Everything you need to get started
Short, plain-English guides for students, teachers, and curriculum leaders, and an easy roadmap for bringing Feynman to a whole school or district.
Start here
From open to first lesson in three steps
Open Feynman
It runs in any web browser. There is nothing to download for students, no account to create, and no password to remember.
Pick a concept
Start on the Learning Ladder or Explore. Choose any idea (what a neural network is, how a model predicts the next word) and meet it at your level.
Ask the tutor anything
Every lesson has a built-in tutor. Ask it to slow down, give another example, or explain it like you're five. It never judges and never runs out of patience.
For students
Learn anything by playing with it
You don't need to be “good at computers.” Pick something that sounds interesting and start. Three ways in:
Play with the idea first
Drag words to feel how AI guesses what comes next. Watch a photo turn from raw numbers into edges and shapes. You learn by doing, not by reading walls of text.
Open Explore →Climb at your own height
Same concept, five heights, from a kindergarten spark to a real Stanford course. Start where it makes sense and climb one rung at a time. No idea is off-limits, it just starts gentler.
Open the Ladder →A patient guide, always on
Stuck? Ask the tutor. It lives inside each lesson and is set up to teach that exact topic well. Ask it to try again, use a sports example, or draw it out in words.
Try a lesson →For teachers
Ready to teach, even with zero AI background
Every classroom module comes with a script, an activity, slides, and a check. Here's the whole flow:
- 1
Open a classroom module
Each module is ready to teach with zero AI background. You get a minute-by-minute script, a student activity, slides, and a quick check for understanding.
- 2
Skim the Big Idea and the script
Two minutes of prep. The Big Idea tells you the one thing students should leave with. The script tells you what to say and when.
- 3
Run the activity
Hand the class the student activity (often on the Explore page). Walk around. The tutor handles the "but why?" questions so you can focus on the room.
- 4
Check for understanding
End with the built-in formative check. It tells you in a minute whether the idea landed or needs one more pass tomorrow.
For curriculum leaders & coaches
What makes the pedagogy hold together
If you evaluate or coach instruction, here is how Feynman is built and why it stays coherent across grades.
Organized by how ideas grow, not by standard
Feynman is built around concept progression. The same idea is rebuilt into five grade-band rungs, so a concept is never "too advanced"; it is met at the right height. Standards alignment is layered on top, not the skeleton.
One honest ceiling
Every course names its real Stanford source as the summit. Students always see where the ladder is going. Nothing is dumbed down and then hidden; it is scaled down and named honestly.
Derived, consistent lessons
Lesson plans, ladders, and checks are all derived from one source of truth per course. That means consistency across grades and subjects, and no drift between what a 3rd grader and a 10th grader are told the idea is.
Built-in formative assessment
Every module ends with a quick check tied to its Big Idea. Use them as exit tickets, bell-ringers, or a fast read on a new class.
For district & IT leaders
Easy to approve, easy to run
Most edtech approvals stall on privacy and cost. Feynman is designed to clear both quickly.
Private by design
The AI tutor runs as a local model on the school's own machine. Student questions never leave the device; they are not sent to any cloud, company, or third party. There is nothing to leak because nothing is collected.
No accounts, no tracking
Students don't log in. There are no profiles, no behavioral data, and no advertising. This sidesteps most of the data-privacy surface area that slows district approvals (FERPA / COPPA review still applies, but there is far less to review).
Free, forever
Feynman is given away free. There are no per-seat licenses, no usage tiers, and no surprise renewal. Budget approval is about IT time, not software cost.
Modest IT footprint
One free local model (via Ollama, ~5 GB) and a standard web app. It can run on a single classroom machine, a lab cart, or a small school server. No student devices need special software.
Adoption roadmap
From one curious teacher to a whole district
You never have to bet big up front. Each phase is small, low-risk, and proves itself before the next.
- Phase 01 week
Champion & try it
- One curious teacher or coach installs it on a single machine.
- Run one lesson with a small group, end-to-end.
- Decide: is this worth a real pilot? (Usually a yes after one class.)
- Phase 12–4 weeks
Classroom pilot
- One or two teachers use it weekly with their own classes.
- Pick 3–5 courses that map to what you're already teaching.
- Collect simple signals: did students engage? Did the checks show learning?
- Phase 21 quarter
School rollout
- Bring it to a department or grade team with a short kickoff.
- IT sets up shared machines or a small server so any teacher can use it.
- Name a teacher-lead for questions. Share what worked from the pilot.
- Phase 31 semester+
District adoption
- Curriculum team maps modules to courses and pacing guides.
- IT standardizes the install across sites; one runbook covers all schools.
- Fold the formative checks into existing assessment routines.
Total time to a confident district decision: a single semester, with an exit ramp at every phase.
FAQ
Quick answers
Does it cost anything?+
No. Feynman is free, and the AI tutor runs on a free local model. There are no licenses or per-student fees.
Is student data safe?+
Yes. The tutor runs locally on the school's machine. Questions never leave the device; nothing is sent to the cloud, and nothing is collected or tracked.
Do students need accounts or devices?+
No accounts and no special software. Feynman opens in a normal web browser. The only setup is on the machine running the tutor.
Do teachers need an AI background?+
No. Each classroom module is written for a teacher with zero AI background: a script, an activity, slides, and a check are all included.
What does IT actually need to install?+
One free app (Ollama) plus one language model (~5 GB), and the Feynman web app. It can run on a single classroom machine or a small shared server. The README has exact commands.
Is the content really at a Stanford level?+
The summit of each ladder is a real Stanford CS/AI course, named honestly. The lower rungs scale that same idea down to each grade band: the same concept, met at five heights.
Ready to climb?
Pick any idea and meet it at your level. Bring a class along, or just explore on your own.