Open with the two-tools framing on the board: traditional search returns links, AI search returns a written answer with sources. Ask the class who has used an AI tool for a question this week — most hands go up. Name the risk early: AI confidently makes things up, so verification is the student's job.

This lesson directly scaffolds the SM4 KA1 investigation and feeds the Contemporary Issue Task and General Education Task. Note that the written General theory exam section tests traditional operators explicitly, so those must be learned, not just skimmed.

Put one shared example topic on the board so no student is blocked at the first operator step. Suggested fallback: apprenticeship pay in Ireland.

Demonstrate two operators and one AI prompt live on the classroom screen so students see the difference before they try it. Stress the verification concept — search the class for an AI answer, then open its cited source together and check whether it holds up. This is the exam-relevant and KA-relevant habit.

The General theory written exam section tests traditional operators, so make sure site:, filetype:, exact-phrase quotes, exclusion (-) and OR land clearly for every student.

Circulate during this segment. The most common stumble is students typing the operator with a space after the colon (site: gov.ie) which breaks it — watch for that. Run a quick checkpoint after the operators + table block (instruction 8) before students move on to the AI prompt and verification, so weaker readers don't fall behind. If the school uses one specific browser or AI tool, point students at the approved one during the demo. On a touch device, students long-press or double-tap in the search box to get straight double quotes and should turn off any autocorrect that inserts a space after the colon.

The hallucinated-source issue is the most important one for the exam and the KA. If a student hits a dead cited link, use it as a teaching moment for the whole class — this is exactly why verification is non-negotiable.

This artifact feeds the SM4 KA1 investigation directly — the operators students choose here are the ones they'll reuse when gathering their real sources. It must be started and verified in class, not deferred to homework, because it is the KA evidence. Confident and fast students can add the remaining operators and a third AI prompt as bonus rows. Encourage honesty in the verification notes; a note that says "the AI got it wrong" is more valuable evidence of the skill than one that says everything checked out.