Behind the symnbols

The school project "Behind the Symbols" (*Detrás de los símbolos*), designed for the 6th-year Class B at EPA School No. 10 "Maestro Escultor Vicente Lucero" in Villa Mercedes, San Luis, Argentina, proposes an interactive exhibition focused on cultural interpretation and the critical use of Artificial Intelligence. Through various thematic stations, students demonstrate how to analyze metaphors, irony, and expressive devices found in songs and other artistic works, thereby fostering critical thinking and argumentation skills. Teacher Sergio Quiroga coordinates the initiative, which draws a direct contrast between human interpretation and the technology's automated responses, highlighting digital biases and errors. In doing so, students take on a leading role as analysts and communicators, using AI solely as a collaborative aid rather than a substitute for their own independent thought.

"Behind the Symbols"—a project created for EPA 10's Open House event—promotes song analysis through a rigorous methodology centered on human critical thinking as a prerequisite to consulting technology. The analytical process is structured around three key stages: Preliminary human analysis (Thinking, Interpreting, and Arguing): Before using any digital tool, students examine the excerpt or lyrics, identifying:

o Metaphors and symbols: Figurative meanings, poetic constructions, and symbolic imagery.

o Irony and ambiguous language: Double meanings, local idioms, or obscure expressions.

o Social and historical references: Connections to identity, mass culture, politics, or the culture industry. Through the "Behind the Symbols" project, students will develop a set of academic, analytical, and digital competencies organized around four main pillars:

1. Cultural analysis and poetic reading

• Identifying expressive devices: Students will learn to break down metaphors, symbols, irony, ambiguous words, and linguistic nuances within cultural works.

• Sociocultural contextualization: They will link the works under analysis to historical and social phenomena, as well as discussions regarding identity and the cultural industry.

• Plurality of readings: They will understand that an artistic work does not have a single answer but rather allows for diverse, valid interpretations.

2. Critical use of Artificial Intelligence and digital citizenship

• Contrasting perspectives: Students will learn to compare human poetic readings with responses generated by algorithms.

• Detecting biases and limitations: They will develop the ability to identify contextual errors, omissions, literal interpretations, or incorrect associations in automated tools.

• Ethical working methodology: They will adopt a routine of first analyzing, interpreting, and formulating arguments—either individually or in groups—and subsequently consulting AI to verify, question, and cross-reference findings.

3. Argumentation and critical thinking

• Substantiating positions: Students will learn to defend their own interpretations using evidence and sound arguments.

• Questioning automated knowledge: They will understand that an AI-generated response is not automatically equivalent to true knowledge, learning to formulate deep questions rather than passively receiving answers.

4. Communication, collaboration, and creativity

• Creating micro-content: Students will design creative outreach materials (podcasts, videos, infographics, posters, digital presentations) to share their conclusions.

• Role-based teamwork: They will practice collaboration by taking on specific roles such as researchers, analysts, AI team members, critics, designers, or communicators. • Public communication: They will verbally present their ideas and lead interactive activities for families and the educational community during the events.

Professor Sergio Quiroga noted that “technology acts as a resource to stimulate inquiry and debate, while keeping people as the true protagonists in the interpretation and construction of knowledge.”