Biosciences GenAI for Study Skills

Gemini for BIS Students: Prompting 101

There are multiple ways to access the generative AI features of Gemini, but the easiest is to log into your University account and select My Services > Google Gemini.

Understanding what makes an effective prompt and learning to craft prompts on the fly will supercharge your study skills. You can think of Gemini as your AI-powered assistant that can help you:

• Improve your writing

• Organise data

• Summarise information from long documents and lectures

• Develop your reflective writing skills (Employability)

• Time management: draft a daily or weekly planner to help you manage your time more effectively

• Stress management: explore stress management techniques that suit you

• Identify key points from a review article, research article or lecture transcript

• Communicate effectively and professionally with lecturers, students and potential employers

• Financial planning and creating a budget

• Refresh your knowledge

• Research unfamiliar topics

• Create self-assessment quizzes

How to use this prompt guide

This website is a quick-start guide to introduce you to using Gemini in your studies. It includes examples of use cases, and potential prompts for everyday tasks that will be useful at University and beyond.

You will notice a variety of prompt styles. Some have bracketed items, which indicate where you would fill in specific details. Other prompts are presented without variables marked to show you what a full prompt could look like. All of the prompts in this guide are meant to inspire you, but ultimately they will need to be tweaked to help you with your specific task.

To get started, log into your university account and open Gemini. Try this for your first prompt, note that you can change the text in the [square brackets] to whatever you choose:

Knowing that I love [how to train your dragon films], suggest names for my new [house plant].

Before putting an output from Gemni into action, review it carefully to ensure relevance and accuracy. GenAI has been developed to help you, but the final output is yours.  

You should not directly submit any output from GenAI as your own work, as this is an example of unfair means.  Find out more on the FAQs page.

🌿 Remember, while generative AI can be a powerful tool for learning, it's important to be mindful of its environmental impact. Consider using AI responsibly and explore alternative tools when appropriate. By being conscious of our AI usage, we can help reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to a more sustainable future. 🌻