AI›Level 1 · AI Explorer›Lesson 21

L1 · 21

The Recipe for a Good Prompt

Great prompts follow a recipe with four ingredients: a Role, a Task, some Details, and a Format. Mix them in and the answers get much better.

⏱ 1.5 hours💬 Prompt lesson📚 After AI-L1-20🤖 Teacher-managed class chatbot
01

Learning Goals

5 min

By the end of this lesson you can:

  • Name the four parts of the prompt recipe.
  • Write a prompt that uses all four parts.
  • Explain how each part improves the answer.
02

Warm-Up · Which Answer Is Better?

8 min

Last lesson we learned a prompt is your instruction, and clear beats vague. Now we build clear prompts on purpose.

Two prompts ask for the same thing: "tell me about volcanoes" versus "You are a science teacher. Explain to a 10-year-old how a volcano erupts, in 3 short steps." Which gives the more useful answer?

Reveal

The second. It names who the AI should be, what to do, who it's for, and how long. That's the recipe we'll learn today.

03

New Concept · The Four Ingredients

18 min

A strong prompt usually has four parts. Remember them as R-T-D-F.

  • Role — who the AI should act as. "You are a friendly maths tutor."
  • Task — what you want done. "Explain long division."
  • Details — for whom, about what, how much. "For a 10-year-old, with one example."
  • Format — the shape of the answer. "In 3 short steps."

Here is a prompt with all four, and the kind of answer it gets:

You

You are a friendly Year-5 science teacher. Explain how rain forms, for a 10-year-old in Malaysia, in exactly 3 short steps.

🤖 AI

Step 1: The hot sun heats puddles and rivers, turning water into invisible vapour that rises. Step 2: High up it cools and gathers into clouds. Step 3: When the clouds get heavy, the water falls back down as rain.

Stay safe

You can give the AI a role and details — but never personal details like your full name, address or photos of people.

04

Worked Example · Building It Up

18 min

Watch a plain task grow into a full recipe. First, just the task:

You

ideas for a science project

🤖 AI

Sure! What subject and year group is it for, and how many ideas do you want?

The AI had to ask back. Now add Role, Details and Format:

You

You are a science fair helper. Give me 5 simple science project ideas about water, for a 10-year-old in Malaysia. List them as short bullet points.

🤖 AI

• Test which local drink stains teeth the most (use eggshells). • Build a mini water filter from sand and pebbles. • Measure how fast ice melts in shade vs sun. • Grow bean sprouts with tap, boiled and rain water. • Make a rain gauge and track a week of weather.

The takeaway

Same idea, four ingredients added — and the answer went from a question back to a ready-to-use list.

05

Try It Yourself

20 min

Use the teacher-opened chatbot. Keep to the class AI rules.

01 🟢 Add a Role

Take the task "explain photosynthesis". Add a Role and a Detail (who it's for), then test it.

Hint

Try "You are a patient biology teacher. Explain photosynthesis to a 10-year-old."

02 🟡 Full recipe

Write a prompt with all four ingredients (Role, Task, Details, Format) for a real need you have this week.

Hint

Underline R, T, D and F in your prompt to check all four are there.

06

Mini-Challenge · Cook the Prompt

12 min

Here is a bare task: "write a story". Add all four recipe ingredients to turn it into a great prompt.

It works if a classmate can point to the Role, Task, Details and Format in your finished prompt.

Show one strong version
You

You are a children's storyteller. Write a fun, gentle story about a kancil (mouse-deer) who outsmarts a tiger, for a 9-year-old. Make it about 8 sentences long with a happy ending.

07

Recap

5 min

The prompt recipe is Role, Task, Details, Format — R-T-D-F. Add the four ingredients and the AI has far less guessing to do, so the answer is far more useful.

Vocabulary Card

role
Who you ask the AI to act as, like "a maths tutor".
task
What you want the AI to do.
details
Extra information — who it's for, the topic, how much.
format
The shape of the answer — a list, 3 steps, a short paragraph.
08

Homework · Two Recipe Prompts

≤ 20 min

Write two prompts that each use all four recipe ingredients, for two real tasks. Label the Role, Task, Details and Format in each.