Austin Scholar #166: Studying with songs
(& how to crush US History, Hamilton-style)
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: This week’s Stanford freshman advice
Studying with songs (& how to crush US History, Hamilton-style)
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
Apologies for the late newsletter – going to Bay to Breakers at 4am dressed as a purple minion rounded out my sorority hazing for the week, so I went to sleep early last night to prepare and didn’t have time to send out this newsletter on time.
This week’s newsletter is going to be a little shorter than usual because this last week has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. It’s Big/Little week for my sorority, so every day I’ve been sent on a ton of different missions and met so many new people, which has been really fun, yet exhausting. At the same time, I had my math midterm on Thursday (the last midterm of the year, yay!!) so I was studying every second I had to spare. It’s been such a fulfilling week – I feel so lucky to have the Big/Little experience that I did and I finished my last midterm of my first year at Stanford?! I’m so grateful for the life I have and can’t wait to see what the end of this year brings.
Studying with songs (& how to crush US History, Hamilton-style)
AI in education is controversial because there seems to be data on both sides – it helps and it hurts.
I have strong opinions that, in most cases, using a simple chat interface (like ChatGPT) is useless for kids and 90% of them use it to cheat.
If you let kids use it at schools, you are condemning these kids to learn even less than they already do.
But that doesn’t mean that AI is the problem.
Let me give you a positive example.
At Alpha the APUSH (AP US History) students — including my sister — copied the strategy of Hamilton and created an entire soundtrack of songs about US history. They used AI to generate lyrics that took the APUSH units and made it catchy.
And here’s an example of the first verse to one of the songs:
🎶 [Verse 1 – From War to Revolution]
1754, French and Indian War,
Britain’s broke, so they tax us more.
Proclamation Line says “Don’t expand,”
Stamp Act hits—yo, we take a stand.
Townshend, Tea Acts, we resist,
Boston Massacre’s on the list.
Sons of Liberty lead the cry,
Coercive Acts? Unite or die!
First Continental Congress forms,
Common Sense shifts the norms.
Lexington, Concord—shots explode,
Declaration signed, the path is bold.
I talked to the students after the exam and they were all confident that they got a 5 (the highest score possible) on the test and they said that they had a lot of fun studying by singing the songs.
Why music? Well, according to Levine Music, “music engages various areas of the brain, including those associated with memory and emotion, like the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. Studies have shown that “music doesn’t just help us retrieve stored memories, it also helps us lay down new ones.” A tune connected to an event or information forms a kind of soundtrack, which, when replayed, can spark a recollection.”
I’ve definitely experienced this – I (like every theater kid), had a massive Hamilton phase, and when it came time for my US history final, there were three separate times that I answered questions through a Hamilton lyric.
Now, I will add a caveat – just listening to songs is probably not the best way to completely learn material (because you might miss some details or applications), but it’s an excellent way to group and remember information (i.e. great for studying!!).
After seeing the success of my younger sister’s APUSH songs, I decided I definitely needed to create one for my Math 52 midterm.
I started by giving ChatGPT all of my notes in the course and asked it to create lyrics to a country song based on them. Here’s a snippet of my favorite lyrics:
[Pre-Chorus: Vector Groove]
🎶 Oh, is it conservative? I’ll check it out,
Nabla cross F equals zero, no doubt!
If partial Q over partial x equals partial P over partial y,
Then it’s path-independent, oh my, oh my! 🎶
[Chorus: Conservative Fields]
🎶 Let it flow, let it go, it’s conservative,
Path independence is how it lives!
With a potential function, f of x comma y,
The work depends on start and end, you see! 🎶
🎶 Let it flow, let it go, the curl is zero,
F equals nabla f, you’re the hero!
Line integrals are simplified,
From A to B, no need to decide! 🎶
[Verse 2: Line Integrals]
🎵 Scalar line integrals, they’re pretty neat,
Add up the “weight” along the curve’s beat.
It’s the integral over C of f of x comma y with respect to ds,
Arc length shines, no need to guess! 🎵
🎵 But the vector kind, it’s all about work,
The integral over C of F dot dr, no need to lurk.
Dot product magic, with dr’s flow,
It’s P times dx over dt plus Q times dy over dt, let’s go! 🎵
Then, I put them into the AI platform SUNO (which creates full-length songs based on your preferences and lyrics).
After inputting my music preferences into SUNO (country, male voice, guitar and drums), this super catchy song was created.
I’m actually obsessed with the pre-chorus and used the path-dependent and conservative connection to make sure I was on the right track for a couple of problems during my midterm. And the equations for the line integrals and vector integrals? Absolute perfection.
So to recap, here’s the step-by-step for creating songs to learn with SUNO:
Input notes into ChatGPT and ask it to create lyrics to a [genre] song based on the notes (OR you can write the lyrics yourself!)
Create a SUNO account
Go to the “Create tab”
Copy and paste the lyrics into the “write lyrics” section
Add your song preferences (what instruments, genre, voice, etc.)
Title the song
Create
Then you can add all of your created songs into a playlist and spend your time studying!
This is a super easy process and can help your kid prepare for exams like nothing else.
And, honestly, this is just a fun activity in general!! I created a bunch of country songs about being at college and had a ton of fun messing around with the tool. I highly recommend using SUNO to help your kid study for their exams and have fun while doing it!