Imagine a youth retreat program where students not only disconnect from their daily studies but also embark on a journey of self-reflection, relaxation, and spiritual growth. I've been invited to a number of retreat programs by DWU Chaplain, Madang campus and with every retreat I attend I tinker up activities for the students to do based on the theme at hand. Sometimes I get called up in the last minute and I have to do an activity as quickly as I can.
More recently, I was determined to create an activity that would captivate the students and ignite their enthusiasm for learning while nurturing their faith. That's when inspiration struck: why not incorporate technology into our activities, using the power of ChatGPT and an online word search maker to craft engaging and educational challenges?
At first glance, it may seem like an unconventional combination, but the results were remarkable. ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence language model, was used to extract key words and terms from long Bible passages and then these key terms were fed into an online word search make to create word search puzzles.
Here's my step by step on how to do this.
Part 1 Using ChatGPT to pickout key words from a Bible Passage
Identify the theme for the retreat and the key Bible passages.
Tell the AI model what you are planning to do and that you are going to give it a bible passage or an entire chapter and it has to extract at least 15-20 single words for the word search. You can even include in the prompt the theme.
Here is my example prompt:
Pretend that you are the youth leader for a group of 1st and 2nd year university students on a retreat event. You would like to create a word search activity for the youths to do in groups and these words will come from a bible passage. I will provide for you the passage and you give me a list of 10 key words from this bible passage and 10 key words related to the theme of "Making use of your talents".
In the example above, I copied the entire chapter of Mathew 25 on the Parable of the Ten Virgins from Bible gateway online (English Standard Version).
I then pasted the chapter into chatgpt and let it do its magic.
Part 2 Bringing the words into online word search maker
The next thing is to bring the words into the online word search maker. There are quite a number of sites that can do this, some will require you to create an account, or pay a small fee while others are free.
Here are my suggested free word search makers:
- Word Search Maker: An online tool for creating word search puzzles which can be played instantly or printed out. This site has a number
- The Teachers Corner Word Search Maker: An excellent online platform to create your word search puzzles for class or retreat activities.
The objective here is to bring all these key words in the word search make to generate a word search activity.
Step 1
Go to the word search maker site. For this tutorial I will use the Teachers Corner word search maker.
Step 2
Enter the title of your activity, enter instructions for the activity, then enter the list of words or copy paste into the appropriate field.
Step 3
When you scroll down, you find additional options that will allow you to change various options for your activity.
I will leave the default font styles and the other settings.
To add a bit of challenge you may want to 'Hide the word list'. This will be useful especially when you have given them a Bible passage as a reference point and they know how many words to look for.
Once you are satisfied, go ahead and click on Generate Word Search
Step 4
Clicking on the Generate Word Search button opens a separate tab on your browser that will show you the word search activity. You may see this message "Potential BAD WORDS Found" pop-up on your browser.
Its a new feature of this platform that identifies potentially bad words that will be flagged to you for your information and you may want to change them. Important as we're creating games for young children or youths and we want to avoid any bad words.
E.g. Click OK and then go ahead and click on the Bad Word Filter on the left. You will notice the 'bad word' in red font. If you do decide to edit the words - then close this message, and edit the puzzle letters manually by putting your cursor next to it and hit 'backspace', then replace with a different letter.
Other important things to note:
Answer Key
You can view the answer key and download by clicking on the Answer Key or click on Save As: (PDF/Image) to save your puzzle in preparation for printing.
You can adjust other options within this menu such as the Name/Date Line, Title line, Instructions, Advanced Options, etc.
Save as a PDF for printing
Click on Save As: (PDF | Image), you will have a dialog box pop up. Select A4 and click on Create PDF
You should now have a PDF document of your activity for printing.
Here is the final PDF output from this tutorial.
Pedagogy
Literature indicates that the pedagogical approach in the use of Word search activities improve students' vocabulary and is an active learning method that will aid in developing word recognition and problem-solving abilities.
My approach during the retreats with the word search activity is to have students gather in small groups, eagerly searching for these meaningful words hidden amidst a grid of letters. Students after finding all the keywords are then asked to come up with a summary of the passage using at least all the key words. They would then try to formulate a summary sentence or paragraph out of all the key words adding another layer of cognitive skill to the activity.
It's a collaborative activity that fosters teamwork, concentration, and a deeper connection to the Bible passage and its reflection on the theme of the retreat.
By using technology, we are able to create word search activities that seamlessly merge fun and faith, and through these fun activities you are able to connect with the audience before sharing the Word of God. These activities also offer an opportunity to engage with the Scriptures in a unique way sparking insightful discussions and moments of contemplation.
I hope you find this helpful as it was for me.
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