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Changing helpfulness of an activity in Flint

Decide how much Sparky gives away in an activity, by asking in the builder chat or by writing it into Guidelines for Sparky.

Updated October 9, 2026

For a Chat activity, use Guidelines for Sparky in the builder's Activity behavior section to shape the hints, examples and guiding questions Sparky offers. You can write the guidelines yourself, or describe what you want and let Sparky write them.

In ordinary chats, Sparky is instructed to provide full support to teachers and guide students rather than complete their work. Activity sessions use student-style guidance even when a teacher tries them. The guidelines tune that guidance for a single activity; test the responses rather than treating the instructions as a guarantee.

You need Can edit access to the activity or its parent class to open Edit activity. File-upload activities and assessments do not have an Activity behavior section.

Guidelines for Sparky and the greeting in Activity behavior

Ask Sparky to change it

  1. Open the activity and click Edit activity.
  2. In the builder conversation, say how helpful you want Sparky to be — "don't give the answer, ask a guiding question first", or "give a worked example with different numbers once a student has tried twice".
  3. Sparky rewrites the guidelines and shows you what changed.
  4. Try it in Preview, then click Update activity to save.

Not sure what to ask for? Ask Sparky "What are my options for how much help you give?" — it answers with your activity in front of it.

Write the rule yourself

  1. Open the activity and click Edit activity.
  2. Click the activity thumbnail, select Activity settings, then expand Activity behavior.
  3. Edit Guidelines for Sparky. These are the instructions Sparky follows, so write them the way you would brief a student teacher — short, numbered, and specific.
  4. Click Update activity.

Rules that work well:

  • "Never give the final answer. Ask one guiding question at a time."
  • "Give at most two hints per problem, then break the problem into smaller steps."
  • "Wait for the student to explain their thinking before offering any guidance."
  • "If a student asks you to write the essay, decline and offer to outline it with them instead."

Two nearby settings that do something else

  • Sparky's role, just above the guidelines, is one line saying who Sparky is playing — "Socratic debate partner", "lab safety examiner". It sets the character, not the help.
  • Response style sets how long and detailed Sparky's replies are, not how much it gives away. See How to: Change Sparky's response style.

For a tour of the rest of the builder, see Changing the behavior of an existing activity.