How can advanced manufacturing make America's energy infrastructure more resilient?
From grid parts to new materials: prototype the pieces of a tougher energy system.
A 3D printer and AI tools in every Idaho school. Free. Backed by industry.
Every kid deserves a challenge that pulls out their greatness.
The future of work belongs to people who can make things. So we're putting 3D printers and AI design tools in Idaho schools, no gatekeepers, no prerequisites: kids take the creative ideas and solutions living in their hearts and minds, make them real, and test them fast. Prompt it, print it, hold it, improve it, same week. Industry challenges, skills worth having, and a place to show their growth are all there the moment they want more. No assignments, no recruiting, no new curriculum. Kids building the future, starting now.
58printers at launch
+100more committed by INL
30+schools & sites
22+Idaho communities
16counties
Every printer is provided free to schools by industry partners. We launch with 58 this fall, then scale through fall and winter with 100 more printers committed by Idaho National Laboratory, reaching more schools and partners. Priority sites chosen through Idaho's afterschool networks, Title I schools, and higher free-and-reduced-lunch communities, urban to frontier. $0 to schools ✓
bits → atoms (the magic trick)
Speak an idea into the world.
Speak an idea into the world.
Then hold it in your hand.
This is advanced manufacturing, scaled to a classroom, with the barrier to entry as close to zero as we can push it. The whole pipeline starts inside a kid's head: an idea forms, their voice carries it to AI as a prompt, and the design rises out of a printer head, layer by layer. Mind to voice to bits to atoms. Imagination becomes an object you can pass around the room. Once a kid feels that connection, the world stops being something that happens to them.
The printerabout $220
Filament$10 a spool
Design softwarefree AI tools
Skill required to startnone
Fuelpure curiosity
cheaper than a field trip, lasts all year ✓
Their mind and voice are the tools
The creative thought comes first. A kid imagines something, says it out loud, and AI turns it into a design. Creative thinking becomes creative prompting becomes a real object. No gatekeeping software skills to start; the deeper skills come because the project demands them.
Yes, it looks like a toy
Good. Play is how kids do their best work. Most people treat 3D printers like toys. In this environment, kids literally play their way into the grandest challenges Idaho's industries have.
Solutions over tasks
The world they're inheriting will pay less and less for doing tasks and more and more for creating solutions to the problems around them. This is the practice field for exactly that.
the belief underneath all of it
This year's science fair shouldn't be another volcano.
Here's the strange deal we make with kids: we teach them skills for years, then tell them to wait. Wait to contribute. Wait to matter. Wait for the real world. Practice on pretend problems until someone says you're ready. We think that's backwards. The baking soda still fizzes, but nobody ever dreamed bigger because of it.
Kids are more magical, more powerful, and bigger than we give them credit for. Hand them a real problem and watch what happens.
when a kid wants more
The printer comes with no strings.
The printer comes with no strings.
The rabbit hole is optional.
The tools arrive first, free and open to every kid. Then, for the ones whose curiosity wants more: challenges straight from Idaho's biggest employers, the skills those problems demand, and a portfolio to show for it. Every step is their choice.
their choice, always
Pick a challenge
Problem statements pulled straight from company drawing boards: quantum, energy, packaging, health. Nobody is ever assigned. A kid keeps their challenge for years if they want.
1
2
AI as a study buddy
Explore & dream
Students use AI tools to research, sketch ideas, and pick up exactly the skills their question demands: spider webs for quantum, materials for energy, whatever the trail requires.
the fun part
Print it
Ideas become objects on the school's 3D printer. Design, print, fail, laugh, redesign, print again. Making things is the point.
3
4
optional, and totally theirs
Show your growth
Kids who want to go further can log projects, skills, and progress on our platform: a portfolio that grows with them and connects them to the brands behind their challenges, visible to partners only in the aggregate.
Kids already spend their downtime leveling up in worlds someone else built. This is the game where the levels are real: real challenges, real skills, real inventions they own. Same play. Actual stakes. a better boss fight than autoplay ✓
pick your patch
Challenges simple enough for a 1st grader.
Challenges simple enough for a 1st grader.
Big enough for a PhD.
These aren't worksheet prompts. They're live innovation challenges from some of the largest employers and research institutions in the state, the same questions their own teams are chasing.
How might AI help people stay healthier at home?
Imagine tools, devices, and helpers for the people you love most.
How might automation help Idaho grow, make, and share more food with less waste?
From farm tools to kitchen robots: prototype the future of how Idaho eats.
What could you build that helps your town's ideas grow into real businesses?
Design tools that help neighbors create, trade, and grow the local economy.
How might we design things that help neighbors show up for one another?
Invent for care, connection, and belonging: print tools that serve your neighbor.
How might nature's design help humans build the next generation of quantum computers?
Study spider webs, bird navigation, crystals, forests, magnetic fields. Then sketch it, model it, print it.
Choosing a patch doesn't create an assignment. It creates a mission. And here's the part that matters most: whatever a kid invents along the way is theirs. Their problem, their solution, their ownership of whatever it grows into. a 1st grader who picks quantum today might still be chasing it in high school.
fall 2026 roll call
Day one, all over the map.
Coeur d'Alene· Sandpoint· Kellogg· Moscow· Bonners Ferry· St. Maries· Blackfoot· Twin Falls· Rigby· Salmon· Cascade· Payette· Parma· Rupert· Jerome· and rural communities across Idaho
Urban, rural, and frontier alike. This isn't a pilot in one lucky district. It's a working statewide proof that's already scaling: Idaho National Laboratory has committed 100 more printers for this fall, putting 158 on the way before winter, with a clear path to all ~700 public and charter schools for roughly $180K total.
And when we hit all 700? We're calling Guinness World Records. Idaho intends to be the first state on Earth with a 3D printer in every single school. bring the certificate ✏️
Teachers, principals, afterschool leaders: want your school on the next deployment list? It costs you nothing and we handle setup, training, and maintenance.
Raise your handThe official user guide, free for everyone
Everything a school, teacher, parent, or kid needs to go from sealed box to first print: setup, safety, AI design workflow, and troubleshooting. Written by Wild Loaf Lab. No signup, no cost.
why the state wins too
A virtuous loop, spinning younger.
Every challenge maps back to what Idaho's industries genuinely need next. So the earlier a kid engages, the earlier they learn skills that matter, dream bigger, and chart a course toward work that genuinely interests them, and the stronger Idaho's future gets. Round and round.
- Kids engage earlierreal challenges beat pretend ones
- They learn skills that mattermapped to Idaho's real industry needs
- They dream bigger & chart a course soonera direction in life that fits the market
- Idaho's innovators multiplyand post new challenges, round and round
the ones who said yes first
your logo could be next ↓
Founding partners
The printers, tools, and challenges exist because these organizations stepped up early, in partnership with the Idaho Department of Education. Tap a card to see what each one brings.
join them: for industry partners
Grow the talent you'll need
Grow the talent you'll need
by giving them real work now.
Become a founding Junior Apprenticeship partner. This is talent development moved ten years earlier: your real research and development problems, matched to young people while their curiosity is still deciding where to aim. When a student picks your challenge, they become a Junior Apprentice aligned with your organization, and the platform's skills library points their development pathway at the capabilities your industry actually needs. No hyperstructured program. No paperwork. A cultural shift in where Idaho's curiosity points.
1 · Match
Post problems from your R&D backlog
Take questions your team genuinely cares about and translate them into challenges a kid can grab. The program does the matching. You never run a classroom.
2 · Aim
Skills libraries point the way
Each challenge links to skills on the platform, so a curious kid's next step always exists. Curiosity gets a real direction, and the kids who fall in love with your domain will find you.
3 · Compound
Watch the pipeline grow
Apprentices log projects and skills for years. By hiring age, you are not recruiting strangers. You are welcoming kids who grew up on your problems.
the deal, in plain ink
Kids choose. Always. Nothing is assigned, no one is recruited, and everything a kid invents belongs to that kid. That is the whole engine. Voluntary curiosity outperforms mandated attention every single time, and it is why this pipeline works where career programs stall. We are not renting young people's focus to industry. Industry earns it, one honest challenge at a time.
ON THE ROADMAP Dollar-tagged challenges: attach a bounty to the problems you care about most, and grow it over time as Junior Apprentices level up toward real solutions.
No. 1 · the core ask
2-5 challenge statements
Forward-looking problems your team genuinely cares about: AI, cloud, cybersecurity, quantum, robotics, sustainability.
- a simple problem statement
- why it matters
- what solving it could unlock
- skills that might help (optional)
No. 2 · stay lightweight
Show up when it's fun
Optional engagement, zero admin burden. You see aggregate project activity, never paperwork.
- occasional virtual touchpoints
- skill sprints & inspiration videos
- regional hackathons
- scholarship contests
No. 3 · if you're bold
Lead the statewide push
Help Idaho become the first state in America to put a printer and Junior Apprenticeships in every school.
- ~700 schools statewide
- ~$180K full deployment
- every dollar is a tax deductible donation
- a national template with your name on it
Send your first challenge
low friction. high leverage. long horizon.
everyone asks these
The honest FAQ
What does this cost our school?
Nothing. Printers, starter filament, and AI design tools are provided free by industry partners. The printers run about $220 each, which is exactly why this can reach all 700 schools.
Is this new curriculum our teachers have to run?
No. There are no assignments and no required curriculum. It works as an open classroom tool, an afterschool activity, or whatever fits your school. Volunteer mentors and Wild Loaf Lab handle setup and training, and a free step-by-step user guide covers everything from unboxing to first print.
What happens when it breaks or filament runs out?
Wild Loaf Lab provides maintenance and technical support, and sponsors fund a materials reserve so schools are never left holding the bill. A replacement spool is about $10.
Do kids have to join a company challenge?
Never. The printer is open to every kid, full stop. Industry challenges, skills, and the portfolio platform are opt-in extras for kids whose curiosity wants more, and partners only ever see project activity in the aggregate.
How does our school get on the list?
Phase 1 sites were prioritized through Idaho's afterschool networks and Title I communities. For the next wave, raise your hand here and we'll add you to the deployment map.
that's it. that's the program.
Give students real problems early.
Give students real problems early.
Let curiosity do the rest.
Built with the Idaho Department of Education, CareSource, Idaho National Laboratory, Build_ Cities, 208 Ministries, and Wild Loaf Lab.
Partner with usfrom the Jr. Apprentice crew