AI Make It Relevant Generator for Teachers
Mr. Hassan teaches 9th-grade algebra in Detroit. Every year, the same question comes up in the second week: "When are we ever going to use this?" He used to have a vague answer about engineering. Now he runs his unit topic through the Make It Relevant Generator and gets back eight specific hooks, a kind of news story to find about a local auto plant using optimization algorithms, a description of what a supply chain analyst does with linear equations, and a connection to the statistics behind the Detroit Lions' draft strategy. He has an answer ready when his students ask the question.
The AI Make It Relevant Generator is one of OpenEduCat's AI tools for teachers. It answers the hardest student question with grade-appropriate, locally specific, genuinely compelling examples.
This page fills in a draft from a template. Copy prompt gives you the prompt for any AI chat.
- News, careers, local, daily life, interests
- 5 types
- Industry examples by city or region
- Localized
How it works
From topic to a full set of relevance hooks in four steps.
Enter topic, grade level, and location
The teacher types the curriculum topic (for example, "quadratic equations") selects the grade level, and optionally enters a city or region. The location input enables localized industry examples: a teacher in Detroit gets automotive engineering examples, a teacher in Miami gets examples tied to the port economy and tourism industry, and a teacher in rural Iowa gets agricultural technology examples.
AI generates 8-12 relevance hooks
The generator produces hooks across five categories: current news (a kind of recent story that involves the topic, for you to find), career applications (specific job titles that use this skill daily), local industry examples (businesses and sectors in the teacher's region), daily life (choices students make), and what students enjoy (films, games, social media, or sports where the topic appears).
Select hooks that match your class
The teacher reviews the hooks and selects the ones that resonate best with their specific students. A class of students interested in sports gets different hooks than a class of aspiring graphic designers, even if both are studying the same curriculum standard. The teacher knows their students; the AI provides the raw material.
Use as a lesson opener, slide, or handout
Copy the hooks you choose into a slide for the start of class, a student handout listing real-world connections to the topic, or your lesson plan. Used as a lesson opener, relevance hooks answer the "When will I use this?" question before the lesson begins.
The relevance gap problem
Research on student motivation consistently identifies perceived relevance as one of the strongest predictors of classroom engagement. When students cannot see how a topic connects to their lives, careers, or the world around them, they disengage, not because they are lazy, but because the human brain is wired to filter out information it cannot contextualize. The problem is not that curriculum topics lack real-world connections. It is that finding compelling, grade-appropriate, locally specific examples takes more research time than most teachers have.
With Improve with AI on, your own AI key can draft ideas for you to check.
What the generator includes
Every hook is specific, grade-calibrated, and designed to answer the question students are really asking.
Current news story hooks
With Improve with AI on, your own AI key can suggest news events that involve the curriculum topic; check that each one is real and recent. A teacher covering statistics gets examples from election polling data and sports analytics. A teacher covering chemistry gets examples from pharmaceutical breakthroughs and environmental testing. News hooks make abstract concepts feel immediate and alive.
Career application examples
For each topic, the generator lists specific job titles and describes exactly how those professionals use this knowledge in their daily work. Not vague statements like "engineers use math", but specific descriptions like "Structural engineers use quadratic equations to calculate load distribution in bridge deck designs." Students who are career-minded respond to this kind of specificity.
Localized industry examples
When the teacher enters a city or region, the generator tailors industry examples to local employers, economic sectors, and well-known companies nearby. Students in manufacturing towns see manufacturing applications. Students near national parks see environmental science connections. Local examples are significantly more persuasive than abstract national statistics.
Pop culture connections
The generator identifies films, TV shows, video games, social media trends, and sports where the curriculum topic appears. These connections do not trivialize the subject, they create a bridge between what students already know and what they are about to learn. A physics unit on projectile motion that references the game mechanics of popular video games immediately reframes the topic as something students have already been practicing.
"Problems that need this" scenarios
Ask in the Topic field for this category, which answers the deeper version of the relevance question: not just "where is this used" but "what problems in the world require people who know this?" Each scenario is specific: a concrete societal challenge, environmental problem, or design constraint that this knowledge helps address. These scenarios are especially effective for students motivated by purpose rather than career outcomes.
Grade-appropriate language
The generator adjusts the vocabulary and conceptual framing of every hook to the selected grade level. A 5th-grade hook for fractions describes how a baker adjusts recipes when scaling up for a school event. A college-level hook for the same topic describes how pharmaceutical chemists use proportional reasoning to calculate dosage adjustments for patients of different body weights.
- No student accounts.
- No ads.
- Data-processing agreement on request.
What this page does here
This page builds a draft from a template on this device. Copy prompt gives you the prompt for any AI chat.
Questions teachers ask
How specific are the career application examples?
Very specific. Instead of stating that "scientists use chemistry," the generator names actual job titles and describes what those professionals do with the knowledge on a typical workday. For a chemistry unit on acids and bases, the generator might describe how a water treatment plant operator tests pH levels in municipal water supplies, how a cosmetic chemist formulates shampoo with the right acidity to protect hair, and how a winemaker monitors fermentation pH to control the flavor profile of wine.
Can it write hooks for rural or small-town schools?
Yes. When a teacher enters a rural region or small town, the generator draws on the dominant economic activities of that area (agriculture, timber, mining, tourism, manufacturing) and generates industry examples tied to those sectors. A math teacher in a rural farming community gets examples about precision agriculture, crop yield calculations, and equipment financing. The examples may not reference a specific employer by name, so check them against what you know of the economic reality of the region.
Can I use the generator for abstract topics that seem hard to connect to real life?
Yes, and these are often the cases where the generator adds the most value. Abstract mathematical concepts, theoretical science principles, and literary analysis frameworks all have real-world applications that are non-obvious. With Improve with AI on, your own AI key can draw on what it knows of career fields, news media, and cultural references, and may suggest connections that even experienced teachers have not considered.
How often are the news story hooks updated?
The template has no news; it leaves a blank for a recent story, and with Improve with AI on, your own AI key knows only what its model was trained on. For recent news, the teacher can add a current news story they have identified, and should check every story. Check the career, industry, and pop culture hooks too, since nothing keeps them up to date.
How do I use these hooks in my actual lesson?
The most effective use is as a lesson opener: project one or two hooks as students enter and ask them to respond on paper or in a discussion. Hooks can also appear on the first slide of a unit introduction, in the "Why We Are Learning This" section of a student handout, or in an email to parents explaining what students are studying and why it matters. Sharing relevance hooks with parents can help with "my child says this class is pointless" conversations.
Related tools
AI with your school's own student and course data is part of OpenEduCat.
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