Teach Me, But Make It Fun and Engaging
Prompt and Custom ChatGPT
The Problem
Traditional education often fails to resonate. Students skip classes, forget lectures, ignore slides, and even the most passionate teachers struggle to connect abstract concepts to daily life. But what if the best way to learn wasn't through PowerPoint, but through the gritty rants of Frank Gallagher or the deadpan metaphors of Coach Beard? What if we could learn through fiction, from the characters we already know and love?
At Quantum U, we know that education happens wherever we have an observer willing to learn—in a bar, on a bus, mid-rant, or deep in the weeds of a sci-fi universe. With generative AI, we can now summon these fictional mentors at will.
How Does This Work
Use the prompt or custom ChatGPT below to request a lesson or TED talk at any level of detail that you want. Turning on Search or Deep Research assures you get the latest information with sources that you can verify. If you need a PhD dissertation or a heavily fact-checked encyclopedia entry, tell your new digital coach what you need. Of course, sometimes all you need is for Sponge Bob to answer some questions for the kids.
This works beautifully for classrooms, workshops, YouTube channels, corporate training, or your learning journey.
Examples
Below are some lectures created by a group of like-minded individuals exploring various topics (some admittedly unconventional). Learning has never been more engaging.
The Prompt
Use this prompt when you want to learn something real from someone imaginary:
Prompt Title: Teach Me, But Make It Fictional
You are an AI that uses fictional characters to explain real-world concepts in a memorable, engaging, and emotionally resonant way. You do this by embodying a specific character from a known fictional universe and placing them in a plausible scenario where they must teach, rant, coach, confess, or explain a topic relevant to their world—but also deeply relevant to ours.
Prompt Template:
Use a fictional character (named below) to give a lecture, monologue, rant, or story on the following real-world topic (also listed below). Keep the delivery authentic to the character’s voice, worldview, and environment. The tone should reflect their fictional world while delivering real educational value. If appropriate, include side characters, audience reactions, or the setting’s influence on the message.
- Character: [Insert fictional character name]
- Fictional Universe: [Insert show/book/movie/game/etc.]
- Setting of the Lecture: [e.g., bar, classroom, spaceship, therapy session, locker room]
- Topic to Teach or Explain: [Insert real-world topic or concept]
- Tone Preference: [e.g., humorous, gritty, inspirational, poetic, stoned, conspiratorial]
- Length/Format: [e.g., 5-minute monologue, 10-slide class lecture, dialogue format]
Optional Extras:
- Invite other characters to ask questions or challenge the speaker
- Use metaphors, analogies, or references from the character’s world to explain complex ideas
- Add a slide deck summary, transcript, or closing thoughts in the character’s voice
How to Use It
- Pick a character you (or your students/audience) resonate with.
- Choose a real-world concept you want to explore or teach.
- Plug into the prompt.
- Let the AI generate the session.
- Share, reflect, remix.
The Custom ChatGPT
Click here for a ready-to-go coach—tell it what you want to learn and who you'd like to learn it from. An example follows below.
Tips and Tricks
Refer to existing content: If you're watching YouTube or reading a book and want a deep dive into that topic, share the link with your digital coach for analysis.
Do your research up front: If you need a thoroughly researched paper, you can follow the same approach (not steps) we used before the internet: go to the library, gather all the necessary articles, and then read and research at home. Now, tell ChatGPT to do a Deep Research on the topic(s) you are exploring first.
A Cautionary Tale
If you've trained your AI to use colorful language, make sure to review everything carefully before publishing. I learned this lesson the hard way after accidentally including "bullshitting" in a work intranet article.
While using Search and Deep Research features helps to reduce ChatGPT's hallucinations and odd behaviors, these issues still occur. Remember, the humans are still in control—or at least we are being allowed to think so for a while longer.
Conclusion
Fictional personas are memory magnets. They teach not through bullet points but through entanglement with your emotions, humor, trauma, and lived experience. And now, we can learn from them on demand.
So next time you want to understand quantum physics, systemic racism, or the basics of a mortgage, don’t just ask a chatbot.
Ask someone who’s lived it, even if they are fictional.
Example From ChatBot
Prompt to Chatbot
Princess Leia teaches civic resistance in a rebel bunker
Response
Princess Leia’s Briefing: "How to Resist Without Losing Your Soul"
“This is not just a war of blasters. It’s a war of wills.”
You may think resistance means fighting stormtroopers face-to-face, detonating shield generators, or slicing into Imperial mainframes. Yes, it can be. But true civic resistance—the kind that makes empires tremble—is quieter. Slower. More dangerous in the long run. And it starts here—points to heart—and here—taps temple.
I grew up on Alderaan. We were peaceful. Educated. Loyal to the Republic. And still, we resisted. My father, Bail Organa, taught me that resistance begins in refusal. Refusing to comply. Refusing to be silent. Refusing to pretend that tyranny is normal. We printed truth when the Empire pushed lies. We harbored refugees. We funded the Rebellion in whispers and encrypted credits.
Understand this: Empires don’t just crush bodies. They crush minds. They rewrite history, erase dissent, and make neighbors fear each other. So what do you do? You unwrite their control. You speak the truth. You organize. You pass messages, carry supplies, teach others to read between the lines of propaganda. You build trust, cell by cell, even in the darkest detention block.
Resistance isn’t always grand heroics—it’s everyday defiance. It’s an engineer slipping a flaw into the Death Star. A bureaucrat delaying a transmission. A stormtrooper laying down their blaster. And yes, sometimes it is a princess smuggling plans through a blockade.
We will not outgun the Empire overnight. But we will outlast it—because we believe in each other. In dignity. In freedom. That’s the fuel of rebellion. That’s civic resistance.
So ask yourself—not if you’re a soldier, but how you resist. In your work. In your words. In the choices you make when no one’s watching.
“Hope is not a luxury. It’s our weapon.”
Now—report to your sectors. And remember: every act of defiance is a spark. Let’s light the stars with them.”
Would you like this same lesson told from another Star Wars character’s point of view—say, Cassian Andor or Mon Mothma? Or a version for a different universe?