Interesting stuff!

I did a different kind of experiment with the Bing AI chat to see what kind of Sunday school lesson it could write for me -- one that hopefully had some engagement and creativity.

In brief, here were my results:

• When I asked it to "write me a lesson about David and Goliath for elementary age kids," it did just "okay." See details below.
  
  
• But when I asked it for creative ideas for teaching the Good Samaritan to kids, it did much better. It made me a list of a variety of ideas that Bing AI had found around the web. This looks somewhat promising if you want the kind of ideas found in print and on websites, or want to list a bunch of ideas quickly. See the result details below.

Result Details:

My first request was for an art lesson to help elementary aged students reflect on the story of David and Goliath. Screenshot of results: (click on image to enlarge)

It had good suggestions for retelling/remembering the Bible story, but not much in the way of life application reflection. Also, the response includes a number of links to websites for their lessons, which looks like BING AI is like a search engine that speaks in whole sentences.

Second try. I asked, "What is a creative way to teach children the Parable of the Good Samaritan?" Here's what it came back with:

There are many creative ways to teach children the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Here are some ideas that you might find helpful:

Get Them Curious – Sort M&Ms by Color: Have kids wash their hands and be seated. Give each child some M&Ms in a plate. Ask them to sort them by color. Then ask them to sort them again by size. Finally, ask them to sort them by shape. Explain that just like we can sort M&Ms in different ways, we can also sort people based on different things like their race, religion, or social status. But Jesus wants us to love everyone no matter how different they are from us.

Screen Time – The Good Samaritan by Crossroads Kids’ Club: Watch this animated video with your kids and discuss what they learned from it.

Make it Stick – Going Bananas: Peel a banana and cut it into small pieces. Give each child a toothpick and ask them to pick up a piece of banana with it. Then ask them to pick up another piece but this time with their other hand behind their back. Finally, ask them to pick up another piece but this time with their eyes closed. Explain that just like it was hard for them to pick up the banana with one hand behind their back or with their eyes closed, it can be hard for us to help others sometimes because we are afraid or don’t know how to do it. But Jesus wants us to help others even if it’s hard.

Dig Deeper – Play Bible Charades for Kids: Write down some scenes from the Parable of the Good Samaritan on small pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. Ask each child to pick one piece of paper and act out the scene without talking while others guess what scene it is.

Walk the Talk – Make The Good Samaritan Pop-up Cards: Print out this template and follow these instructions to make pop-up cards with your kids while discussing the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

I hope these ideas help you teach children about the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a fun and engaging way! Let me know if you have any other questions or if there’s anything else I can help you with.

Again, some meh suggestions from a Rotation.org point of view, with links to children's ministry sites. I think our Writing Team Intelligence-powered lessons for teaching the Parable of the Good Samaritan are MUCH more creative. We won't be firing our volunteer writers anytime soon!

My conclusion based on the two examples above and some other questions to Bing with similar results: AI is not yet ready to write engaging creative Sunday school lessons but could be used as a kind of search engine to pull together decent ideas quickly.

As Neil demonstrates in his posts, AI can give your kids (or you) a tool to generate "new" artwork with some unusual themes and subjects that can be interesting starting points for discussion and reflection with your students.