Your Mission
Compare two ways of researching with AI. First, work without prompting guidance. Then learn how context, questions, feedback, and follow-up messages can create a more useful research experience.
Round 1: The Unguided Research Sprint
Choose one topic from List A. Use Web’s AI Research Lab to find one interesting fact that you can share with your group. You will not receive prompting advice during this round.
List A Topics
- The Great Emu War
- Wood Frogs Freezing
- Acoustic Levitation
- The Year Without a Summer
- Lyrebirds Copying Human Sounds
Instructions
- Use the button above to open Web’s AI Research Lab.
- Research your selected List A topic in whatever way you think works best.
- Find one interesting fact and open at least one cited source that supports it.
- Be ready to share the fact and identify the source where you found it.
STOP
Do not continue until the senior station leader asks everyone to share and gives the next set of directions.
Round 2: The Conversational AI Challenge
After everyone shares a List A fact, the senior station leader will explain how to guide an AI through a conversation instead of relying on one quick request.
List B Topics
- The Antikythera Mechanism
- Pistol Shrimp Creating Shockwaves
- Death Valley’s Moving Rocks
- The World’s First Webcam Watching a Coffee Pot
- Antarctica Blood Falls
- The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
- Zombie Ant Fungus
Build the Conversation
- Choose one topic from List B.
- Explain your topic, what you already know, and what you want to understand.
- Describe your learning preferences, including format, pace, depth, helpful explanation types, and available time.
- Ask Web’s AI Research Lab to interview you by asking one question at a time before creating a research plan.
- Answer at least three of the AI’s questions thoughtfully.
- Ask for a personalized research plan containing credible sources that match your needs.
- Open and inspect at least one recommended source.
- Send at least one follow-up message that improves the plan. Do not restart the conversation simply because the first result is imperfect.
Final Comparison
- The senior station leader will reveal a model prompt after everyone completes Round 2.
- Compare the model with the conversation you created.
- Identify one improvement you noticed after providing more context and interacting with the AI.
- Be prepared to explain how asking questions, answering questions, and providing feedback changed the result.
Important
- Use AI to support research and learning, not to create work that you can submit as your own.
- Do not enter private or personally identifying information into AI.
- AI responses can be incorrect. Open the cited sources and verify important information.