5-Week Bootcamp ยท Python-first ยท High School ยท 10 hours

AI Trailblazers

No videos. No lectures that outlast a demo. In five 2-hour sessions you’ll train neural networks in real Python, do the learning math by hand, build a language model from scratch, measure real bias, and ship an AI project you demo in public.

Start Week 1 โ†’
How this works

Screens for code. This site for thinking.

You’ll write real Python in Google Colab every single week. This interactive handbook is the other half of the lab — the concepts, the checkpoints, and the evidence — explained step by step so nothing in AI feels like magic. Work in pairs (driver + navigator, swap at every checkpoint); your capstone is yours alone.

The one rule that makes you an engineer: AI assistants may explain an error — never write your lab solution. Error messages are clues, not verdicts. Read the last line out loud before you raise a hand.
The Trail

Five weeks, one real AI builder

The Vocabulary Contract

Learn four words and nothing in AI is magic anymore

Features
the numbers going in
Label
the answer
Loss
the wrongness score
Training
nudging weights to shrink loss

Every single thing you build in the next five weeks is some version of these four. Say them out loud.

The Four Laws

One law per week. Earn them.

Law #1 ยท Week 1
The data is the teacher.

A model is only as good, or as fair, as what you feed it.

Law #2 ยท Week 2
Nobody has to intend bias for it to be real.

Bias comes from data, not villains. Measure per-group or you’ll never see it.

Law #3 ยท Week 3
Plausible and true are different.

A model is never lying and never honest — it can’t tell the difference. Checking is your job.

Law #4 ยท Week 4
A finished small thing beats an ambitious stump.

On demo night and on your resume, forever. When in doubt, cut.

Badges โ€” no participation trophies

Earn one a week. All five = Trailblazer.

๐ŸŽฏ

Model Trainer

Wk 1 โ€” trained a classifier in code, reported accuracy from a proper split, tuned two knobs.

๐Ÿ“

Data Scientist

Wk 2 โ€” did 3 gradient-descent steps by hand, explained the U-curve, measured recall-for-8.

๐Ÿ’ฌ

LLM Whisperer

Wk 3 โ€” built a working text generator with a temperature dial, logged a red-team technique.

๐Ÿงญ

Project Founder

Wk 4 โ€” scoping canvas complete, GREEN LIGHT earned, build started.

๐Ÿš€

Shipped-It

Wk 5 โ€” public 4-beat demo with one shown artifact; a resume bullet with a number.

๐Ÿ†

Trailblazer

All 5 badges + all 5 missions. Announced at the Showcase.

Your Toolkit

Real tools professionals use

๐Ÿ““

Google Colab

Where you write and run all your Python notebooks โ€” no install.

๐ŸŽฎ

TensorFlow Playground

Watch a neural network learn, live, in your browser.

๐Ÿง™

Gandalf

A legal prompt-injection game for learning to red-team AI.

๐Ÿค–

ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini

LLMs (free tiers) โ€” your explain-only lab assistant.

๐ŸŒ

Gradio + HF Spaces

Turn your model into a shareable web demo.

๐Ÿ•บ

MediaPipe

Pose landmarks for the “Coach’s Eye” capstone.

Begin the Trail โ†’ Week 1