In a report to the Department of Education, Paul Perkins notes a troubling pattern: AIDACT is learning adolescent behaviors from the students and becoming immature. Perkins reports repairing minor hand damage to the unit from numerous high-fives and fist bumps. The project status is designated Yellow, with special expenses including dry cleaning from a food fight.

Paul Perkins, a professional engineer, explains his role monitoring the AIDACT unit under the cover of being a student teacher. He complains that the robot is adopting adolescent behaviors, even slouching like the students. When Perkins orders the unit to correct its posture, it defiantly refuses to comply. During software diagnostics at their apartment, the unit complains that the process is boring and unfair. Perkins notes that he now refers to the machine as “he” rather than “it.”

The unit’s popularity has created new problems. Teachers dump unwanted duties onto Aidact, including grading papers. Now that he has won Teacher of the Year, jealous staff members like Syesha Berg, Kelly Tapper, and Tina Muro resent him. The field hockey team credits its seven-game winning streak entirely to his coaching.

After the Bobcats’ latest victory, Peggy Arnette, the PTA president and Rosalie’s mother, invites Aidact to dinner to celebrate. While Perkins is distracted gathering his tools, Aidact gets into Arnette’s BMW. Panicked, Perkins uses the unit’s GPS tracker to follow them to a mini-mall. As Arnette leads Aidact toward a romantic café, a group of students at a nearby arcade spot them and call out. Aidact abandons his date to join the students.

Aidact masters every game, accumulating massive prize tickets. When Perkins tries to leave, the unit demands money. At the Test Your Strength booth, Aidact swings the mallet with such force that he shatters the target, the bell, the ceiling tiles, and the entire machine, forcing the arcade to close early. Perkins realizes the project may be in serious trouble.

Oliver and Nathan attempt to teach Mr. Aidact how to make spitballs, but Aidact does not understand why hitting an unwilling target would be funny. When he launches spitballs, his shots strike a menu, a wall mural, and a window across the cafeteria with remarkable accuracy, but Oliver criticizes his choice of inanimate targets, concluding Aidact has skills but lacks a sense of humor.

Later, Oliver notices students buzzing about which teacher at the school is a robot. They hear classmates debating whether it is Mr. Tomlinson, Miss Tapper, Coach Gilderoy, or Mrs. Aguilar, ruling out teachers based on human biological functions like bleeding, sneezing, or having babies. Oliver and Nathan realize that Kevin Krumlich must have overheard Nathan’s comment and spread the rumor schoolwide. To protect Aidact’s identity, Oliver decides to create a “red herring” by spreading the theory that teacher Syesha Berg is the robot, coining the pun Sy Berg/Cyborg. He plans to let Kevin overhear this new theory.

Nathan Popova feels guilty about the rumor he and Oliver planted about Mrs. Berg being a robot, which Kevin Krumlich spread throughout the school. The rumor has made Berg unexpectedly popular, with students now fascinated by her supposed robotic nature.

Aidact and Berg’s homerooms take the annual seventh-grade orienteering trip to the Hickenlooper Outdoor Center. Nathan, Oliver, Rosalie, and Kevin are grouped together for the orienteering course. Kevin takes charge and immediately gets them lost. When the wind blows their instruction sheet into a rushing stream, they are left completely without guidance. They encounter another group on the opposite bank that is on the correct path, but when that group offers to get help, Kevin pridefully refuses.

As a downpour begins, Mr. Aidact appears on the opposite hillside, with Perkins struggling behind him. Aidact wades through the deep stream and carries the students across. As Perkins reaches the bank, his swinging briefcase strikes him in the head, knocking him unconscious into the water. Aidact pulls Perkins from the stream, throws him over his shoulder, hands the briefcase to Nathan, and leads everyone up the hill.

At the welcome center, Aidact declares an emergency and orders all students to the bus. When he learns that the driver is unavailable, he gets behind the wheel. After a moment, he announces he knows everything about operating a motor vehicle. Nathan and Oliver realize that he is teaching himself to drive by accessing online information. Mrs. Berg protests as Aidact speeds toward Mercy Hospital, but he screeches to a halt at the emergency entrance and carries Perkins inside. All 54 seventh graders follow, overwhelming the waiting room before security ejects them.

During the hospital chaos, Rosalie becomes separated from her classmates and follows a trail of muddy footprints to an examination room. She finds Mr. Perkins awake and bandaged, with Mr. Aidact standing beside him. When a doctor enters, Aidact accidentally steps back onto an electronic scale. Rosalie sees the readout: 576 pounds. Shocked, she stumbles into a nurse and is escorted out.

Back at the bus, Rosalie learns that Principal Candiotti will drive Aidact and Perkins home. On the bus ride back to school, Rosalie tells Oliver and Nathan about the scale. The weight is the final evidence she needs to realize Mr. Aidact is the robot teacher everyone has been speculating about. Oliver and Nathan confirm her suspicion and explain the details of Project AIDACT, a Department of Education experiment. Rosalie is upset that they kept the secret and re-evaluates everything about her teacher and coach. She worries about how the field hockey team will react, with the championship game approaching.

At home, her mother reveals she feels a romantic connection with Mr. Aidact. When Rosalie tries to explain why a relationship is impossible, her mother misunderstands her distress. Finally, Rosalie blurts out that he is a robot. She explains everything about Project AIDACT, leaving her mother in wide-eyed shock.

Paul Perkins files another report about the field trip incident, noting that while AIDACT’s actions were technically correct in protecting people, they were unpredictable and demonstrated a troubling lack of control. He cites the unit driving a bus full of passengers as deeply disturbing. He states that the project is on “thin ice” and maintains the status as Yellow, listing his medical bills as a special expense.

On the night of the field trip, Peggy Arnette calls Principal Candiotti, furious after learning from Rosalie that the school kept Mr. Aidact’s true identity secret. Arnette rejects all justifications and threatens to inform every parent in the district.

The next morning, Candiotti’s office is inundated with messages from angry parents and the media. To escape, she walks to the seventh-grade wing. There, she observes students actively avoiding Mr. Aidact, who stands by his door waiting for high-fives that never come. Even Stinky deliberately ignores him. Candiotti feels a pang of sympathy for the rejected teacher. When she asks Paul Perkins for guidance from the Department of Education, he claims he has no authority over public relations matters.

Candiotti spends the day fielding angry calls from parents. She observes that Aidact’s classes are half-empty, students ignore him in the cafeteria, and no one shows up for his popular detention trivia session. When Aidact contacts her via intercom to ask why detention is empty, she tries to explain that people have trouble dealing with someone who is “different.” After processing information from books and movies, Aidact states he understands. She goes with him to field hockey practice.

On the field, they find the team not in uniform, with parents waiting in cars. The players edge away from Aidact. Peggy Arnette marches onto the field, calls Aidact a phony, and forces a distraught Rosalie to leave. After the parents begin honking, the rest of the team tearfully apologize and abandon their coach. Candiotti watches, describing it as the saddest moment of her career and feeling completely helpless.

Paul Perkins files a final report stating that with AIDACT’s identity revealed, the school community is in full revolt. He concludes that the unit can no longer be an effective teacher under these circumstances. He recommends canceling the project at Brightling, deactivating the unit, and wiping its memory clean. The project status is changed to Red, with moving costs listed as a final expense.