Using Generative AI to Learn History - Part 2
Using Generative AI to Learn History - Part 2
Telling engaging stories to a 9-year old
This past weekend my wife and I took Everest on a roadtrip from Austin to New Orleans to visit the National World War II museum. On the drive we listened to the podcast Presidential and History Storytime (both highly recommended). The hope was to get her as much of a grounding in WWII as possible before visiting the museum. The museum itself was excellent (more on that in a future post).
We are now less than two years weeks to Everest’s first History Bee/Bowl Regionals. As of today she is well prepared for the Bee prelims. She is about half prepared for the Bowl prelims (getting fully prepared is the priority for the next two weeks). She has done no real structured preparation for the Finals. I’m hoping we will be able to do that over the next two weeks, but final prep may need to wait for her second attempt at regionals in February. Onto todays post!
My original plan was to have Everest read age-appropriate books on all of the content she needed to learn. It did not take long to discovered problems with the plan:
There was lots of content she needed to learn where no age-appropriate book existed (Biafra Civil War in Nigeria; Peter the Great; Indria Gandhi; Cyrus the Great… there are lots more!)
Even short books take time to read. Everest is a fast reader, but expecting her to read more than one “Who Was” book per day is unrealistic
While the content in a book like “Who Was” covers everything she needs, it also covers a lot more than she needs to know. And the stuff she DOES need to know, can easily get lost
I turned to ChatGPT for the solution. I iterated on prompts until I landed on something that seemed to work. Here was my first attempt at Peter the Great:
Peter the Great, born in 1672, wasn’t your average ruler—he was larger than life, both in personality and in height! At nearly 6'8", Peter towered over others, and his vision for Russia was just as big. When Peter became Tsar of Russia in 1682, the country was vast but not as advanced as the nations in Western Europe. Peter knew that if Russia was going to become powerful and respected, it needed to modernize, and he was determined to be the one to make that happen.
Peter loved learning new things, and he was fascinated by the advancements happening in Europe—places like France, England, and the Netherlands were thriving with new ideas in science, technology, and government. So, Peter decided to see it all for himself. In 1697, he embarked on what became known as the "Grand Embassy," a journey across Europe where he traveled in disguise (though it was hard for someone so tall to hide!). He visited shipyards, factories, and universities, eager to learn everything he could about modern technology and government systems.
When Peter returned to Russia, he was ready to make big changes. His main goal was to Westernize, or modernize, Russia so that it could compete with the powerful nations of Europe. First, he completely revamped the Russian military, creating a strong navy from scratch. Peter knew that Russia’s success depended on its ability to defend itself and trade by sea, so he built ports and brought in shipbuilders from Europe to teach Russians the latest techniques.
But Peter didn’t stop at the military. He wanted to change the very way Russians lived. One of the most surprising reforms he made was about appearance—Peter ordered the Russian nobility to adopt European fashion. He even forced them to shave their long beards, which had been a traditional symbol of Russian identity for centuries. This didn’t go over well at first, but Peter was determined. He even imposed a "beard tax" on those who refused to shave!
Peter’s efforts to Westernize extended to education as well. He founded schools and brought in European teachers to introduce new ideas in mathematics, science, and engineering. He also encouraged Russians to study abroad, knowing that education would be the key to transforming his nation.
One of Peter’s most ambitious projects was the creation of a new capital city—Saint Petersburg. Built on the marshy shores of the Baltic Sea, this new city was designed to look like the great cities of Western Europe, with grand buildings and wide avenues. It became known as the "Window to the West" and symbolized Peter’s desire to open Russia to the world. Thousands of workers toiled in harsh conditions to build it, but Peter’s vision came to life. Saint Petersburg became Russia’s new capital and a symbol of the country’s transformation.
Peter ruled with an iron will, and his reforms weren’t always popular. Many people resisted the changes, preferring their old ways of life. But Peter was relentless—he believed that without modernization, Russia would be left behind.
By the time of Peter’s death in 1725, Russia had changed dramatically. It had a strong navy, a modern army, and connections to Western Europe that it had never had before. Peter the Great had taken a once-isolated country and turned it into a major European power. His vision for Westernization transformed Russia and laid the foundation for its future as a leading world nation.
Peter’s story is one of determination, curiosity, and a bold vision for change. He showed that with the right leadership, a country could transform itself and stand on equal footing with the great powers of the world. Today, Peter the Great is remembered as one of Russia’s most influential and visionary rulers.
That’s not bad! It is readable. It is fairly short. It hits the key points that “everyone” should know about Peter the Great, and even “trivia” that would be helpful to add to her memory:
Westernized and modernized Russia
Grand Tour
Built the first Russian navy
Reformed fashion and made Russian men shave their beards
Moved the capital to St Petersburg, and gave it a new nickname, “Window to the West”
I could definitely have ended there, but I came up with a few more ideas that took it AI Generation further.
Oversimplified History
Everest’s favorite history Youtube channel is “Oversimplified”. The biggest drawback to the channel is that, compared to channels like “Crash Course” it has very little content. I tried using ChatGPT to write new scripts in the style of Oversimplified. It can write some good stuff! But only if one spends time iterating with it and giving it feedback. Here is the best one I got it to create (this is the first one I worked on when I had the most patience with the process). The Spanish American War, Oversimplified-style
Alright, buckle up, because we’re about to dive into the Spanish-American War—a war that lasted about as long as a Netflix binge, but managed to change a ton of stuff. No spoilers though… wait, actually, all spoilers. Let’s do this.
PART 1: Cuba’s Like, “I Want Out!”
Picture this: it’s the late 1800s, and Cuba’s a colony of Spain, but things aren’t exactly going great. Imagine living with your parents forever, and now they’re making you mow the lawn and take out the trash. Yeah, Cuba’s not having it. The people want independence—freedom, liberty, and probably some good coffee. Meanwhile, Spain’s like, “Nope. You’re staying in this house as long as you’re under our empire!” Cue the teenage rebellion: Cuba launches a full-blown fight for independence.
Now, who’s watching all of this from the sidelines? That’s right—the United States, munching popcorn like, “Hmm… freedom? Independence? Those are my favorite things!” America was kinda into the idea of Cuba ditching Spain, especially since Cuba was right next door. It’s like your neighbor’s having a noisy breakup, and you can’t help but get involved.
PART 2: The Maine Event (Get it? The “Maine” Event?)
Enter the USS Maine, the star of this whole show. Picture a massive American battleship just chilling in Havana Harbor, being all intimidating and minding its own business. Then, BOOM! The ship explodes like someone cranked the volume on a Michael Bay movie. Kablam! Everyone’s looking around like, “Wait… who did that?!”
America immediately points at Spain. “It was totally them!” The press—imagine it like the Twitter of 1898—goes wild with headlines screaming, “REMEMBER THE MAINE! TO HELL WITH SPAIN!” It’s basically trending worldwide. Tensions skyrocket, and the US is looking for a reason to throw some hands. Well, this was it.
PART 3: War? Why Not! Let’s Go!
April 1898. The US declares war on Spain, and suddenly it’s like the Wild West but with battleships and bayonets. The US Navy heads over to the Caribbean and the Pacific, all while probably playing some epic battle music in their heads.
First up, the Battle of Manila Bay. Admiral George Dewey, the guy in charge, rolls up to the Philippines—another Spanish colony—looks at the Spanish fleet, and says, “You’re gonna want to remember this day.” Long story short, he wipes them out before breakfast. One might say Dewey did it. (I know, terrible pun, moving on.)
But the fun doesn’t stop there. Over in Cuba, you’ve got future president and all-around adventurer Theodore Roosevelt. The guy’s basically Captain America before there was a Captain America. Teddy, along with his Rough Riders (which sounds like a biker gang but it’s really just a bunch of cowboys and polo players), charges up San Juan Hill like they’re in a superhero movie. Picture slow motion, dust flying, dramatic music… and somehow Roosevelt’s mustache looking perfect the whole time. The US wins, and Teddy becomes a living legend. Cue the fanfare.
PART 4: The Afterparty (Also Known As, “Treaty of Paris”)
So, by the end of 1898, Spain’s like, “Okay, okay, we give up! You win!” They sign the Treaty of Paris, and the US walks away with a bunch of Spain’s former colonies—Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. It’s like Spain just handed over the keys to a bunch of cool new territories and said, “Here, you take care of them now.” And America’s like, “Don’t mind if I do!”
This war basically launches the US into full-on imperial mode, like they just unlocked a new level in the game of world powers. Suddenly, the US isn’t just a scrappy, young country anymore—it’s flexing its muscles on the global stage like, “Yeah, I lift.”
PART 5: So What Did We Learn?
So, what was the Spanish-American War all about? Well, it was short, sweet, and packed with action, like the world’s most intense trailer for a summer blockbuster. But it was also about something bigger—America stepping into the spotlight as a major player in world politics. And Teddy Roosevelt? He went on to become president and basically wrestled bears for fun. (Okay, maybe not literally, but would you be surprised?)
So, that’s the Spanish-American War! Explosions, mustaches, and a whole lot of history packed into a few crazy months. Remember the Maine? Heck, remember this whole war—it was a game-changer. And hey, if you learned something new, you can thank Admiral Dewey… or just eat some more popcorn. Until next time!
That’s how it’s done—boom, done, war over!
That was pretty great! It even made me laugh out loud a couple of times. What it was NOT was “Oversimplified-style”. While Oversimplified is very funny, the humor is more dry than what ChatGPT generated. But by asking for the video in that style, it seemed to at least make the AI work a little harder and not jut create a Wikipedia-type page that it did for Peter the Great.
I used a version of that prompt for every deep dive I needed written. Everest now has a binder of 2-3 page summaries of every historical person or event she needs to know for the regionals. She is reviewing five per day, and then I add key things she needs to remember into her Anki deck (I know I keep mentioning the Anki deck. How we use her Anki deck will be in a future post. I promise).
Creating Questions
The other thing I am using ChatGPT for extensively is writing questions. GPT-4o is smart enough right out of the box to do this. I just tell it that she is competing in the National History Bee and I need a specific type of question and it does it. Some question related things I have had it produce:
Flashcards that focus on the key things she should know on a specific topic
Last-line questions on dozens of topics
Full History Bee-style questions on specific topics
All of those things could be done manually by searching in the QBReader database, but using ChatGPT is much much faster. I think it is still worth using QBReader for both ensuring “full coverage” of a deep dive topic, and for seeing what specific terms come up most frequently in actual competition (for example there is a lot to know about Brazilian history, but in the History Bee, when the answer is “Brazil” competitors should expect the question to mention the “Golden Law”, Princess Isabel, two emperors named Pedro, or the Treaty of Tordesillas). But for pure speed, nothing beats ChatGPT, and the quality is very good.
Big History
I mentioned this concern in one of my first posts here, and it is still dogging me: How do I balance Everest going deep into specific subjects, with having “last-line” knowledge of a wide range of topics? I think I have solved how to get her the deep knowledge:
Read the 2-3 pager generated by AI
Use QBReader to get all of the historical questions she is likely to be asked
Feed those questions into flashcards in her Anki
Practice Anki every day
That will get her ~5 deep dives per day (actually less than that. Many of the deep dives have 10 or more facts to know. She is adding 20-25 cards per day to Anki, which really means, in the long run, closer to ~3 deep dives per day unless I increase the number of new Anki cards per day). If we use the lower, more conservative numbers, in six months between now and nationals we could cover ~400-500 things. That is still pretty good. Maybe good enough! But she would still have pretty big gaps in her knowledge.
I have spoken to a few of you about this (thank you for your help!). Arjun Panickssery has been particularly helpful. Arjun won multiple regionals back when he was younger, and has suggested Everest “flashcard grind” to get through 1000+ flashcards all handling the “last-line” as soon as possible — as in get through them in a few days (so she will have a chance to review them as many times as possible before Nationals).
I told him I don’t think that will work.
Throwing flashcards at her for content she has never seen is likely to frustrate her, be a very slow process, and not form the memories that she will need. I tried something like this at the beginning and she would end up confusing Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon B Johnson. And why not? They were both just series of syllables she memorized that both happened to be presidents. Even if she knew that Roosevelt was the VP of McKinley and Johnson was the VP of JFK, how would that tell her that it must have been Teddy and not Lyndon who fought in the Spanish American War. To know that she would need to know a lot of other facts about both presidents that all seem obvious to those of us with a broader knowledge of history, but I can’t assume she just has.
So I don’t think Arjun’s plan works as stated. But it inspired me to build a modified version that might. And it only works because of ChatGPT and a company called Hexco.
As I shared on the resources post, Hexco is a tutoring company that seems to specialize in, but not limit themselves to, material for the National Spelling Bee. They have a handful of excellent materials for the National History Bee. This free Study Guide is excellent. It breaks down all of history into two dozen periods (roughly 1/2 US, 1/4 European, and 1/4 rest of world). Each period gets a couple of paragraphs, but then also lists “Terms you need to know” — just a list of names or historical people and events. It is a teaser for their paid products. But I used it as a road map for AI.
I was not confident this strategy would work, but my first attempt surprised me at how good it was. I started with my existing thread where ChatGPT was writing “Oversimplified” scripts for people and events. Then I gave it this prompt:
Hi. This next one is going to be a challenge. I need you to write a script that covers the entire European Renaissance and Reformation. I expect you will need to do a few things differently. You will break this script into multiple parts (So something like The Renaissance Part I: The Wars, The Renaissance Part II: The Culture, The Renaissance Part II: The Reformation of the Church. Those are just examples. You may want to use them, or use them in a different order, or create different ones. Please be creative). I want you to eliminate the stuff you have been putting at the end of the scripts. No "So whats the deal with" or "The Legacy of..." -- just tell the story, you don't need to review it a second time. Trust your reader to get it. You DO need to explain all of the most important elements in the story, but you don't need to go into a ton of detail. Make sure someone who listened to the script, and internalized everything you have written, could identify all of the people and events with a direct description, but you won't have the time to go into incredible amounts of detail. Just the "top line".
Here are a number of people and events that I need you to include in the scripts:
Then I copy-and-pasted the lists from Hexco. For the Renaissance that list was:
Renaissance man
Dante Alighieri
Black Death
Decameron
Hundred Years' War
Battle of Agincourt
Joan of Arc
Great Schism
Geoffrey Chaucer
Donatello
Medici family
Borgia family
War of the Roses
House of Lancaster
House of York
House of Tudor
Johannes Gutenberg
Richard III
Sandro Botticelli
Leonardo da Vinci
Albrecht Dürer
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel
New St. Peter's Basilica
Raphael
Titian
House of Hab
Here is what the AI generated for a structure:
The Renaissance Part I: The Cradle of the Renaissance
• Focus: Early roots and how the Renaissance began, covering key historical events and their effects, such as the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War, and the Great Schism. This part will explore how these upheavals set the stage for the intellectual and cultural revival.
• Key figures/events: Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, Joan of Arc, Battle of Agincourt, Hundred Years’ War, Great Schism, Decameron by Boccaccio.
The Renaissance Part II: The Artists, Thinkers, and Patrons
• Focus: The cultural explosion in the arts, literature, and science, emphasizing the masters of the craft and the role of powerful families like the Medicis and Borgias. This will cover key figures like Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, and introduce the idea of the Renaissance Man.
• Key figures/events: Medici family, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, New St. Peter’s Basilica, Titian, Raphael, Borgia family, Albrecht Dürer, and the House of Habsburg.
The Renaissance Part III: Politics and Power
• Focus: The political landscape of the Renaissance, dealing with figures like Niccolò Machiavelli and his realpolitik influence on European rulers. The War of the Roses, the rise of the Tudors, and the role of Richard III will be touched on.
• Key figures/events: Niccolò Machiavelli, House of York, House of Lancaster, House of Tudor, War of the Roses, Richard III.
The Reformation Part I: Luther’s Challenge
• Focus: The religious crisis that shook Europe, starting with Martin Luther, his 95 Theses, and the start of the Protestant Reformation. We’ll focus on how the Catholic Church was challenged, covering Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press that helped spread new ideas.
• Key figures/events: Johannes Gutenberg, Martin Luther, 95 Theses, Indulgences, John Calvin, John Knox.
The Reformation Part II: Henry VIII and the English Reformation
• Focus: Henry VIII’s break from the Catholic Church, the creation of the Church of England, and the religious and political fallout across Europe.
• Key figures/events: Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, Act of Supremacy, Church of England, John Knox.
Within that first prompt it finished Part I. It was pretty good! I had to type “continue” at the end of each section, and write a new prompt (and paste terms) for each section, so my time commitment was not zero, but it worked pretty well. I now have 6-10 page summaries of each of the two dozen “Hexco-define” periods, with every term covered in a story-like way. Basically a focused history of the world with full coverage of the main terms needed to do well in the History Bee.
The final step is getting ChatGPT to generate “last line” questions for the same Hexco-pulled list of terms. Only now instead of seeing the term for the first time in her Anki cards, the cards are a review of the exposure she got reading the story.
So I now have Everest moving forward on two* fronts:
Five deep dives/day on people and events that will be covered in the regional (both Bee and Bowl)
One “Period” every 1-2 days
(*- Plus National Capitals — something I will explain the importance of in a later post)
She has an Anki deck for each grouping. That is NOT best practice. Every expert I have read says she should put it all in one place. But multiple decks allows her to practice the two types of questions at different speeds, and add new content (i.e., new cards) at different speeds for each of the decks. I may merge them at some point, but for now this is seeming to work well.
She has less than two weeks until her first regionals. She will have completed deep dives into all of the targeted subject areas, and have at least 85% identification of all the terms the competition will use. But she will NOT have completed the full “last line” on the 26 Hexco periods. We MIGHT be able to get through the ten US periods (US History questions are about 60% of the total in finals), but I expect she will still have gas by finals and there will be questions she will not be able to answer — even at the last line. But she will definitely have the broad base completed by her second regionals in Houston in February.
Everest Teaches History
Here Everest is explaining the Russian Revolution. Remember, it’s only a revolution if you win. If you don’t we call that a Civil War.
Keep Learning,
Edward (and Everest)