BUILDERS
6-12
Seventeen skills.
Six weeks.
One app with your name on it.
Think it through
01Decide what to build602The five line spec803Sketch the screen1004Vague instructions lose1205What ships today14You're the one giving the instructions now.
Hey builder,
You already use AI. Most people your age do. You ask it things and it answers. For the next six weeks we're flipping that around. You'll be the one in charge.
Your team is going to plan an app, direct an AI to build it, try to break it, fix it and show it to your family on the last day. The AI is fast. It's also clueless about what your team wants until you tell it. That's the whole game.
Here's what I care about most. Not whether your app is fancy. Whether you can say what you're building, check what the AI did, and stand up and explain your choices. Those skills work everywhere.
This magazine is your field guide. Every spread is one skill. Read the one for this week before class. Bring your questions. Bring your weird ideas too. We'll figure out which ones ship today.
See you in Week 1,
Coach Walt
Walter Jordan, Lead Instructor, Jordan & Borden
The five rules of the build
We say these out loud on day one. They're printed on your workbook cover too.
The principal test
If you would not show it to your principal, do not build it.
Nothing personal goes in
No real names, addresses, phone numbers, photos of people or passwords. Not yours. Not anyone's.
Screens face the room
Coach can see every team's instructions live. That is the deal, and it keeps everyone safe.
The AI can be wrong with confidence
It will sound sure even when it is wrong. We check its work every single time.
You own what you ship
Including the parts the AI wrote. If it is in your app, it is yours to explain.
Your team signs in to AI Builders Studio with the six-character code on your role cards. No email. No password. No personal account with any AI company.
Your six weeks, mapped
One team project, start to finish. The circles are the skills in this issue you'll use that week.
- Week1DecideForm a team, choose a project, write a one-page plan on paperCheckpoint: A one-page spec and a screen sketch, signed by the instructor
- Week2BuildDirect the AI to build the first version from that planCheckpoint: A saved v1 prototype that does the first must-have feature
- Week3BreakTest another team's app and report what goes wrongCheckpoint: Three bug tickets filed against another team, your own tickets sorted
- Week4FixFix the most important problems and add one featureCheckpoint: v2 saved with the top three bugs fixed and verified, plus one later feature
- Week5RehearsePrepare and rehearse a two-minute presentationCheckpoint: Every student has said part of the two-minute defense out loud
- Week6ShowcaseLive demos, questions, then families try the appsCheckpoint: The team demoed live and answered questions
How to decide what to build and say it in one sentence the whole team agrees on
If your team can't say it in one breath, the AI definitely can't build it.
The what
Every great app starts as an argument. One teammate wants a zombie game. Another wants a homework helper. Somebody wants both, with a dance mode. That is normal. Your first job is not to build anything. It is to pick.
Then you squeeze the pick into one sentence. We're building [what] for [who] so they can [do what]. Every person on the team says it out loud. If anyone says it differently, you are not done yet.
The why
The AI will build whatever you tell it. If your team has three different apps in its head, you will get a fourth app nobody asked for.
One sentence is also your compass. Later, when someone wants to add a boss level, you hold it up against the sentence and ask: does this help?
