Activity: "Future beats"
In the following document, you can see the complete activity. If you'd like to just read an overview, you can check the information underneath it.
Group: Pau Pérez, Noah Vera, Gemma Ribalta and Ulrikke Andreassen
Activity: "Future beats"
Description: Each group of children asks ChatGPT questions from a specific topic they have decided. They need to use at least one descriptive question (can you describe…?). They are going to use the answers they get from ChatGPT to write a lyric to create a song using SUNO AI. Each group will play and sing their song, and the other groups will need to listen and guess the topic.
Target age: This AI activity has been designed for 5th graders.
Location: This AI activity can be held in any location, although it requires technological devices such as laptops or tablets.
Materials:
Apps used: Suno (https://suno.com/) and ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chat).
Equipment: Some technological devices will be needed, as children will be using AI programs. However, it is enough if each group has one electronical device, such as a laptop or tablet.
Handouts: Handouts with simple sentence structures or common verbs will be given to children. Examples of common errors will also be provided. Link to Language Support.
Learning objectives:
To use all the random words to create a sentence with each.
To sequence the sentences to create a song.
To deduce what topic each group has chosen for their lyric.
Lesson plan:
Pre-task: Students will need to know how to ask questions, in order to ask ChatGPT the different questions. They need to have an understanding of what descriptive questions (can you describe…?) mean, and the teachers can help them with this. They will also need to know basic sentence structure, to help them when writing the questions.
The teacher will show them how to use ChatGPT and how to create effective prompts in order to get a specific answer before they start the activity. These prompts must have some of these elements: context, instructions, input data or output indicator. Teachers will wait until children are done using ChatGPT in order to show them how to use Suno AI.
The start of the activity includes children being separated into groups of 4–5 people. When they are situated, they should choose a topic (preferably one they have studied before, such as sports, space, etc.). This topic must be kept as a secret for the other groups.
In music class, the children will have already learned the structure of a song. They will have explored how a song is organized, typically focusing on its different sections like the verse, chorus, bridge, and sometimes an intro or outro.
Main-task: When all the groups have picked their topic, they will use one device per group (laptop or tablet). The students are then going to use this topic to make at least one descriptive question (can you describe…?) specifying they want the answer in separate words (can you describe ____ in 5 isolated words?). When they are done making these questions, they are going to ask ChatGPT to answer the questions for them.
When they get the answers from ChatGPT, the students need to read the answers and write down on a piece of paper the words they do not understand and consult any doubts they may have (with the help of a dictionary or the teacher). If any words are too complex, they can ask the AI for another one. After all students have completed the previous task, the teacher will explain their next goal: using these answers to create the lyrics of a song.
The teacher will be around the students while they create the lyrics, and when a group considers their lyrics finished, they will show the teacher before going into the next task.
Final-task: When they finish the last tasks, they will use their devices to access Suno AI and create their song (just one device per group). They will have to use the custom mode, as Suno has the option to create the whole song from scratch. For their song, they will choose a genre and write the lyrics they created with ChatGPT’s words.
When all the groups are done with their creation, each group will have enough time to rehearse the song before playing and singing it to the others. The rest of the groups must listen and try to guess what topic they chose, based on the words and sentences they can recognize.