The Founding Lab

For educators who want to become architects of thinking — not police officers of AI use.

The first pilot of the method is being formed in Tbilisi, in Georgian, with 8–10 educators by personal invitation. An international cohort in English will follow once the first cases are documented.

Georgian pilot · Forming now·International cohort · TBA

What this is

This is not a course.
It is a working circle.

The Founding Lab exists to test, refine, and strengthen The Human Intelligence Method in real classrooms — with real assignments, real students, and real constraints. We will build the method by using it.

I am beginning small and on purpose. The first pilot is a Georgian-language circle in Tbilisi with 8–10 educators, gathered by personal invitation rather than an open call. They will each carry one redesigned assignment through to a documented case. Those cases will shape what the international cohort looks like — its size, its rhythm, what it can promise, what it cannot.

The shape of the work

Four stages. One real assignment.
One documented case.

01

STAGE ONE

The audit.

Choose one assignment from your current teaching. Audit it against the five principles. Where in this task is the student's thinking actually visible?

02

STAGE TWO

The redesign.

Rebuild the assignment using the five-stage shape — Before AI, With AI, After AI, Final Work, Oral Defense. Adapt it to your subject and age group.

03

STAGE THREE

The classroom.

Run the redesigned assignment with your real students. Watch what happens. Take notes on what the room does that it has not done before.

04

STAGE FOUR

The case.

Write a short, honest case. What worked. What failed. What you would change. Share it with the circle. The method is shaped, in part, by what you bring.

What you leave with

Five things, none of them theoretical.

  1. One redesigned assignment, in your own subject

    Not a generic template. A specific task you can keep using next term, the year after, and the year after that.

  2. One documented case from a real classroom

    A short written record of what happened when you ran it — what changed in the room, what students did, what failed, what surprised you.

  3. A small private circle of educators doing the same work

    A small circle of educators reading each other's cases. The conversations and connections often outlast the Lab itself.

  4. A draft of the method shaped, in part, by what you bring

    The Human Intelligence Method is a developing framework. Founding Lab cases will inform the next iteration of the principles, the protocols, and the published material.

  5. Founding Practitioner status

    A permanent designation as part of the first cohort. Founding Practitioners are first to be invited to future certification, training, and partner programs.

Who this is for

The Lab is small on purpose. Not everyone who is interested is the right fit.

This is for you if

  • You teach, or design learning, for ages 10–18.
  • You can run one redesigned assignment with real students this term.
  • You are willing to share what happens — including what fails.
  • You read the manifesto and felt recognition, not just interest.
  • You are willing to be in a small circle of educators reading each other's work.

This is probably not for you yet if

  • You are looking for a turnkey AI policy or compliance framework.
  • You want certification before doing the work.
  • You cannot run the redesigned assignment with real students this term.
  • You prefer to read about new methods before trying them in your own room.

Two cohorts

The practical details.

Your subject is welcome

What kind of assignment can I bring?

The method is built around the shape of the work, not a specific subject. If you teach something where students are asked to think, you can redesign that work here. A few examples of what previous educators have brought to similar conversations:

A note on
student privacy

No student names. No identifying details. No original student writing without explicit consent. Cases focus on what you, the educator, designed and observed. Anything involving student work is anonymized and aggregated. Student privacy is treated as a hard rule, not a guideline.

Honest about Cohort One

This is the first public cohort of the method.

It is intentionally small.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is serious practice.

A few questions, before you sign up

What people often ask.

Founder · Museum Leader · Education Systems Architect

Sofiko Bigvava

Creator of The Human Intelligence Method. CEO and founding team member of Experimentorium since 2016, an interactive science museum in Tbilisi. Founder of Girls Who Change the World, an international education movement.

I am gathering the first pilot by personal invitation. Founding Lab is the work I most want to do this year.

Read more →

Interest list · International cohort

Be the first to hear when it opens.

The international (English) cohort will open after the Georgian pilot completes and its first cases are published. Leave your name and I will write to you directly — before any public announcement — when the dates and format are set.

You are on the list.

I will write to you directly when the international cohort opens — before any public announcement.

In the meantime, if you have not yet read the manifesto, that is the best place to start.

— Sofiko