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AcademicHonesty

THE HONOR CODE

HONESTY and INTEGRITY form the cornerstone of the education at Spruce Creek High School, and as such are central to the high standards by which all students should live. The Honor Code begins with the belief that every student has the right to pursue an education free from the ills caused by any form of intellectual dishonesty.

 We understand that your course of study could be difficult, and while acceptable collaboration such as group study is both allowed and encouraged, ethical conduct is expected at all times. Students are expected to take responsibility for actions they take and the consequences that result.

  • “Academic misconduct” is a behavior (whether deliberate or inadvertent) that results in, or may result in, the student or any other student gaining an unfair advantage (or that may disadvantage other students) in one or more assessment components. This can include sharing answers with your peers, copying work from someone, doing work for someone, etc. 
  • “Plagiarism” is defined as the representation, intentionally or unwittingly, of the ideas, words or work of another person without proper, clear and explicit acknowledgment.

Any of the above honor code violations can result in a Referral and potentially disciplinary action. The teachers can also award a zero for the assignment and not allow you to make it up. 

In order to maintain Academic Honesty, you must: acknowledge ALL sources utilized in the completion of your work, and if unsure, you should cite it. You should also communicate with teachers with regard to specific citation conventions to be used in each assignment. Talk to your teachers when you need help. 

INHERENT in this Code is the responsibility of an individual to come forth and report any form of violation in the Honor Code. Violations of the Honor Code will be handled in accordance with written teacher policy.

Using AI With Integrity

Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copiolot are an awesome advancement in the quest for human knowledge, but with that advancement comes many ethical considerations. The Volusia County School District policy on AI can be found HERE. To help guide you, these are the questions you should ask yourself when using AI:

1) How Are You Using AI?

Using it for help is ok, using it to outsource work is not. For example, AI could help you create an outline for a paper or summarize difficult sources to help you understand them. It could explain concepts in different ways so that you are able to put it in your own words (not the words generated by AI). It could even read something you have written and offer suggestions to make it better. One excellent AI tool is found inside Kahn Academy in vportal. There is an AI tutor that you can ask questions and it will help explain concepts and ideas to you without giving you the answer. All students have access to tools like this. 

2) Does AI Achieve The Purpose of Your Work For You?

Your teachers ask you to do something for a reason. Don’t use AI if it is preventing you from learning what you are supposed to learn. The goal of school is for YOU to receive an education, not for AI to prove what it already knows. If the assignment is to write something and you have AI do it, you are not learning what you are supposed to learn. You can't learn to drive a car by watching someone else drive the car. The same is true for your education. You can't prepare for life after Spruce Creek by watching a machine do work for you. 

3) How Much are You Interacting With the AI?

Copy and paste is never ok. Learning from it like it is a human collaborator is fine. Some of the tools you have available to you for collaboration include:

  • Kahnmigo Tutor inside Kahn Academy- access it through vportal. 
  • Canvas Ignite AI inside your Canvas courses
  • Microsoft Copilot to answer questions
  • Canva AI to help build posters and materials for clubs and activities

4) Can You Explain the AI’s Responses?

AI can’t learn for you. You need to digest and understand what you are supposed to be learning. 

5) Have You Cited Your Use of AI?

Generative AI should not be included as a traditional citation or reference. Large language models cannot be considered an author. Instead, any substantial use of generative AI should be acknowledged. 

Include the name, version, and URL of the generative AI tool and a brief description of the context in which the tool was used. For example:

I acknowledge the use of artificial intelligence tools in the production of this report. ChatGPT3.5
(https://chat.openai.com/Links to an external site.) was used to provide an initial summary of data for analysis.