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Repair Café Engineering

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Grades 9-122 hoursSource: Creative Dad Company

Students run a mini repair café, diagnosing broken household gadgets and toys, fixing what they can, and tallying up how much waste they kept out of the landfill. It's hands-on troubleshooting with a genuinely feel-good payoff.

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Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Prep: 10 minActivity: 30 min1 session~$2/groupOne table for the Repair Café Engineering evidence and prototypeBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or handwrite the four Repair Café Engineering challenge steps and place common paper supplies on one table. Prepare one small sample, dataset, scenario, or recycled-material model drawn directly from the project description; no device, paid tool, room decoration, or purchased kit is required.

Activity

  1. Read the Repair Café Engineering challenge aloud, then take apart a broken household item and predict what's likely gone wrong before checking a single connection.
  2. Use paper, index cards, recycled objects, or facilitator-provided sample data to diagnose the actual fault by testing components one at a time and attempt a repair.
  3. Run one tabletop trial and discover the first fix doesn't hold or a part is missing entirely, and improvise a workaround with available materials.
  4. Finish by weigh or estimate the item's mass and present a running tally of pounds of waste the café kept out of the landfill that day; record the evidence that supports the decision.

Done when: The group completes a defensible Repair Café Engineering solution, records at least one test result or comparison, changes one claim or design in response, and supports its final decision with that evidence.

Materials

precision screwdriver set, broken small appliances or toys, electrical tape, assorted wire

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Disclosure: Materials links below go to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Steps

  1. Take apart a broken household item and predict what's likely gone wrong before checking a single connection.
  2. Diagnose the actual fault by testing components one at a time and attempt a repair.
  3. Discover the first fix doesn't hold or a part is missing entirely, and improvise a workaround with available materials.
  4. Weigh or estimate the item's mass and present a running tally of pounds of waste the café kept out of the landfill that day.

Standards it satisfies

  • NGSS · HS-ETS1-1

    Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.