Decomposition
Decomposition splits a hard task into stages that can each be checked, rather than one prompt that must somehow do everything.
AI for Kids · Class 9 · Module 2 of 9
Applied Prompt Engineering
If you cannot measure whether the output is good, you are not engineering anything.
8 sessionsSessions 9–16
4 weeksTypical pace
AppliedLevel
Class 9Artificial Intelligence
The big idea
Students decompose complex tasks into stages, use worked examples to set the standard, and score outputs against an explicit scorecard so improvement becomes evidence rather than opinion.
Why it matters
Measurement is what separates prompt engineering from prompt guessing.
Unpacked
What you will actually learn
Three core ideas, each taught with worked examples and then practised until it feels obvious.
Few-shot examples
Few-shot examples show the model exactly what good looks like, which works better than describing it.
Output evaluation
Output evaluation uses a scorecard applied consistently, so you can prove version two beat version one.
Did you know?
Asking a model to work through its reasoning step by step improves accuracy on multi-step problems — an effect strong enough to have its own name: chain-of-thought.
Common mix-up
“It looks better, so it is better.” Without scoring against fixed criteria, you are measuring your own mood.
Session by session
Your 8-session journey
Sessions 9–16 of the 72-session year, at two one-hour sessions per week.
- 1
Warm-up and big picture
Where this module fits, what you will build, and a hands-on starter that gets everyone curious about decomposition.
- 2
Decomposition
Guided teaching on decomposition, worked through together with the teacher.
- 3
Decomposition — practice lab
Independent practice, small challenges and one deliberate mistake to diagnose.
- 4
Few-shot examples
Guided teaching on few-shot examples, building directly on the previous two sessions.
- 5
Few-shot examples — practice lab
Applied tasks that combine decomposition and few-shot examples in one piece of work.
- 6
Output evaluation
Output evaluation introduced and practised, completing the toolkit needed for the project.
- 7
Project build
Guided build session for the module project: Tested prompt system with scorecard.
- 8
Test, present and reflect
Finish, test against the checklist, present the work and explain the decisions behind it.
Project lab
Tested prompt system with scorecard
Every module ends with something the student built themselves and can demonstrate. This is the piece that goes into their portfolio and gets explained out loud at the end of session 16.
Try this at home
Score ten outputs from two prompt versions against the same rubric. Then check whether your instinct matched the numbers.
It is finished when
- It works from start to finish without breaking
- You can explain every part of it in your own words
- You tested it and improved at least one thing afterwards
- Someone else used or understood it without your help
By the end of this module
Students finishing Module 2 can:
- Explain and use decomposition without prompting
- Explain and use few-shot examples without prompting
- Explain and use output evaluation without prompting
- Build and finish tested prompt system with scorecard
- Test your own work and correct what you find
- Talk an adult through what you made and why
Word bank
The vocabulary introduced here, in plain language:
- decomposition
- Breaking a task into smaller stages.
- scorecard
- A fixed set of criteria used to rate output.
- chain-of-thought
- Prompting a model to reason step by step.
Module challenge
Think you have got this?
0 XPLevel 1 · Curious Beginner
6 quick questions drawn from this module — vocabulary, the project you build, and a myth-or-fact round. Every wrong answer explains itself, so a mistake still teaches you something.
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