AI at Pelion

We are building Pelion as a school where demanding academic study travels with students and the world becomes a place of sustained inquiry. AI helps make this model possible by bringing learning support into the field and putting more advanced research tools within students’ reach.

Alongside that opportunity comes a responsibility: students must develop the knowledge to question information, the judgement to decide what to do with it, and the character to take responsibility for their actions. At Pelion, they will practice these things through research and the shared demands of expeditionary life, with AI as part of the equipment.

1Academic continuity in the field

Students will travel through six regions over two years. Five field faculty will teach the cohort of ten through scheduled seminars, practical instruction and individual guidance. Between teaching sessions, AI will provide further explanations, research prompts and feedback, including through augmented reality, helping students work through difficulties and pursue questions as they arise.

It can also help students explore unfamiliar analytical methods, develop code and examine datasets. These capabilities open more ambitious research to them, provided they understand the methods well enough to check the results.

The cohort will carry field devices, research instruments, augmented reality equipment and satellite internet. AI use will be planned around the power and connectivity available at each location, and teaching plans will account for periods when online tools are unavailable.

For example, in the Okavango Delta, students will combine hydrological measurements with published records and knowledge shared by Bayei instructors about the flood, livelihoods and wetland stewardship. AI will help them explore an analytical method, build a visualisation or identify questions their explanation leaves unanswered. Students will check the analysis, investigate conflicting evidence, state the limits of their observations and defend their conclusions. Teachers will guide the inquiry throughout.

Across the six terms, students will return to earlier questions with new evidence. AI can help them compare findings across places; teachers will help them judge whether differences in method, season or local circumstances make a comparison useful. Students will revisit and revise their earlier work as their understanding develops.

2Student competencies in the field

As AI becomes more capable, students need opportunities to exercise judgement themselves and experience the consequences of their choices.

Pelion will develop them through everyday demands: sustaining an investigation, contributing to camp, listening to someone whose experience challenges an assumption, or deciding how to respond when a plan fails. Students will learn when to lead, when to seek help and how to follow through on a commitment.

Educators will help students examine their decisions and learn from feedback. Relationships with host communities will require respect for the terms on which knowledge is shared. Physical challenge and creative work will have a regular place in the program, alongside time for conversation, reflection and undistracted attention to their surroundings.

3Assessment

AI’s contribution will be judged by what students understand and can subsequently do. Strong foundations in reading, writing, mathematics, science and the humanities will help them question an answer and recognise what it misses.

Students will learn how AI works, where its limitations and biases lie, and what responsible use requires. They will practice deciding when to use it and how to evaluate the assistance it provides.

Designated examinations and practical demonstrations will establish independent capability. Other tasks will assess students’ ability to work effectively with appropriate tools. Permitted assistance will be clear for each task. Field records, drafts and oral defense will make students’ reasoning and individual contributions visible. Students will declare assistance and remain accountable for their methods and conclusions.

4Working with technology leaders

We will work closely with technology leaders to develop both the curriculum and the practice of teaching and learning in the field. Our advisers include engineering leaders from Microsoft AI and Stanford University. This expertise will inform teacher development, the evaluation of emerging tools and trials suited to Pelion’s field conditions.

Teachers will receive training and support to guide students’ use of AI. School leadership will oversee age-appropriate access, safeguarding, privacy and academic integrity, including equitable access to the tools students need.

Student feedback, teachers’ observations and evidence of learning will inform regular review. We will change approaches that weaken understanding, independence, wellbeing or relationships.

5Pathways beyond Pelion

We will regularly review university entry requirements and developments in working life. Relationships with universities, researchers, employers and technology practitioners will inform curriculum choices and individual guidance.

A defended thesis and a portfolio of published work will provide evidence of sustained inquiry alongside the qualifications each student’s chosen pathway requires. Work will be shared or published where appropriate, respecting consent and commitments to those who contributed.

Our aim is graduates who can do demanding work with powerful tools and think for themselves.