Evaluate where this functionality is available.

Q: Is there an additional cost?

A: No. There is no cost for this new AI feature or Science Project Pathways.