Setup

Setup

Everything you need to get Geometry Playground running in your classroom.

Note

Geometry Playground has two parts: a companion website (the reading material, exercises, and solutions) and a Swift Playground Book (where students actually write and run the code). You can use either one independently, but they are designed to work together.

1. Device requirements

For the Swift Playground Book

Device	Minimum	Recommended
iPad	iPadOS 15 or later	iPadOS 17 or later
Mac	macOS Monterey 12.0 or later	macOS Sonoma 14 or later

The Swift Playgrounds app is a free download from the App Store (iPad) or Mac App Store. It is not the same as Xcode. Students do not need an Apple Developer account.

Any iPad from the last six years will run Swift Playgrounds well. The original iPad Mini and the 2015 or earlier iPad Air cannot run a modern enough iPadOS to support the app.

For the companion website

Any modern web browser on any device:

• Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge from the last three years
• Works on iPad, Mac, Windows, Chromebook, Android, and iPhone
• Fully responsive down to 320 pixel wide phones
• Works offline for already-loaded pages, but site-wide search needs a network connection

Students who are using the Swift Playground Book on an iPad will typically also have the website open in Safari Split View alongside the playground. That is the recommended workflow.

2. Subscribing to the Swift Playground Book

Geometry Playground is distributed as a Swift Playgrounds subscription feed. This means:

• You subscribe once, and the playground is added to Swift Playgrounds as a new book
• When a new version is published, Swift Playgrounds automatically notifies the student
• No file downloads or manual installation required
• No account, no sign in, no cost

The one-click subscription link

Tip

Paste this link into Safari on an iPad or Mac that has Swift Playgrounds installed:

https://developer.apple.com/ul/sp0?url=https://dbbudd.github.io/feed.json

Safari will recognise the developer.apple.com/ul/sp0 prefix, offer to open Swift Playgrounds, and the playground book will appear in the Subscriptions section of the app.

Alternative: Manual subscription from inside Swift Playgrounds

1. Open Swift Playgrounds on the iPad or Mac
2. Tap the More Playgrounds button at the top of the library
3. Scroll to the bottom and tap Subscriptions
4. Tap Add Subscription and paste the feed URL:

   https://dbbudd.github.io/feed.json
   

5. The Geometry playground book will appear in the subscription. Tap Get to download it.

3. Verifying it works

Before running a class session, do this quick test on one iPad to make sure everything is wired up correctly.

1. Open the Geometry playground book in Swift Playgrounds
2. Navigate to Chapter I, then to the very first exercise (Intro to Pen)
3. You should see a small code editor with a single line of placeholder code
4. Type or paste:

   var p = Pen()
   p.addLine(distance: 100)
   addShape(pen: p)

5. Tap Run My Code
6. A horizontal line should appear on the canvas

If you see the line, the playground is working. If not, see Troubleshooting.

4. Classroom deployment

For a single classroom (one teacher, up to about 30 iPads)

The easiest approach is to have each student subscribe individually, using the one-click link above. This takes about 30 seconds per iPad. Start your first lesson with "everyone open Safari, tap this link" and walk around confirming.

If your school uses Shared iPad mode, the subscription will persist across different student logins on the same device, so you only need to subscribe once per physical iPad.

For a whole school or district

Use your existing Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution (Apple School Manager with Jamf, Mosyle, Meraki, or similar). The subscription URL can be pushed to all managed iPads as part of the app configuration for Swift Playgrounds.

Exact steps vary by MDM vendor, but the general flow is:

1. Ensure Swift Playgrounds is deployed as a managed app via Apple School Manager
2. In your MDM dashboard, find the "Managed App Configuration" (or similar) section for Swift Playgrounds
3. Add a configuration key named SubscriptionURL with the value:

   https://dbbudd.github.io/feed.json
   

4. Push the update. All managed iPads will automatically subscribe on next sync.

Check your specific MDM documentation for the exact key name. Some MDM systems use SubscriptionFeedURL or require the URL to be wrapped in an array.

For a BYOD (bring your own device) class

Send the subscription link via email or your learning management system. Students who already have Swift Playgrounds installed will be one tap away from the playground. Students who don't have Swift Playgrounds installed will need to install it first from the App Store (which is free, but may require Apple ID approval from a parent for students under 13).

5. Network and firewall considerations

Domains the site needs to reach

The companion website (dbbudd.github.io) and the Swift Playgrounds subscription feed both need to be reachable over HTTPS. If your school uses content filtering, make sure these domains are allowlisted:

• dbbudd.github.io (the companion site and the subscription feed)
• raw.githubusercontent.com (referenced for some images in specific chapters)
• cdn.jsdelivr.net (used for the OpenDyslexic accessibility font)

Can it run offline?

Partially. Once a student has loaded a chapter page in the browser, they can keep reading it offline. The Swift Playground Book, once downloaded, runs entirely on the device with no network required. However:

• Site wide search needs the network to fetch other chapter pages
• Switching to a chapter the student hasn't already loaded needs the network
• Vocabulary popovers work offline because the dictionary is bundled

For classrooms with unreliable WiFi, this is fine as long as the student loads all six chapter pages at the start of the term. A simple trick: assign "bookmark every chapter in Safari" as the first task of the first lesson, which forces each device to cache each page.

6. Before your first lesson

A minimum viable setup

Use this checklist to verify you are ready to teach:

• Swift Playgrounds is installed on every student iPad
• Every iPad is subscribed to the Geometry feed
• The Geometry playground book appears in each student's library
• The first exercise of Chapter I runs correctly when tested
• The companion website loads on every iPad in Safari
• Your MDM (if used) has pushed the subscription to all devices
• You have walked through Chapter I yourself at least once end to end
• You know how to use the "Show Solution" button and when to reveal solutions

Teacher warm-up (do this at least once yourself)

Before running the curriculum with students, work through Chapter I end to end on your own iPad. This takes roughly 90 minutes and will prepare you for:

• What the common student misconceptions look like in the first chapter
• How the walking metaphor is introduced and reinforced
• The cadence of tutorial and exercise sections
• The visual appearance of the companion site

Reading alone is not enough; the physical act of working through the exercises gives you a much better sense of what students will experience.

7. Useful links

• Swift Playgrounds on the App Store: apps.apple.com/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492
• Apple School Manager documentation: school.apple.com
• Companion website: dbbudd.github.io
• Subscription feed URL: https://dbbudd.github.io/feed.json
• One-click subscribe link: https://developer.apple.com/ul/sp0?url=https://dbbudd.github.io/feed.json

Next

• Having a problem? See Troubleshooting.
• Want to understand the curriculum before adopting? See Overview.
• Want to build your own similar site? See Library API.