Using ChatGPT to learn: An artificial assistant for project work

In this next article about using ChatGPT to help your child in their studies, we’ll go into detail about how it can assist them with their school projects!

Missed the last three articles in this series? They cover topics such as what ChatGPT is all about, how to use it to condense long texts for quicker understanding, getting step-by-step help with Maths problems, and getting to know entirely new topics.

Starting on projects with ChatGPT’s help

It turns out that ever since ChatGPT was released, lots of people have tried asking it to create recipes, plan holiday itineraries, and generally think up detailed instructions for complex tasks. So it’s not too farfetched to look upon it as a suitable planning assistant for your child’s school projects!

Crafting the prompt

Unlike our previous articles, planning for a school project will require some more thought and follow up questions for ChatGPT. In general, your child may first want to seek its opinion on how to go about completing the project, before going deeper into detail in places where they might need more help with.

Let’s take for example that your child is assigned a task to revitalise their school’s neglected vegetable garden. One possible prompt would be the following:

“I am an 11 year old primary school student and I need to do a school project. Can you help me plan for it? I am supposed to restore an old vegetable garden in school.”

As you can see, ChatGPT springs into action right away, giving a detailed description of what your child needs to do to complete the project. Great!

Limitations and adjustments

For some students, this general bit of direction given by ChatGPT is enough for them to proceed and complete their project on their own. But more help is readily available for those who need it. Maybe it’s about how to determine if the garden soil is good enough to plant in the first place, or figuring out what kinds of vegetables are commonly planted locally (which would be ideal for a school garden). If that’s the case, simply ask ChatGPT about it, and it will help you figure it out.

Does your child need some more guidance as to how to plan their project work better? Luckily, ChatGPT does give some advice on that front, too:

Once again, you’ll need to remember that ChatGPT is not perfect in all things - the answers it gives might not be what your child needs, and it can sometimes give inaccurate information as well. Make sure that your child understands its limitations, and that they follow up their consultation with additional independent research.

All in all however, ChatGPT can be an incredibly powerful tool to help your child ace their project work. It doesn’t have to be all about academic stuff, too, but that’s for you and your child to explore during your free time!