Project Summary

As AI enters classrooms, the stakes are immediate—not abstract. Privacy breaches, cheating, bias, and misinformation aren’t future hypotheticals; they’re today’s ethical challenges. This project gives one Louisiana public high school classroom (New Harmony High) the infrastructure and curriculum to grapple with those realities head-on.

We’re building a student-run AI ethics lab powered by 20 offline AI workstations and a full curriculum in AI literacy and data science. Students won’t just use AI—they’ll reason with it, question it, and confront its consequences.

Key components include:

• 20 high-performance mini-PCs for local AI model execution

• Offline writing tools like a WASM-based claim checker

• Data visualization via Tableau dashboards, to teach pattern recognition and interpretation

• Curriculum focused on prompt design, AI reasoning, and ethical use

How will this funding be used?

Total project cost: $12,977.60

Already raised: $6,000 (in May 2025)

• $5,000 from Walter Isaacson

• $1,000 from The Philosophers Group

Funds requested: $6,977.60 to close the gap and launch the lab.

Breakdown:

• $9,598 — 20 MINISFORUM UM870 Mini PCs (Ryzen 7, 32GB RAM)

• $1,660 — 20 × 24″ monitors

• $520 — 20 backlit keyboard + mouse combos

• $1,200 — Tableau Desktop I: Fundamentals (teacher training)

Every dollar will be used for student-facing hardware or direct teacher capacity-building. No admin, no overhead.

Team & Track Record

• Sean Muggivan — Lead Instructor

  • 10+ years in teaching (math, data science), with a background in community-based social work.

  • Designed the data science curriculum and developed the classroom’s AI tooling stack (including a local claim-checker and prompt tutor).

• Blake Bertuccelli-Booth — Oversight & Evaluation

  • Founder of Equalify; Assistant Director of Digital Accessibility at the University of Illinois Chicago.

  • Will review progress quarterly and support with reporting and scale strategy.

  • This is his second major AI-EDU philanthropic project in Louisiana; his first funded a $13,000 grant that led to a school-wide AI playbook and an AI literacy course for all students.

Most likely failures

• Limited teacher prep bandwidth: With ongoing staffing shortages, it’s hard for teachers to carve out sustained time for training and integration. While some summer prep is planned, school-year disruptions (testing, substitute coverage) could affect momentum. Mitigation: structured async materials and curriculum templates.

• Student disengagement: Without careful scaffolding, some students may struggle with AI concepts and disengage. Mitigation: tools are embedded in writing, analysis, and problem-solving work—where engagement has been strongest.

• Curriculum integration strain: Even promising projects risk deprioritization when facing rigid schedules and state testing. Mitigation: tie outcomes to standards and provide clear Tableau dashboards to demonstrate value to school leaders, and the school leader is firmly behind us

Bottom Line: This grant turns AI ethics into a lived, local reality. With low-cost infrastructure and real-world tools, we’re giving students the power to explore—not just AI, but what it means to live responsibly in a world that runs on it.