Using Perplexity AI to Boost Student Inquiry

Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast, where each week we talk about a free pizza tool of technology that you can use in your classroom.

I'm your host, Shannon Martin.

I'm a middle school teacher, technology, and instructional coach for my district.

And I'm our producer and husband, Fuzz Martin.

And I do all the button pushing because all these buttons can be a little perplexing.

I mailed in the joke.

You did?

I did.

I couldn't chat.

GDP wasn't helping out.

No, I was like.

I was, like, swinging and missing.

It's fine.

It's one of the complexities of this role as your producer and husband is I have to.

I have to do the hard work each week and that's come up with a pun or word play on the tool.

Did you just roll your eyes so hard that you sprained the muscle in your head?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, I did.

You'd think they'd be really strong and flexible after all these years with me, but here we are.

We are here.

Episode 197.

197.

Wow.

That's crazy.

That is so crazy.

Season 7 perplexing it's perplexing.

Really?

It is.

Yeah.

So we're talking about a tool called Perplexity today, if you haven't figured that out yet, probably by the title when you clicked on it in your car.

And it said Perplexity or while you're out walking.

Yes, it's called Perplexity.

It is.

Tell us about it.

So we are talking about Perplexity this week.

It is a fun little piece of AI, which is really cool.

It's fun.

Anyway, so I was playing around with it this week, and here are my top five pieces of information about why Perplexity is pretty cool.

And then we're going to talk about the site itself, but it is super engaging.

So it's a form of AI and you pose a question and it gives you all kinds of resources and stuff.

I'll kind of walk you through it.

And it's a great piece of AI to engage students in question asking.

And that research piece where sometimes they lock up and I don't even know what to look up, up.

Like, it's a great place to start.

It collects all kinds of resources.

So it's not just articles, but it will actually organize your kind of research for you and then give you articles and videos and images, all kinds of stuff.

It is a great way for students to practice writing effective questions.

Okay, so I can't like, like using AI as AI as tools in the classroom, a lot of it's like, oh, let me just like type this in.

It's gonna do it for me.

And that's not the point.

Like, the goal is if you're going to use some sort of AI as a tool, then you have to be able to use it appropriately.

So perplexity, if you ask the right specific questions, it will give you what you need.

But if you're not writing good questions, it's going to give you nothing.

So it teaches kind of that question writing skill set, which I think is important.

It's also a great lesson in media literacy.

So we talk so often about kids being aware of what kind of sources they're using and where they're pulling their information from and being aware of it.

Well, it will.

And this is also like my, my number five thing too is it cites all the sources it's pulling the resource research from.

Yep.

So it will tell you where your information is from.

So if you like don't want your students using Reddit as a resource and it says like this information came from Reddit, you'd be like, hey, maybe we should choose something else so you can teach media literacy along with it does cite its sources for you.

So you are aware of that when you're using it, which I appreciate.

Yeah.

So with that perplexity.

So to get to perplexity, it's perplexity AI.

So it's P, E, R, P, L, E, X, I, T, Y, AI Perplexity.

And it is a, like a form of AI that will give you real time information and it will give you the research.

Yeah, it is.

I always talk about the free version.

So the free version, you get three free searches a day, like forever.

And then if you want to do more complicated things and you have to pay for it, but to search three things, I'll explain.

Like you get a ton of information in one question.

So they have little spaces.

And once you create account, like with Google, you have a little library, it will save your searches for you, which is nice.

Search anything.

What do I want to know?

I want a question.

Let's ask something that a student would ask.

Okay.

I did one because our daughter, well, yesterday you went out to dinner with some of your friends and we had a little pizza party.

And afterward our daughter decided to do some drawing at the table.

And what did she draw?

Our 9 year old drew James Madison.

So I decided to look up who was James Madison.

Okay.

And it gave me a lot of great sources.

Okay.

Why does the rain freeze as it's Falling through the sky.

Okay, okay, so pose my question.

I hit enter.

Now, what's cool about this is it puts your question up there.

It automatically gives your sources right away.

My first source, Reddit.

Okay, cool.

But also there's more like the weather Channel.

And so then it breaks it down.

Here's your answer.

When the rain freezes, it falls through the sky.

It can result in different types of frozen during the atmospheric conditions.

Here's an explanation of how the process occurs.

Now, what's cool about this?

And it does this for every single one of your questions.

When you pose it, it breaks it down for you, which makes it so much easier for a student to process the information.

It's not just like paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs of information.

It actually will give you your bold headings.

It will tell you like atmospheric temperature layers, and then explains them types of frozen precipitation, and then explains each one of them factors that influence freezing and explains each one of those.

It also then gives you related searches on the bottom.

So it encourages kids, especially if you're using like this for inquiry learning.

They then will like, okay, so how does freezing rain differ from sleet?

What conditions are necessary for hail to form?

Like, you can click that and it will breaks it down and gives you additional information so you can continue your research based on the first set of research that you did, which I think is kind of cool.

It also gives the option you can search.

Then on the right hand side it gives you like these little plus buttons you can search.

Then it will give you images.

So it will pull like infographics for you.

You can search videos as well.

And so then it pulls like YouTube channels and things like that and other resources of video.

So then you can also watch the information that you just researched.

So it gives you your sources, it gives you the answer, it gives you the breakdown of the specific details and then gives you images and gives you videos all in one search.

Neat.

Which is super cool.

So if you have kids that are doing inquiry learning or they're doing some specific research that they need to know information on, and when kids are researching, oftentimes I know middle school specifically, they get overwhelmed.

Like I don't even know where to start because they're so overwhelmed by all of the information in front of them, it's nice that this breaks it down for them in very clear manner.

Yeah, it definitely does.

It's laid out really well.

Did you find the answer for James Madison?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I'm looking up.

I'm your research.

Oh, you Know, like.

Like, for instance, how did Madison's ideas influence the separation of powers in the Constitution?

He's part of the Virginia plan.

And checks and balances and specific checks.

The president can veto bills passed by Congress.

Congress can override a presidential veto by a two thirds majority.

Supreme Court can declare laws on constitutional presidential.

All right, so we're good.

It gives you lots of information.

There you go.

But, yeah, so it's cool.

That just gives you the prompt, search anything, and then you're able to set up your questions.

And it gives you all this research and all this information and will also give you, like, the videos, the images, and with the pro version, actually will create AI images for you too, based on your research.

But it's just a very cool way to engage students in their learning and their research and also save some time trying to find all the different pieces of information.

And it also gives you the link, so then you can pull up additional information as you go.

So I think it's really cool.

It also can be like, it's on the App Store too.

So you can do it in Google Play or on Apple in the App Store, but you can just go to the website and try it out.

And you also can just, without creating an account, just try Perplexity.

And it says search anything.

And you can just show the coolest LEGO sets available.

Right.

All right, that's an opinion, but it's generating something.

Okay, you want to know which ones are the most popular?

Millennium Falcon.

No, I think that Christmas catalog that just came to our house.

Oh, okay.

I don't even know.

I haven't looked through it yet.

The little one stole it.

Yeah, I know.

But here, LEGO sets.

You want to know the coolest?

Show me the question is one of their examples.

Show me the coolest LEGO sets available.

Sources come from LEGO Brick Fanatics, Games Raider, New York Times, and Amazon.

So, you know, there's your sources.

Yep.

The answer.

Lego Harry Potter, Hogwarts Castle and Grounds.

I was gonna say that.

LEGO ideas.

Home Alone.

Oh, okay, cool.

Marvel Adventures Tower.

Yep.

And Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Oh, no.

Star wars in there.

Not in the top four.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Dang.

But these ones look pretty cool.

And don't worry, they're all over $200.

Maybe that's why.

That's probably why.

Oh, nope.

The Harry potter one's like 170.

Nice.

Okay, let's get it.

So there you go.

So you can also pose random questions to perplexity as well.

Buymeacoffee.com.

Smart buy Legos.

Buy me a coffee.

Legos.com if you want to buy a podcast producer some Legos for Christmas.

So, yeah, so that's perplexity.

I think it's a super cool AI tool that you could totally build into your classroom.

I think students would have fun with it.

And as a class, you can definitely use it for, like, media literacy lessons and things like that.

Like, all right, we're going to search something.

We're going to use AI and then kind of walk them through the appropriate way to do so.

Yeah.

So I love it.

It's great.

It's well laid out and easy to navigate and has a ton of great information.

And also those resources are all right.

There, which is cool.

Yeah.

And it didn't give us Reddit.

It didn't.

Well, not for that one anyway.

Not for that one, no.

So thanks for tuning in.

This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.

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The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the Smart NWI website are those of the author, Shannon Martin, and not of her employer.

Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations.

This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, but we sure hope they do, and we'll talk to you next time.

The 198th episode of the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.