What happens when we move beyond asking AI to explain something and begin creating and testing our own connections?

In this episode of AI for Academic Success, Dr. Renée Jordan introduces the revised Module 2, Help Me Learn Through My Interests, which now emphasizes analogies instead of metaphors.

We explore how learners can connect new academic concepts to their interests and prior knowledge, map relationships between ideas, identify where comparisons break down, and test their understanding without relying on AI-generated explanations.

Through the Try It Like Dr. Ellen Ochoa activity, learners practice a five-step process: Choose → Build → Map → Test → Explain.

The goal is not simply to make difficult concepts easier. It's to help learners become more confident, independent thinkers who can explain what they've learned in their own words.

AI for Academic Success: Create, Question & Explain with Confidence

How do you know whether you truly understand something you've learned?

In Part 4 of the AI for Academic Success Module 2 walkthrough, Dr. Renée Jordan explores the Scholar Reflection, Learning Connection, and Try It Like Dr. Ellen Ochoa activity.

Using the original metaphor-centered workbook, we examine how students can connect academic concepts to their interests, create their own comparisons, evaluate AI feedback, recognize misconceptions, and teach what they've learned to someone else.

The goal isn't simply to receive an explanation from AI. It's to build, question, and communicate your own understanding while keeping academic vocabulary and human judgment at the center.

AI for Academic Success: Exploring Excellence, Creativity & Problem-Solving

What can we learn from how accomplished women think—not just what they accomplished?

In Part 3 of the Module 2 walkthrough of AI for Academic Success, Dr. Renée Jordan explores Janiyah GPT's response to an Excellence Exploration featuring Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Katherine Johnson, Dr. Adriana Ocampo, Dr. Antonia Novello, Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, and Dr. Helen Rodríguez-Trías.

Their stories reveal different approaches to learning and problem-solving: connecting disciplines, asking questions, recognizing patterns, communicating complex ideas, storytelling, and systems thinking.

The episode invites learners to consider a new question:

Are you naturally a question-asker, pattern-finder, storyteller, connector, teacher, or problem-solver?