Use AI to help with math, then check its answers

Where AI goes wrong on homework math

AI math mistakes on K–5 homework tend to start in a few places. It can misread the photo, miscounting dots or swapping rows and columns. It can answer a slightly different question from the one on the worksheet. And it can slip on the arithmetic itself, then write the wrong number as confidently as a right one.

Each of our 3rd grade units names the slip to watch for on that skill, and the answer keys on our own sheets are computed by code.

Check before you print

• Does the problem it typed back match the photo exactly?
• Did it name the same strategy your child’s worksheet uses?
• Work one new problem yourself and compare it with the key.
• If the problem has a picture (an array, a number line, a clock), check the AI’s description of it. If the description is wrong, type the problem out instead of using the photo.
• If anything looks off, ask again in a new chat. If two answers differ, trust neither.

Ask it to recheck its own key

Before I use the answer key, check it.
1. Redo every problem a second way. For a division problem, multiply back. For a multiplication problem, add the groups or use a fact you know.
2. Make a table with the problem, your first answer and your second answer.
3. If the two answers differ on any problem, say which ones. Don't pick one.
Don't change the problems.

If it finds a difference, cross that problem out. The same AI can be wrong twice, so still work one problem yourself.

What to say to your child

• “AI can sound sure and still be wrong. Let’s check one together.”
• “How could we check this without the AI?”
• “Multiply back. Do you get the number we started with?”

See it on a real skill

See the slip to watch for on a real skill:

• Arrays
• Division as sharing