Everyday AI: Recipes, Flashcards, and More

Explore prompt engineering and AI agents with projects related to food science, money management, and study prep.

Flexible STEM in Summer

Summer break offers flexible opportunities for STEM, including family activities and student-led deep dives. The out-of-school months invite students to experiment in STEM areas of personal interest, either pursuing topics that may not come up in the typical school year or exploring more deeply than the school schedule allows. This is the second post in a series about experimenting with AI and machine learning over the summer.

Everyday and Functional AI

Students interested in learning about AI and machine learning can experiment with a range of independent science projects, from environmental science to medicine and healthcare. AI can also be used for practical, everyday tasks such as organizing information, supporting learning, and managing personal finances. With the projects below, middle and high school students can experiment with prompt engineering and the design of AI agents while exploring real-world applications of AI.

Explore Prompt Engineering and Agentic AI

When working with a chatbot, the prompt is the set of directions you provide to explain the need or criteria. Prompt engineering involves exploring ways to clarify and refine prompts for better results. This can be important when trying to customize formatting, tone, or the depth and presentation of information. Agentic AI differs from simple chatbot interactions by enabling AI systems to connect to tools and carry out defined actions on your behalf.

The following projects explore prompt engineering and agentic AI with recipes, test preparation, and money management.

• 1. Recipes

  Many people find recipes online, on social media, and on YouTube, and use online sources for information about ingredients, nutrition, and variations. Chatbots can help extract and reformat recipe information and generate custom suggestions based on user input and criteria. In this project, students experiment with prompt engineering to create, compare, and evaluate AI-generated recipes based on video transcripts. Questions to consider: How important are the specific directions in the prompt? What changes can you make to the prompt to test how the output changes? What is the value of using AI to generate a text recipe from a cooking video?

  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOyksqTQBgc
  
  

• 2. Flashcards

  Explore spaced repetition, active recall, and microlearning by creating custom flashcards for a class, an exam, or a subject you are studying independently. Use prompt engineering to determine the format of the cards, what information is included, and how the information is organized. Questions to consider: How much information do you need to provide to ensure that the cards meet your needs? What types of information or question formats make the cards most useful for your learning style?

  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXfG33UfVHA
  
  

• 3. Expense Tracking

  Money in and money out! Tracking expenses is a key part of maintaining a budget and understanding individual finances. With a custom AI agent, you can create a tool to automatically track and categorize expenses and help you better manage your money. Questions to consider: How does agentic AI differ from an LLM? What other ways might agentic AI be helpful to you or your family?

  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmlUGk-dTCU
  
  

Food Science, AI, and Younger Students

Food science is a fun way for families to experiment with STEM together. The following food science activities are perfect for summer and can easily be paired with chatbot brainstorming for customization ideas and variations to try. Want to design themed drinks and snacks for a unicorn, Pokemon, or mermaid party? Chat with AI to come up with unique recipes that are practical for families to make at home. This can be a fun and tasty way to explore how AI can support creative thinking and innovation.

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  1. Make Ice Cream in a Bag

  Making homemade ice cream in a bag is easy, takes about twenty minutes, and is perfect for a summer treat. Use the Make Ice Cream in a Bag activity to explore the role of salt in making homemade ice cream. For a chatbot exploration, brainstorm custom flavor combinations, ingredients, and themed recipes. For extra inspiration, see how these kids tried to recreate their favorite gourmet flavors.

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  2. Shake Up a Slushie

  Making and customizing slushies is similar to making homemade ice cream, without the milk. In the Homemade Slushies activity, kids make their own colorful, flavored slushies using a special ice mixture made from salt and water. Tip! Plan to do this in two stages. Kids can prepare the salt-water mixture and put it in the freezer. A few hours later, they'll be able to do the shaking part of the experiment to make their slushies! For a chatbot exploration, brainstorm flavor or color combinations.

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  3. Colorful Taste Test

  Does color make a difference in how we perceive taste? Would purple "mermaid" lemonade taste different than yellow lemonade? If given a choice, would you pick the red slushy, the green one, or the brown one? Try the Color Taste Test—Do You Taste with Your Eyes? activity to explore how appearance influences taste. For extra taste-test fun, do the How Sour or How Sweet is Your Lemonade? experiment to see what ratio of vinegar to sugar might taste best in your next batch of lemonade.