Brainstorming with AI
You don't have to come up with the perfect idea on your own. You can use AI as a brainstorming partner.
We are going to use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to help us generate ideas, make them more interactive, and even make them playful. Any of the three works — use whichever you already have open.
There are three prompts below and they are meant to be used in order, in the same conversation: brainstorm a list, explore variations of your favourite, then cut it down to something you can finish in one sitting. You will leave this lesson with one small idea described in a short paragraph. Turning it into the prompt you paste into AI Studio is the next lesson.
Tier 1 — Sensible first ideas
- • Pre-submission checklist
- • Quick self-check quiz
- • One-page decision tool
- • Simple financial calculator
- • Review tool with feedback
Tier 2 — Small interactive upgrades
- • Checklist that explains what is missing
- • Quiz with a countdown timer
- • Cost sorter with instant scoring
- • Scenario tool with branching responses
- • What-if slider for financial analysis
Tier 3 — Imaginative and memorable
- • A monkey chases students if they misclassify costs
- • A zombie auditor appears when internal controls fail
- • An audit escape room where students find red flags to unlock the exit
- • A budget defense game where students justify variances under time pressure
How ideas evolve
Tier 3 ideas are not better ideas. They are Tier 1 ideas with one thing added. Almost every jump on this page is one of five moves, and once you can name the move you can ask the AI for it directly instead of hoping it guesses what you meant.
A tick tells a student they were wrong. A reason teaches them something. This is the single highest-value upgrade, and the cheapest to build.
A countdown changes the behaviour you are practising. With unlimited time students search their notes; with 20 seconds they have to actually know it.
When a mistake takes something away, students slow down on the ones they are unsure about. That hesitation is the learning.
The task is identical. Wrapping it in a narrative gives students a reason to keep going past question four.
Putting the student inside a role turns recall into judgement — and it works in any subject, not just this one.
You do not need all five. Pick one for your first app. A checklist that explains itself is a genuinely good teaching tool; a checklist that is also timed, scored, narrated and role-played is a project you will abandon on Thursday.
One rule while you are looking for the idea
Keep it small. One thing a student does, finished in a few minutes, nothing to sign up for and nothing to pay for. That is the only limit that matters right now — the detail of what the app can and cannot do comes in the next lesson, once you know what you are building.
Prompt 1 — Brainstorm ideas
Copy and paste this into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to brainstorm ideas for your specific subject:
"I teach [YOUR SUBJECT]. I want to build a very small interactive web app my students can use to practise one core concept.
Give me 5 ideas. Include one straightforward idea, one that adds interaction such as scoring or a timer, and one that is playful or game-like.
Keep every idea small: one thing a student does, finished in a few minutes, with nothing to sign up for and nothing to pay for.
Describe each idea in two or three sentences. Do not write a build prompt or any code yet."
Prompt 2 — Explore variations
Pick the idea you like most and see what it could become. You are still choosing, not building:
"Take this teaching app idea: [paste your idea]. Give me three versions of it: one straightforward, one that adds interaction such as scoring or immediate feedback, and one that is playful or game-like.
Keep every idea small: one thing a student does, finished in a few minutes, with nothing to sign up for and nothing to pay for.
For each version, explain in one or two sentences what the student actually does. Do not write a build prompt or any code yet."
Prompt 3 — Reduce the scope
Whichever version you chose, it is probably still too big. Cut it down:
"This is my idea for a teaching app: [paste your idea]. It might be too complex for a first project.
Identify the single essential learning interaction, the one thing a student must do for this to teach anything, and remove everything that is not required for a first version.
Then describe the smallest version that still works as a useful learning tool: one screen, one purpose, achievable in a single session."
Tip: Use these three in order, in the same conversation. Prompt 1 gives you a list, Prompt 2 helps you choose a direction, Prompt 3 cuts it down to something you can finish today. You should come out with one small idea described in a short paragraph. The next lesson turns that paragraph into the prompt you paste into AI Studio.