Are you smarter than an HISD ‘Art of Thinking’ 6th-grader? Take this quiz to find out.

Many Houston ISD students are taking a new course this year , called “Art of Thinking,” that aims to teach them concepts like logic, bias and correlation.

HISD’s first-year superintendent, Mike Miles, said the class delivers much-needed lessons that will prepare kids to critically think in the workplace of the future. But some scholars, teachers and families argue students aren’t prepared for the complexity of the class.

The Houston Landing obtained a unit quiz from a sixth-grade Art of Thinking class that illustrates some of the concepts being taught. Take the quiz below to sample the lessons being taught — and see how you’d fare in the class. (The Landing was unable to obtain an answer key that explains why each answer is correct, and HISD officials declined to provide the key.)

Sample questions from Houston ISD Art of Thinking quiz

In which scenario would using a Venn diagram be most useful in literature? Identifying themes in a single poem Comparing and contrasting two different genres of literature Listing unrelated facts about a novel Describing the characters of a story If the author consistently presents only positive aspects of a topic and ignores the negatives, what can you infer? The author is biased and may lack objectivity The author is an expert in the field The topic has no negatives The author is neutral What is the main objective of the first step in the problem-solving process: Identify the problem? Select the best solution Restate in detail the actual problem Predict if the problem will be solvable Brainstorm possible solutions Is the following statement true, false, probable, or unknown? "Earth is the only planet where life can be found." True False Probable Unknown What is metacognition? Creating mental images in your mind Wondering as you read Thinking about your thinking Thinking about what the text might be about What does it mean to determine an author's point of view? Identify the main characters in a story Understand the author’s feelings about a topic Count the number of pages in a book Memorize the chapter titles If a student refuses to participate in a group project, what is a likely consequence? The student will receive extra credit The group project will be more successful without the student’s involvement The student may miss out on valuable learning experiences and a good grade The teacher will ignore the situation

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