This article first appeared in MAKE Volume 38, on pages 28–29.

There’s a scene in Iron Man 3 where a young boy comes home from school to discover that his workshop has been outfitted with just about every cool maker gadget and tool imaginable, all provided by billionaire Tony Stark as a thank-you to the boy for assistance earlier in the movie. Only a handful of tools are recognizable — what’s memorable is the huge grin on the kid’s face when he opens that door and sees all the possibilities that are available to him. Yes, he’s a fictional character, but his real-life counterparts are out there — millions of American kids just waiting for their own workshops and hungry to learn and experiment and build.

How many of the nation’s 54 million elementary and secondary students have access to the state-of-the-art tools that can spark creativity, nurture curious minds, and ignite the next wave of innovators? Probably less than 1%. Even assuming a generous 5%, that leaves more than 51 million students (just in the USA) without any hands-on time with tools that are nothing short of inspirational.

Just eight years ago, in MAKE Volume 03, Saul Griffith provided a detailed list of “The Maker’s Ultimate Tools” that would allow a maker to “make pretty much anything.” Unfortunately, only a real-life Tony Stark could afford every item on that list, which included a $1,000,000 excimer laser cutter, a $150,000 NC (numerically controlled) lathe, and a $100,000 water jet.

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