Teaching Culture with Sound: An Open Experiment in AI, Music, and Education

Written by Sai Gattupalli

What happens when we let generative AI help us teach one of the most complex ideas in the human experience—culture?

As part of my ongoing project Equations & Echoes, I created a short educational video that blends AI-generated lyrics (written with GPT-4o), music composed using Suno v4.5, and carefully curated visuals from Creative Commons, Pexels, and Unsplash. I see these experiments as not just about making learning fun—it’s about making it meaningful, accessible, and multimodal.

Watch the video below:

Why This Matters for Educators

This video is designed as an open educational resource (OER)—free to use, remix, and share. It invites students and teachers to approach the concept of culture through the lens of music, metaphor, and visual storytelling. It can be used in:

• K–12 and higher ed classrooms as an introductory spark before beginning a unit on topics such as culture, identity, or global studies. More STEM videos can be found on the Youtube channel.

• In teacher education programs and PD: to inspire reflection on culturally responsive teaching practices.

• Literacy or media lessons to encourage remixing, songwriting, or critical thinking about how culture is represented in media.

• Ethics and technology discussions exploring how we use AI in thoughtful, educational ways.

A Note on Tools & Process

• Lyrics: Generated with GPT-4o using prompts aligned with the Flesch Very Easy readability, for young learners.

• Music: Composed with Suno (v4.5) to match the mood and tempo of the lyrics. I pay $5 each month to generate up to 500 songs.

• Visuals: Sourced from open license sources such as Wikimedia, Pexels, Unsplash. In cases where the footage was not found in traditional sources, I use Veo 3 from Google Gemini AI.

• Educational Design: Using music to teach and learn STEM concepts for teachers, tutors, parents, and children.

This blog is part of the Equations & Echoes project – where science sings and the universe hums back.

#OpenEd #AIinEducation #STEMMusic #CultureThroughSound