Examples

What the student taps, what the model writes

Twelve real results in English, unedited, from primary school to adults. A note here is not a summary: it is the minimum cue that brings the sentence of the text back to mind, and that sentence opens next to the card on every answer. Above, the card NOTEBARS wrote; below, the text with the words the student tapped.

Honeybees · primary school

Seven taps, seven cards, in the order of the text. The model kept the child's words and added a title.

HONEYBEES

HIVE

Home for honeybees

QUEEN

Lays eggs

NECTAR

Workers collect it from flowers

HONEY

Made from nectar in the hive

POLLEN

Carried between flowers

Helps plants make seeds

DANCE

Shows others where good flowers are

IN DANGER

Bees sting only then

The text, with the words the student tapped

Honeybees live together in a home called a hive. Each hive has one queen, and her job is to lay eggs. The worker bees fly from flower to flower and collect nectar. Back in the hive they turn the nectar into honey. Bees also carry pollen from one flower to another, which helps plants make seeds. When a bee finds good flowers, it does a little dance to show the others where to go. Bees only sting when they feel in danger.

The American Revolution · history, names and dates

Many taps, mostly dates and names. Dates went to the right as notes, and the keys are the events that recall them: Boston Tea Party, Declaration, Treaty.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION

WAR DEBTS

Britain taxed colonies to repay them

REPRESENTATION

Colonists had none in Parliament

BOSTON TEA PARTY

1773

Protesters dumped tea in Boston Harbor

FIGHTING BROKE OUT

At Lexington and Concord

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

July 4, 1776

Written mainly by Thomas Jefferson

TREATY OF PARIS

1783

Britain recognized the United States

The text, with the words the student tapped

In the 1760s Britain began taxing its American colonies to pay off war debts. The colonists objected because they had no representation in Parliament. In 1773 protesters dumped a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor, an event known as the Boston Tea Party. Fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. On July 4, 1776 the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, written mainly by Thomas Jefferson. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, in which Britain recognized the United States.

The human heart · biology, a process in stages

The student tapped the path of the blood. The cards follow the same path, chamber by chamber, and the title says what the card is about: blood flow.

THE HEART

CHAMBERS

Four

RIGHT ATRIUM

Then right ventricle

LUNGS

Blood arrives from right ventricle

Releases carbon dioxide

Picks up oxygen

LEFT ATRIUM

Then left ventricle

LEFT VENTRICLE

Has the thickest wall

Pumps through aorta to whole body

VALVES

Keep blood from flowing backward

BEATS PER MINUTE

About 70 at rest

The text, with the words the student tapped

The heart is a muscular pump with four chambers. Blood low in oxygen enters the right atrium and passes into the right ventricle. The right ventricle sends it to the lungs, where it releases carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen. Oxygen-rich blood returns to the left atrium and then moves into the left ventricle. The left ventricle has the thickest wall because it pumps blood to the whole body through the aorta. Valves keep the blood from flowing backward. A resting adult heart beats about 70 times per minute.

Inflation · economics, negations

A negation in the text (“does not mean that every price goes up”) became a card of its own, because the student tapped “every”. Groups separated by blank lines: definition, causes, response, deflation.

INFLATION

GENERAL LEVEL

Prices rise over time

EVERY PRICE

Doesn't mean all prices rise

Some goods become cheaper

PURCHASING POWER

Same salary buys less

SUPPLY

Demand grows faster

ENERGY

More expensive energy raises production costs

INTEREST RATES

Central banks raise them

Borrowing becomes more expensive

INFLATION TARGET

About 2% per year

DEFLATION

Falling prices

Can harm the economy

People delay purchases

The text, with the words the student tapped

Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices over time. It does not mean that every price goes up, since some goods can become cheaper. When inflation is high, money loses purchasing power, so the same salary buys less. One common cause is demand growing faster than supply. Another is rising production costs, for example more expensive energy. Central banks usually fight inflation by raising interest rates, which makes borrowing more expensive. Many central banks aim for inflation of about 2% per year. Falling prices, called deflation, can also harm the economy because people delay purchases.

Newton's laws · physics, a formula

The formula stayed as a formula (F = ma) and each law got its own group. The note is not the law; it is the cue that brings the sentence back.

NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION

THREE LAWS

Published in 1687

FORCE

Acts to change rest or constant-speed motion

INERTIA

Resistance to changes in motion

SECOND LAW

F = ma

SAME ACCELERATION

Heavier object needs more force

REACTION

Equal

Opposite

ROCKET

Moves forward

Pushes gas backward

The text, with the words the student tapped

Isaac Newton published his three laws of motion in 1687. The first law states that an object stays at rest or moves at constant speed unless a force acts on it. This tendency to resist changes in motion is called inertia. The second law says that force equals mass times acceleration, written as F = ma. A heavier object therefore needs more force to reach the same acceleration. The third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is why a rocket moves forward when it pushes gas backward.

Inner and outer planets · comparison

Where the text contrasts the largest and the smallest planet, the model put them side by side in two columns.

SOLAR SYSTEM

PLANETS

Eight orbit the Sun

INNER PLANETS

Small

Rocky

OUTER PLANETS

Much larger

Mostly gas

JUPITER

Largest planet

MERCURY

Smallest planet

ASTEROID BELT

Between Mars and Jupiter

EARTH

Only known planet with liquid water on surface

DWARF PLANET

Pluto, reclassified in 2006

The text, with the words the student tapped

The Solar System has eight planets that orbit the Sun. The four inner planets are small and rocky, with solid surfaces. The four outer planets are much larger and made mostly of gas or ice. Jupiter is the largest planet, while Mercury is the smallest. Between Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt. Earth is the only planet known to have liquid water on its surface. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Separation of powers · three parallel items

Three branches, three columns next to each other. What the student tapped in three sentences became one table.

BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

LEGISLATIVE

Makes the laws

EXECUTIVE

Carries out laws

Runs the government

JUDICIAL

Interprets laws

Settles disputes

SEPARATION OF POWERS

Division of power among branches

MONTESQUIEU

Developed the idea

CHECKS AND BALANCES

Each branch can limit the others

TOO MUCH POWER

Stops anyone gaining it

The text, with the words the student tapped

In a democracy, power is usually divided among three branches. The legislative branch makes the laws. The executive branch carries out the laws and runs the government. The judicial branch interprets the laws and settles disputes. This division is called the separation of powers. The idea was developed by the French thinker Montesquieu in the 18th century. Each branch can limit the others through a system of checks and balances. Its purpose is to prevent any one person or group from gaining too much power.

Remote work · an argument, for and against

Supporters versus critics: a two-column card built from the taps in six sentences, then the hybrid model as its own card.

SUPPORTERS

Save time and money; skip commuting

Focus better without office noise

Hire anywhere, spend less on offices

CRITICS

Feel isolated from colleagues

Learn slower without watching coworkers

HYBRID

Some days at home, some in office

The text, with the words the student tapped

Working from home has become common in many companies, and opinions about it are divided. Supporters say that employees save time and money because they do not commute. They also argue that people can focus better without office noise. Companies can hire talent from anywhere and spend less on office space. Critics reply that remote workers feel more isolated from their colleagues. They add that new employees learn more slowly when they cannot watch experienced coworkers. Many organizations now choose a hybrid model, with some days at home and some in the office.

Mean, median and mode · mathematics

The student tapped the three terms and the three results. The model attached each number to its term and put the outlier where it belongs.

MEASURES OF CENTER

MEAN

Sum divided by number of values

MEDIAN

Middle value when numbers are ordered

Not much affected by outliers

MODE

Appears most often

OUTLIER

Pulls mean toward it

The text, with the words the student tapped

There are three common ways to describe the center of a set of numbers. The mean is the sum of all values divided by how many values there are. The median is the middle value when the numbers are placed in order. The mode is the value that appears most often. For the numbers 2, 3, 3, 5 and 12, the mean is 5, the median is 3 and the mode is 3. A very large or very small value, called an outlier, pulls the mean toward it. The median is not affected much by outliers, so it is often used for incomes and house prices.

DNA · biology, pairs and a list

A list of four bases stayed a list; the two pairings stayed two lines. The discovery, with three names, became one card at the end.

DNA

Carries genetic instructions

DNA SHAPE

Double helix

DNA BASES

Adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine

BASE PAIRING

Adenine pairs with thymine

Guanine pairs with cytosine

GENE

Section of DNA

Holds instructions for making a protein

HUMAN-CELL DNA

Packed into 46 chromosomes

DNA DISCOVERY

Described in 1953

Watson and Crick

Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray images

The text, with the words the student tapped

DNA is the molecule that carries the genetic instructions of living things. It has the shape of a double helix, like a twisted ladder. The steps of the ladder are made of four bases: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. Adenine always pairs with thymine, and guanine always pairs with cytosine. A gene is a section of DNA that holds the instructions for making a protein. In human cells DNA is packed into 46 chromosomes. The structure of DNA was described in 1953 by Watson and Crick, using X-ray images made by Rosalind Franklin.

Memory · psychology (and how NOTEBARS works)

Short-term versus long-term, then the strategies: retrieval, spaced repetition, sleep. Every note is the minimum that recalls the sentence.

MEMORY

SHORT-TERM MEMORY

Holds little information for 20–30 seconds

LONG-TERM MEMORY

Stores information for years

Has no known limit

ENCODING

Moving information into long-term memory

RETRIEVED

Actively, not by rereading

SPACED REPETITION

Review at increasing intervals

Slows forgetting

CONSOLIDATED

Memories during the night

The text, with the words the student tapped

Psychologists often describe memory as having several stages. Short-term memory holds a small amount of information for about 20 to 30 seconds. Long-term memory can store information for years and has no known limit. Moving information into long-term memory is called encoding. Information is remembered better when it is retrieved actively rather than simply reread. Reviewing material at increasing intervals, known as spaced repetition, slows down forgetting. Sleep also plays an important role, because memories are consolidated during the night.

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle · sparse selections

Few taps in a dense text. The model wrote only for those and merged Aristotle's two sentences into one card, because the student tapped him in both.

ANCIENT ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHERS

SOCRATES

Wrote nothing himself

Taught by asking questions

DEATH SENTENCE

399 BC

PLATO

Founded the Academy

FORMS

Perfect and unchanging

Visible world is their shadow

ARISTOTLE

Trusted observation of the natural world

Founded the Lyceum

Tutored Alexander the Great

The text, with the words the student tapped

Three philosophers of ancient Athens shaped Western thought. Socrates wrote nothing himself and taught by asking questions. He was sentenced to death in 399 BC for supposedly corrupting the youth. His student Plato founded a school called the Academy and wrote dialogues with Socrates as the main speaker. Plato believed that the visible world is only a shadow of perfect, unchanging Forms. Aristotle, who studied under Plato, trusted observation of the natural world instead. He founded his own school, the Lyceum, and was the tutor of Alexander the Great.

The texts are school-style passages written for testing the model, in English; the model is trained mainly on Greek school texts and writes in the language of the text it is given. The cards are exactly as they came out. A card holds only what the student tapped, as briefly as needed to bring the sentence back, not to replace it; that is why the text always stays next to it. Over 10,000 cards like these have been checked by a second AI model for fidelity to the source: 98% were judged satisfactory with no correction. · notebars.gr/en · Is it for you? 5 questions · Ελληνικά παραδείγματα