Bold Ideas Lab is an education startup that teaches young people aged 8-14 to think critically about AI, build working projects with it, and present their work publicly. Its four-stage method—discover, build, design, and present—guides students from a personal question to a finished, showcase-ready project without requiring prior coding experience. The lab also partners with schools to run hands-on AI workshops tailored to existing curricula.
- Artificial Intelligence
- Education Technology
- Software Only
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Schools and families face a polarized debate about AI in education: one camp advocates banning it entirely, while the other pushes for full adoption. Existing rules focus almost exclusively on whether submitted work is the student's own, neglecting the child's relationship with the tool and their ability to judge its answers. This leaves young people without guidance on how to think critically about AI or how to use it as a medium for genuine creation.
Solution
Bold Ideas Lab offers project-based programmes that treat AI as a creative medium rather than the subject of study. Its method builds three capacities in students: thinking (knowing what AI can do and where it stops), making (turning an idea into finished work through iterative drafts), and explaining (defending the work under questioning). Programmes run as school workshops, community sessions, and five-week online courses, all following a four-stage structure: discover a personal question, build with AI tools, design and refine the work, and present it publicly. The lab positions itself as a third voice in the AI-education debate, doing concrete work with judgement rather than taking a ban-or-adopt stance.
Target Audience
Primary customers are students aged 8-14 and their families seeking evidence of growth beyond participation certificates, as well as schools and education organisations wanting hands-on AI workshops integrated into their curriculum.
Features
- Four-stage project method: Discover the question, Build with technology, Design and refine, Present and publish
- No-code and low-code toolchain including Google AI Studio and vibe coding, adjusted to each student's starting point
- Public showcase component where students present work to parents and peers, with submission to the Coolest Projects online gallery
- School partnership format: half-day workshops for two parallel groups, built around the school's existing teaching unit, with optional teacher CPD
- Teaching framework localised from UNESCO (2024), OECD, and EU DigComp frameworks
- Recorded learning outcomes and published insights for schools and researchers studying how children use AI