From Shortcut to Scholarship: Teaching Students to Research With AI

How can we help students use AI to become stronger researchers without allowing it to replace the thinking and writing that meaningful research requires?

At the American School of Bombay, we approach both the IB Extended Essay and our Capstone project as skills-based learning experiences. The final product matters, but the greater value lies in the process: developing a focused question, finding and evaluating evidence, building understanding, managing time and making ethical decisions.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore how AI can strengthen that process. Working with a research question of their choice, they will use tools such as Elicit, NotebookLM, ChatGPT, Gemini and Bibcitation to investigate a topic, identify useful sources, understand complex information, refine their thinking and organise research. The emphasis will be on teaching transferable research skills, rather than simply introducing a collection of tools.

Participants will leave with practical activities they can adapt for high school students, a clearer understanding of where AI can genuinely enhance research, and approaches for establishing ethical guardrails when students make poor choices.

The session presents AI as a research partner, while keeping the thinking, decision-making and writing firmly with the student.