20 practical, difficulty-rated ways Public Health Studies students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges can use AI — 10 easy, 6 medium, 4 hard. They start at “Explain herd immunity threshold” and run up to “Design a full research study protocol”, drawing on 16 tutorials between them. Every card carries a starter prompt already written for Public Health Studies, so you can copy it and go.
Before you use these on graded work: check your professor’s policy on AI.
It differs by course, and these examples are study aids — not permission.
All Public Health Studies AI use cases
Easy
Explain herd immunity threshold
Get a clear breakdown of how vaccination coverage stops disease spread. The linked tutorial covers a 10-step ChatGPT prompt system — standard definition, an explain-it-to-a-10-year-old version, real-life analogies, a simple diagram, then a comparison table — that you aim at any concept you're stuck on, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA repeatable prompt sequence that turns a confusing idea into a definition, an analogy and a diagram you can check against your course notes — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Explain herd immunity threshold — Get a clear breakdown of how vaccination coverage stops disease spread.
Start with a one-sentence definition, then explain it as if I'm 10, then give a real-world analogy. Finish by flagging anything scholars genuinely disagree about — and tell me what you're unsure of.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Quickly clarify incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and attack rate. The linked tutorial covers ChatGPT's Study Mode (type /study), an interactive tutor that guides you with questions step by step instead of just handing over the answer, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to switch ChatGPT into tutor mode so it drills you on terms and ideas rather than doing the thinking for you — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Define epidemiology terms — Quickly clarify incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and attack rate.
Define each term in one clear sentence, then give a concrete example of each in context. Once I've read them, quiz me on them one at a time and tell me what I got wrong and why.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Condense a lengthy global health report into key takeaways. The linked tutorial covers MacMost's copy-paste method — pull an article into reader view, paste it into ChatGPT after 'summarize this:', then ask for a set word count or a 10-bullet version; also how to grab a YouTube transcript to summarise a video, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to compress a long reading or video into a summary of the exact length you need, and why pasting the source keeps it accurate — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Summarize a WHO report — Condense a lengthy global health report into key takeaways.
Give me (1) a three-sentence summary, (2) five bullet-point key claims, and (3) anything the author asserts without supporting evidence. Text below:
[PASTE THE TEXT HERE]
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Generate catchy messages for a local smoking-cessation initiative. The linked tutorial covers three brainstorming methods in ChatGPT — a reusable custom-instructions 'brainstorm paradigm', an AI-diagram tree that fans one topic into dozens of branches, and a SWOT prompt to pressure-test an idea, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayThree prompt patterns you can reuse to go from a blank page to a categorised list of options, plus a way to stress-test the one you pick — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Brainstorm health campaign slogans — Generate catchy messages for a local smoking-cessation initiative.
Give me 10 options grouped into 3 themes, then mark the 3 most original and explain what makes them stronger.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Write a professional email requesting an internship or interview. The linked tutorial covers drafting an email in ChatGPT and improving it through conversation — the first draft is deliberately generic, then detail is added turn by turn — plus what not to paste in for privacy, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayWhy the first draft always reads like AI, how to iterate it into your own voice, and to keep real names out of the prompt — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Draft outreach email to clinic — Write a professional email requesting an internship or interview.
Keep it under 150 words: polite, specific, with one clear ask. Give me two versions — one formal, one warmer. Don't include real names, ID numbers, or anything private.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Understand how income, housing, and education shape health outcomes. The linked tutorial covers a 10-step ChatGPT prompt system — standard definition, an explain-it-to-a-10-year-old version, real-life analogies, a simple diagram, then a comparison table — that you aim at any concept you're stuck on, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA repeatable prompt sequence that turns a confusing idea into a definition, an analogy and a diagram you can check against your course notes — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Explain social determinants of health — Understand how income, housing, and education shape health outcomes.
Start with a one-sentence definition, then explain it as if I'm 10, then give a real-world analogy. Finish by flagging anything scholars genuinely disagree about — and tell me what you're unsure of.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Turn dense journal jargon into plain language for lay audiences. The linked tutorial covers MacMost's copy-paste method — pull an article into reader view, paste it into ChatGPT after 'summarize this:', then ask for a set word count or a 10-bullet version; also how to grab a YouTube transcript to summarise a video, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to compress a long reading or video into a summary of the exact length you need, and why pasting the source keeps it accurate — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Simplify a research abstract — Turn dense journal jargon into plain language for lay audiences.
Give me (1) a three-sentence summary, (2) five bullet-point key claims, and (3) anything the author asserts without supporting evidence. Text below:
[PASTE THE TEXT HERE]
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Generate needs-assessment questions on food access
Write neutral, non-leading items suitable for community respondents. The linked tutorial covers the fundamentals of ChatGPT — prompting basics, what it can and can't do, and how to personalise it, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayEnough grounding to attempt an unfamiliar task with AI and judge whether the answer is trustworthy — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Generate needs-assessment questions on food access — Write neutral, non-leading items suitable for community respondents.
Walk me through how to do this step by step. Ask me any clarifying questions first, and show your reasoning so I can check it.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Build quick review cards for confidence intervals and p-values. The linked tutorial covers prompting ChatGPT for a set of question-and-answer flashcards on a topic, then exporting the set straight into Quizlet, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA pipeline from topic to a study-ready Quizlet deck in a couple of minutes — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Create flashcards for biostatistics — Build quick review cards for confidence intervals and p-values.
Create 20 flashcards formatted as 'Question | Answer', one per line, so I can paste them straight into Quizlet or Anki. Keep each answer under 25 words.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Understand susceptible-infected-recovered compartments without heavy math. The linked tutorial covers a 10-step ChatGPT prompt system — standard definition, an explain-it-to-a-10-year-old version, real-life analogies, a simple diagram, then a comparison table — that you aim at any concept you're stuck on, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA repeatable prompt sequence that turns a confusing idea into a definition, an analogy and a diagram you can check against your course notes — enough to use on Public Health Studies work this week.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Explain the SIR model conceptually — Understand susceptible-infected-recovered compartments without heavy math.
Start with a one-sentence definition, then explain it as if I'm 10, then give a real-world analogy. Finish by flagging anything scholars genuinely disagree about — and tell me what you're unsure of.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Synthesize multiple lecture notes into one organized exam guide. The linked tutorial covers building a custom study plan with ChatGPT using the Ultralearning why/what/how framework — benchmarking how others learn it, then a week-by-week plan with deliverables and grading rubrics, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA prompt sequence that produces a personalised study schedule with checkable milestones, plus a pass where ChatGPT critiques the plan as an expert — worth checking against your Public Health Studies course material before you lean on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Build a study guide from lectures — Synthesize multiple lecture notes into one organized exam guide.
I have [X hours per week] and my exam is on [DATE]. Build a week-by-week plan with specific deliverables, and for each week give me a way to check I've actually learned it.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Contrast Health Belief Model with Social Cognitive Theory for a paper. The linked tutorial covers a compare-and-contrast prompt in ChatGPT (demonstrated on Buddhism vs Hinduism) that asks for similarities and differences, then expands any point you want more depth on, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA prompt for structured comparisons, and how to push ChatGPT to elaborate on the specific dimension you care about — worth checking against your Public Health Studies course material before you lean on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Compare intervention frameworks — Contrast Health Belief Model with Social Cognitive Theory for a paper.
Give me a table of the key similarities and differences, then one short paragraph on which difference matters most and why.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Use Excel Copilot to summarize obesity rates across demographics. The linked tutorial covers dragging a dataset straight into ChatGPT and prompting it to describe the data, produce descriptive statistics per column, and chart the columns you care about, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to interrogate a spreadsheet conversationally, and why the 'analyzing' step means it ran real code rather than guessing — worth checking against your Public Health Studies course material before you lean on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Analyze a county health dataset — Use Excel Copilot to summarize obesity rates across demographics.
I'm uploading my dataset. First describe what's in it and flag any data-quality problems, then answer my question, and show the code you ran so I can check it myself.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Outline objectives, activities, and evaluation for a wellness project. The linked tutorial covers using ChatGPT across the research-paper workflow — finding a topic where a genuine gap exists, then structuring the paper around it, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to pick a defensible topic and lay out the sections before you start writing — worth checking against your Public Health Studies course material before you lean on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Design a health-promotion program plan — Outline objectives, activities, and evaluation for a wellness project.
Give a topic-sentence outline only — not full prose. For each section, state the argument it makes and the evidence it would need.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Group drivers by theme and flag where findings disagree. The linked tutorial covers ResearchRabbit — seed it with one paper, then explore the citation network visually to surface related work and spot gaps, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA way to map a literature landscape from a single starting paper instead of searching keyword by keyword — worth checking against your Public Health Studies course material before you lean on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Synthesize studies on vaccine hesitancy — Group drivers by theme and flag where findings disagree.
Group the sources below into themes, show where they agree and disagree, and name the gap that's left. Do not invent sources.
[PASTE SOURCES OR ABSTRACTS HERE]
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Organize maternal-health statistics into an accessible visual layout. The linked tutorial covers using ChatGPT to build charts from data in minutes, then refining them and applying your own judgement to the story they tell, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to get from raw numbers to a readable chart fast, and where human judgement still has to come in — worth checking against your Public Health Studies course material before you lean on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Draft an infographic content plan — Organize maternal-health statistics into an accessible visual layout.
Recommend the best chart type for this data and say why, then produce it and explain what it does — and does not — show.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Create a GPT trained on epidemiology texts to quiz students. The linked tutorial covers building a Custom GPT from scratch in ChatGPT and feeding it your own past writing so its output sounds like you rather than generic AI, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to set up a reusable assistant with your instructions baked in, so you stop re-explaining context every session — bring the result to a Public Health Studies professor or TA before it goes near graded work.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Build a custom disease-outbreak tutor GPT — Create a GPT trained on epidemiology texts to quiz students.
Draft the name, description, instructions and 4 conversation starters for this Custom GPT. The instructions should tell it to ask clarifying questions and to admit when it doesn't know.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Generate and debug code modeling smoking versus lung-cancer data. The linked tutorial covers dragging a dataset straight into ChatGPT and prompting it to describe the data, produce descriptive statistics per column, and chart the columns you care about, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayHow to interrogate a spreadsheet conversationally, and why the 'analyzing' step means it ran real code rather than guessing — bring the result to a Public Health Studies professor or TA before it goes near graded work.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Write R code for regression analysis — Generate and debug code modeling smoking versus lung-cancer data.
I'm uploading my dataset. First describe what's in it and flag any data-quality problems, then answer my question, and show the code you ran so I can check it myself.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Model SIR dynamics with adjustable transmission and recovery rates. The linked tutorial covers pasting a broken snippet into ChatGPT with the prompt 'scan the following code for potential problems' — it finds the bug (a divide-by-zero), explains why it happens and returns a fixed version, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA debugging prompt formula, plus the habit of re-running the fixed code to confirm the error is actually gone — bring the result to a Public Health Studies professor or TA before it goes near graded work.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Simulate an epidemic in Python — Model SIR dynamics with adjustable transmission and recovery rates.
Tell me what's wrong, explain why it happens, then give the corrected version. Walk through the fixed code line by line with a concrete input.
[PASTE YOUR CODE AND THE ERROR HERE]
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
Develop hypotheses, sampling, IRB considerations, and analysis plan. The linked tutorial covers designing a study end-to-end in ChatGPT — research questions, hypotheses, survey items, sample size and sampling method, R code for the analysis, then implications and titles, and the starter prompt below already frames it for Public Health Studies.
What you'll take awayA full research-design workflow, including how to answer a reviewer who says your sample is too small — bring the result to a Public Health Studies professor or TA before it goes near graded work.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Public Health Studies student at HWS. My task: Design a full research study protocol — Develop hypotheses, sampling, IRB considerations, and analysis plan.
Propose a research question, hypotheses, method, sample and sampling strategy, and the analysis plan. Then critique the weaknesses of your own design.
Keep the terminology, examples, and level of detail appropriate for an undergraduate Public Health Studies course.
How can Public Health Studies students use AI at HWS?
This page lists 20 practical AI use cases written specifically for Public Health Studies students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges — 10 easy, 6 medium, 4 hard by difficulty. They range from everyday coursework help such as explain herd immunity threshold and define epidemiology terms through to project-scale work like design a full research study protocol. Each one comes with a starter prompt you can paste straight into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
Which AI use cases should a Public Health Studies major try first?
Start with the 10 rated Easy — they need no setup and work on the first try. For Public Health Studies that means explain herd immunity threshold, define epidemiology terms and summarize a who report. Once those feel routine, move up to the Medium tier, which includes build a study guide from lectures and compare intervention frameworks.
What do I need to start using AI as a Public Health Studies student?
A free account with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini is the whole list — no coding, no paid subscription, and nothing to install. The 20 Public Health Studies use cases here draw on 16 tutorial videos between them, and each card ships with a starter prompt already framed for Public Health Studies coursework, so the first thing you do is paste, not write.
Is it OK to use AI for Public Health Studies coursework at HWS?
Your Public Health Studies professor decides, and the answer changes from course to course and even between assignments — so read the syllabus before any of this touches graded work. Everything on this page is a study aid: a use case like "Design a full research study protocol" exists to get you through Public Health Studies material faster, not to produce something you submit as your own. If the syllabus is silent, ask before you use it.