A lab notebook for a prompt, not for a password
A teacher asks: how did you get to that? “From AI” is fog. A trail is: a date, a brand (window), a prompt in your own words, what came, what you crossed out, where you checked. That is honesty and science too. Without a trail you do not repeat an experiment. With too much trail (a whole chat dump with names) you carry data. A detective writes a middle: three to five lines. A password, an email, a photo of chat with classmates — no. A trail is your memory of work. It helps with a defence. It helps when a parent says “show the method”. It helps you, when in a week you will not know why you believed a year. A trail will kill that year or save it.
Bára has a nice outline in the notebook and does not know from what. Ema: “What was M1?” Bára shrugs. A teacher would do the same. They make a trail backwards from history mum can see. They write: 12 May, Gemini, a prompt of five sentences with no studies, a fake name came, a cross-out, checked p. 22. Bára sees that without a trail the fake name could crawl in again. A trail is a safety net. It is not a snitch. It is a lab notebook. Mum’s password is not there. A whole class screenshot neither.
Five lines right after closing the chat. Tomorrow all prompts already sound the same in memory.
A middle trail: enough for a defence, little for a leak
Too little: “I did it in AI.” Too much: a whole transcript with a classmate’s phone in the prompt. Middle: when, which window, the core of the order, a hook, a door, a cross-out. That you can show a teacher when they ask how. Some teachers ban AI — then a trail shows you did questions, not handing-in, or that you did not. Truth. When they ban and you lie, a trail would catch you — so do not cheat. When they allow an outline, a trail is praise. A detective loves a trail, because an experiment with no write-up is not an experiment. It is an impression.
A trail template. Fill it.
- When:
- Window (brand):
- Core of the prompt (not a novel):
- A hook that came out:
- Door:
- Cross-out / left:
- What is from a book:
An example: 12 May Claude. Year 7 Hussites, 5 sentences with no studies. Name X. Index a cross. Cross-out. A year from the table p. 30 left.
Do not share a trail with a screenshot of someone else’s names into a class group. A trail is your lab notebook, not chat content.
Why this right now
You are in the course Ask with Martin, level Detective. You work in a chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) — same game, different brand. No code. A parent or the school creates the account. A child’s email does not belong here.
This is not the Inventor level. There you build a chatbot on your own website. Here you are a user: a question, a check, a citation.
You will know this lesson by one sentence: Five lines after chat: what you entered, what landed, where you checked. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.
Tomorrow three sources. Each source and a prompt for an outline wants a trail. Without it the project is a pile of papers with no story of work.
Four things you will build in this course
The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.
🏫 A report with citations
An outline, three sources that exist, and a sentence in your own words. AI must not be the only author.
With three sources a trail for each: I saw it, a page, a date.
📝 Test training
Coach role: let it ask, do not let it say the answer. You count / answer yourself.
With a coach a trail: a chapter, a number of questions, no key.
📅 Family planner
Tasks for the week (not passwords, not marks). A parent sees the plan, not your chat.
Planner: a trail is not needed for passwords — passwords are not there.
📜 An AI code for the class
Seven short rules on a poster. No horror — a how-to.
Code: “We can say how, not only that it was from AI.”
Workshop: a template at once
A short chat about schoolwork. Five lines at once. Then try to tell a teacher out loud how. Without reading a whole dump.
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Draw a template in the notebook. M1 a short honest prompt. Check one hook.
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Close. Fill the template. No passwords.
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Say a how paragraph out loud. A parent plays teacher.
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On purpose skip a door in the sentence — you will see it is fog again. Add it.
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Do not stick a screenshot. A template is enough.
Practice: fog, or a trail
Fix it so it can carry a teacher’s question.
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“It was from AI.”
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A whole dump including a classmate’s name.
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A template with no check door.
Now you 💪
Go through three checks. At each one tick in your head: can I see it, or not?
- You have a template in the notebook.
- You can do how out loud.
- A trail does not carry passwords and someone else’s names out.
If something is missing, go back to the steps above. This is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on sure, not confused.
Check: One piece of work has five trail lines. The fog “from AI” is gone.
What to take from this lesson
- A trail is a lab notebook.
- Five lines at once.
- Middle: enough for how, little for a leak.
- A teacher asks how — you have an answer.
- An experiment with no write-up is an impression.
- The names in the examples (Bára, Ema) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo here.
- Next lesson: When you can do this, go to the next lesson in the same level.
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