Materials from Existing Programs
Index for the following materials:
Make It Work!
Fixing Things for the Future
Cultivating a Repair Mindset Toolkit
iFixit K-12 Educator Tool Chest
The Restart Project
Malvern Hills Repair Cafe Education Pack
Repair What You Wear
Retibne (German)
Repair Cafe International
Team Repair
“How Might We … Build a Culture of Repair?”
Netzwerk Reparatur-Initiativen — Repair Initiative Network (German)
Repair Kids Manual
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
iFixit Edu
Facing the Future
Repair Detectives
Gifted Hands Training Program
Practical Action
Fixfest 2022 Panel — Four Programs and a Scholar
Encounter Edu — Ocean Plastics: 6 R’s
Guide to Teach a Repair Class or Workshop (French)
Rediscover Fashion
Another “R”: Repair!
1. Make It Work!
Age — 10 - 12 years old
Age — 14 - 18 years old
Access — Make It Work!
Teaching packs linking repair with sustainability by way of repairing electrical and electronic devices.
This excellent material is turnkey for the classroom.
The education packs offer learning outcomes, materials required, planning support, lesson plans, and activity pages, as well as background didactic materials.
Their development was informed by the United Nation’s vision of Education for Sustainable Development and the Council of the European Union’s Key Competencies for Lifelong Learning.
Developed and published by Djapo, a company located in Leuven, Belgium that develops educational material on sustainability topics, in collaboration with Sharepair, an EU-funded project aimed at scaling up citizen repair.
2. Fixing Things for the Future
(in English, Spanish and German)
Age — 5th - 12th grade
Cost — Free download (English hardcopy available at cost)
Access — Fixing Things for the Future
Accesso — Arregando Cosas para el Futuro
Zugang — Reparieren macht Schule
The Rudolf Steiner School in Munich, Germany, not only established an exceptional Student Repair Shop as part of their regular class offerings, but also created a comprehensive handbook to help other schools establish their own repair programs.
The class teaches diagnostic and hands-on skills, and incorporates many aspects of repair relevant to students’ development as healthy and responsible citizens of the world. It includes the program’s pedagogical grounding, conceptual design, structure, a step-by-step outline for establishing a repair class, practical resources and more.
3. Cultivating a Repair Mindset Toolkit
Age — K - 12th grade
Cost — Free download, (hardcopy available at cost)
Access — The Toolkit
Agency by Design - Oakland and Maker Ed published the Cultivating a Repair Mindset Toolkit. Created by educators for educators, the Toolkit is an extension of Maker-Centered Learning pedagogy, teaching and learning strategies, tools, and classroom materials (MCL was developed by Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero).
The Toolkit was designed to be used by teachers to help students develop a repair mindset: a way of approaching, thinking about and ultimately repairing what’s broken, including physical objects, relationships, and systems.
4. iFixit K-12 Educator Tool chest
Repair-centered lessons and activities, and supplementary resources
Age — K-12th grade
Cost — Free
Access — iFixit K-12 Educator Tool Chest
Grouping materials in three sections — K-5th grade, 6th - 8th grade, and 9th - 12th grade — iFixit offers repair and repair-related projects structured for educators: objectives, deliverables, core concepts, standards correlations, materials, procedures, discussion topics and other resources.
iFixit also presents an extensive catalogue of resources for additional information on a range of relevant topics — circular economy, design, e-waste, greenwashing and media literacy, mining, materials, and natural resources, right to repair and more.
5. The Restart Project
—> The Restart Project is a super-valuable resource, beyond their educational materials. <—
What they offer, overview:
The Restart Project (London, UK) offers excellent educational resources, both lesson plans for an after-school program and extensive classroom support materials. Six resources are noted below.
Who they are:
Based in London, The Restart Project is a leader and vital presence in multiple repair arenas. This charitable incorporated organization operates a network of community repair events (Restart Parties) across the UK and the Continent; works with schools and organizations to help people learn to value and use their electronics longer; collects and uses data and repair stories to help demand better, more sustainable electronics for all; hosts a repair podcast; advocates for the Right to Repair in the UK and Europe; and more.
a) Enrichment Program — Restart at School
10, one-hour sessions, emphasis on electronics
Age — For middle and high schoolers
Cost — Free
Access — Restart at School Website
“This is a hands-on enrichment programme that teaches students more about how consumer electronics are made, but also how to fix them and prolong their lifecycles. While the programme does help students gain hard skills - such as disassembly, reassembly, and manual dexterity, it will also provide a space for learning of transferable skills such as creative problem solving, teamwork and fault-finding.
“The social and environmental underpinnings of this programme broaden its appeal to students who might identify as non-technical, and bring new opportunities to technical students to reflect on the broader impacts of their studies and future careers.
“This programme is designed to culminate in a “Restart Party,” an open, community event where students and community volunteers share their skills, helping people fix their own broken gadgets. If sustained after the enrichment programme, this community service aspect can help students gain experience that can help them with university admissions or even in future job applications.”
b) Classroom Resources — Materials Matter
Outstanding resource for students to explore where the materials in our phones come from, and the implications.
Hands-on, print materials, and
Animated, interactive online tool
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — Main page, links to Hands-on print materials and to interactive, animated tool
c) The Restart Code (Manifesto) from The Restart Project
Regarding our relationship with our electronics
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — Video (< 1 minute) and text about The Restart Code
d) Videos
"Our videos are a great way to motivate students to repair, and help them grasp why it's about more than just saving money."
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — Videos
e) Podcast
An informative and surprisingly engaging podcast about repair.
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — Their Top Five of 2019 are posted here.
f) Restart Wiki
"A place where those of us in the Restarters community with experience and skills in mending appliances and gadgets can share them with those who are starting out, or whose own knowledge lies in different areas. [Restart Wiki] isn't going to show you how to fix a particular make and model of device, which we leave to the various fix-it sites and many disassembly videos. Here, we concentrate on basic and widely applicable principles."
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — https://wiki.restarters.net/
6. Malvern Hills Repair Cafe Education Pack
Ten lesson plans, cross-disciplinary, one hour each.
Age — Designed for ages 10 - 11; highly adaptable to 7 - 9 and/or 12 - 14 year olds
Cost — Free
Access —
Download the Malvern Hills Repair Café Education Packet pdf
Download a pdf outline of links to English, Science, Geography and History
Excellent material — well developed, highly resourced.
Stand alone or in conjunction with a Community Repair Event.
Intended to:
Introduce the meaning / concept of repair as part of a continuum starting with maintenance and care – through to repair (and beyond),
Explore the personal implications and the wider social, environmental and economic aspects of this concept,
Make links to wider global themes and issues,
Be practical and “hands-on” where relevant,
Tie in with the Primary National Curriculum (UK),
Offer opportunities for building this theme into a whole school, approach that will include links with the wider community.
Clear presentation of lesson plans’ position across disciplines and in larger school initiatives (e.g., hosting a community repair event, ecology or science club activities, etc.)
The Education Packet concludes with a “Reference” section (pp. 14 - 17) summarizing links to online materials included in the 10-week program. A useful resource to support any repair program in the classroom.
Visit Malvern Hills Repair Café website to learn about a first rate community repair group. They invite you to offer comments on how you used the Education Packet on their Contact page.
See below for information about Community Repair Events
7. Repair What You Wear
Program Materials — Fashion and the Environment
Age — Ages 6 - 18
Cost — Free
Access — Fashion and the Environment
Repair What You Wear
Fashion generates 10% of global carbon emissions.
Mending is an eco action.
Mending saves you money.
“The aim of RepairWhatYouWear.com is to encourage mending skills so that clothes are kept for longer and therefore waste is reduced. It also aims to provide an understanding of the fibres and fabrics from which clothing is made, so that individuals become informed consumers. This project develops practical hand-sewing skills together with research on the impact that clothes have on the environment. It gives pupils the ability to make more informed choices about what they wear and the basic skills and incentive to mend.”
“The project is based on repurposing an existing garment, learning more about fashion and the environment, more about the major fibres used in clothing (Cotton and Synthetics) and core hand skills that can also be used for mending.”
Comprehensive, engaging, and high quality materials to take textiles and clothing and their larger context into the classroom. Technical skills and information about mending, fibers, and dyes are complemented by resource-rich discussions of the environment, human rights, the circular economy and related. PDFs and video.
Includes: lesson plans, learning intentions, materials required, research questions, ideas for further learning; extensive links to reference and supplementary materials. Developed to integrate into UK curricula but immediately relevant to any school context.
8. RetiBNE
Repair in Education for Sustainable Development
Technical Education Working Group / Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Classroom materials
(In German but easily accessible using Chrome’s translate function.)
Age — High school and university
Cost — Free
Access — Homepage — in German (use Chrome translate)
Teaching Materials — in German (use Chrome translate)
An excellent offering of larger context and technical materials on why repair and how. Mostly available in English through Chrome translate.
Google Translated from the website:
”At retibne.de, teachers can find freely available teaching materials on the subject of repairs and education for sustainable development for technology and IT lessons. This didactic and methodical preparation of the repair tasks for the lesson is intended on the one hand to enable students to properly identify and analyze sources of error and to restore the functionality of technical artifacts.
”On the other hand, the examination of how they work should contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex problems associated with production, use and disposal. For this purpose, methods and materials were developed that, in the sense of education for sustainable development, address the ethical, ecological, economic and political implications that are related to repair and obsolescence across disciplines.”
9. Repair Café International
Materials to support a school-based community repair event, supported by “handy volunteers” from the community
Age — Elementary / Primary and middle school
Cost — Sliding Scale, recommended: 25€
Access — Starter Kit
Classroom materials
“The starter kit Repair Café in the classroom contains all the information you need to organise a lesson (or series of lessons) about repair at a primary school in your community, together with volunteers from your Repair Café. It provides advice on how to conduct a preparatory lesson, a practical lesson in which pupils make their own repairs in the classroom, and an evaluation lesson. It also advises on how to set up a follow-up course at the selected primary school.”
(See the section below entitled “Community Repair Events” for information about local resources to complement this material.)
Who they are: Based in Amsterdam, The Repair Cafe Foundation supports repair in multiple arenas, principally through supporting thousands of community repair events around the world with materials about how to organized and execute Repair Cafés and networking opportunities. Other activities include advocating for the right to repair and collecting broken item data to support policy changes.
10. Team Repair
App-Based Learning
Age — 8 - 12 years old
Cost — Subscription — UK only at present (2023)
Access — Team Repair
“Our programme exposes children to key science, technology, and repair skills. By tinkering with a new gadget every month, children will get hands-on with a wide range of technologies, learn how to perform some of the most common repairs, and use some of the most important tools.”
“Split across four levels of complexity, our programme teaches tech basics like buttons and electricity, to advanced topics like displays and wireless communication.”
“Our programme is carefully designed and thoroughly tested to ensure they both guide children through the repair, and challenge them enough to stretch their problem-solving skills. Meanwhile, interactive content teaches them the core STEM concepts behind the gadgets they are fixing.”
Twelve-month programme.
Team.Repair, currently in their testing phase, asks interested parties to join their waiting list, HERE.
11. “How Might We … Build a Culture of Repair?”
Repair, the Economy and the Environment
Pimpama State Secondary College, Queensland, Australia
Relative Creative, a design firm in Australia
Project Toolkit
Age — Elementary and Middle School
Cost — Free
Access — Toolkit (See note below)
Project synopsis: "Empowering children to be active agents of ethical and resilient change in their communities through learning care & repair."
“A toolkit designed to develop a project proposal for an area where people can come to repair/recycle things as a community instead of throwing things out. By hacking, making, repairing and recycling discarded, broken and superseded things, students gain a deeper understanding of the processes that go into manufacturing and industrial design and are encouraged to reflect on the sustainability of current manufacturing process.”
Study design basics and impact through examination, reflection, disassembling items
Discussion; no hands-on repair
Seven stages, 35 minutes each, Free downloadable pdf
Note 1: We prefer linking to others’ projects to providing materials directly. However, the earlier link to the Toolkit (Library of Queensland) currently (September 2023) leads to “Page Not Found”. We’ve linked to a previously downloaded pdf on our website, pending finding an operative link to the project’s home. A short paper by the Toolkit authors describing the project is here: Paper. We’re reaching out to authors at Relative Creative, hoping to reestablish a link to the Toolkit in their library of design resources.
Note 2: Neither The Culture of Repair Project nor The Cultivating a Repair Mindset Toolkit is related to the above material.
12. Netzwerk Reparatur-Initiativen — Repair Initiative Network
Finding, supporting and setting up repair initiatives - networking, advice and exchange.
Guides and classroom materials — In German, easily accessible via Chrome Translate
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — School & Co
Google-translated from the website, in German:
”More and more repair projects are emerging in schools, youth facilities and even kindergartens. Even if repairs are not (yet) anchored in the curricula, they make an important contribution as part of education for sustainable development and personal development. In order to inspire further projects and to encourage them to start repairing, this collection of experiences, assistance and handouts around repairing with children and adolescents serves. A lot is possible - from repair projects in the field of technology / work apprenticeship / AWT, through the school's own repair café, tinkerers' groups, visits to repair initiatives to the student repair workshop.”Finding, supporting and setting up repair initiatives - networking, advice and exchange.
13. RepairKids Manual
A comprehensive guide for organizing and running community repair events in educational contexts.
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Access — Download Manual and Teaching Materials — (In German)
Access — English black box translation of manual, not teaching materials. Contact: cultureofrepair@gmail.com
14. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation — Circular Economy
“Repair and maintenance keep things in use at their highest level… Repair is absolutely part of a circular economy.”
— Ellen MacArthur
As the circular economy approach is being studied, promoted and adopted around the globe, it merits serious consideration in teaching repair. (See "Big Picture - Circular Economy" for an overview of circular economy concepts and schematics.)
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a standard bearer of transforming economic activity from a linear model to a circular model. The Foundation offers extensive high quality educational resources of great value to teaching repair.
It should be pointed out that repair advocates are not unified in supporting the circular economy as it does not focus on challenging grounding our economy on consumption, on privileging maximizing shareholder value, or on the equity market’s fixation on quarter-to-quarter reporting.
That acknowledged, the Foundation’s educational resources are excellent and should be mined. Many other materials to supplement a course of instruction can be found with a search on “repair”.
Video
Age — All ages, easily accessible by younger students
Cost — Free
Access — Circular Economy primer video.
Explaining the circular economy and how society can re-think progress | animated video essay
Circular Economy Introduction
Age — All ages, though most materials are appropriate for high school and beyond
Cost — Free
Access — ”What Is A Circular Economy?”
Overview
Circular economy examples
Learning pathways
Glossary
Teaching Resources
Age — All ages, though most materials are appropriate for high school and beyond
Cost — Both free and pay-for
Access — Teaching Resources Website
Workshop Activities: Interactive resources for curriculum development - designed to encourage discussion, clarification, and reflection within the context of a circular economy.
Circular Design Guide Video Series: These videos were created to inspire and enable other academics to incorporate circular design within their curriculum.
Lesson Plans: Age range 12-19
Higher Education
Additional Resources
Supplementary Materials
Searching the website on “repair” results in scores of valuable pages for enriching coursework.
15. iFixit Edu — iFixit Technical Writing Project
Technical Writing
Age — University level
Cost — Free
Access — Begin here
“Our project has partnered with 87 universities around the world to teach repair and technical writing. Since we launched the program, over 23,000 students have worked together to create more than 40,000 repair manuals on iFixit. This site is here to help you through our curriculum.”
If you are an educator interested in joining our tech writing program, check out the Prospective Universities page.
16. Facing the Future
Repair and the Environment — “Buy, Use, Toss? – A Closer Look at the Things We Buy”
Classroom Materials
Age — Interdisciplinary, recommended for high school
Cost — Free
Access — Download pdf
This coursework includes but does not focus on repair. Its principal use is establishing the context in which repair and reuse are imperative.
Unit Lessons:
1. Garbology
2. Mapping the Impact
3. Drilling down to Sustainability
4. The Cost of Production
5. On the Road to Retail
6. Why Buy?
7. Defining Happiness
8. It’s a Dirty Job
9. A System Redesign
10. Analyzing the Message
Pre- and Post-Assessment
105 pages
Western Washington University, USA
17. Repair Detectives
“Repair the Present, Fix the Future”
Online Classes — Interactive, live video
Age — 3rd - 10th Grade
Cost — Variable, please see the website
Access — Repair Detectives
“Repair Detectives is a fun hands-on sustainable tech programme for kids, available in schools, communities, and online.” [New Zealand]
“The Repair Detectives programme is designed to promote sustainability and explore technology. We want to spark curiosity in students around how things are made and how they work, build self-belief in their ability to fix or repurpose broken items, and understand the complete life-cycle of a product and its environmental impact. Our programme caters for Years 3-10, and consists of workshops, videos, activities, worksheets, lesson plans for teachers, and more.”
“In ‘How to Fix, Repair, and Clean Almost Anything’ students learn how to fix almost anything, while building up repair skills & knowledge, and creating their own repair kit! The Repair Lab is our online space for students to learn & share how to fix and repair things, ask questions, participate in monthly challenges, and get feedback on their repair projects.”
18. Gifted Hands Training Program
Hardware Repair Vocational Training
Age — Youth
Cost — Free
Access — Gifted Hands
“Hardware School: Our Gifted Hands program is a training program designed for young girls in Nigeria to go into hardware repairs. Giving them the skills to earn.”
PolicyLab Africa, Lagos, Nigeria
Comprehensive curriculum with four modules to be covered in 2 months, in 15-16 classes. Lesson plans, theoretical exercises, practical exercises, required equipment / tools, online study materials, and assessment.
19. Practical Action
Repair and the Environment
Classroom Materials — Module: “6Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair”
Age — Primary and secondary age children
Cost — Free
Access — 6Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair
“Our free STEM, science, design and technology resources fit the UK curriculum and engage children in real world issues including climate change, renewable energy, food security and disaster preparedness.”
”Our STEM challenges make ideal activities for primary and secondary aged children. Each challenge is easy to navigate as includes a Teacher’s guide to running the challenge, activity sheets, a PowerPoint, a poster and certificates.”
“These are all useful terms to explore reducing the impact of technology on people and the environment. … the 6Rs as an approach to help students think about sustainability within product evaluation and their own coursework.”
Classroom Materials — All Education Modules:
Age — Primary and secondary age children
Cost — Free
Access —Education
20. Fixfest Panel Discussion
Representatives from Four Programs and a Scholar
Age — K - 12 (5 - 18 years old)
Cost — Free
Access — Fixfest Panel
The October 1, 2022 online session offered an opportunity for individuals working to bring repair into educational settings to gather to share information about what they’re doing and how, and to exchange resources and ideas.
In 90 minutes of presentations and discussion we broadened our understanding of what repair in educational contexts might look like, addressing scope, objectives, implementation, relationship with other school subjects, and related topics.
Follow the link for the session video, as well as for information about presenters and the resources they make available, free of charge.
21. Encounter Edu — Ocean Plastics: The 6 R’s
Classroom Materials — Plastic Pollution — The 6Rs: Redesign, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle
Age — Ages 11 - 14
Cost — Free
Access — Ocean Plastics
“Students are taken on the journey of how the 6 Rs can be applied to reduce ocean plastic pollution.
”Students will learn the science behind what makes plastics both brilliant for everyday purposes and devastating to our oceans and marine life. Exploring the 6 Rs students innovate product designs which creatively solve the problem of ocean plastics.
”Included in this topic are teacher resources that promote students to problem solve through creative design. Students will design a user-centred recycling bin to promote recycling, create a sustainable fashion brand, build a modular phone, and pitch their own unique design solution to the ocean plastic problem.”
“Lesson 4: Should we repair? Students investigate how many products are designed to become obsolete. Students apply modular design to the mobile phone to make it more repairable.”
Alternatively, access Lesson 4 via TES.com — Plastic Pollution: The 6 R’s - Repair
22. Guide To Learn Repair — Introduction For Teachers and Repair Workshop Facilitators
Le Guide d’Initiation à Destination des Enseignants et des Animateurs d’Ateliers de Réparation
(Mostly in French, some English. French is easily accessible using Chrome’s translation function.)
a) Guide for establishing a repair class or repair workshop
Age — Middle and High School
Cost — Free
Access — Guide — in French (use Chrome translate)
Repair Generation Homepage — in French (use Chrome translate)
Published by Repair Generation, with the support of ADAME and Spareka.
The 38 page handbook is a guide for establishing a repair class or repair workshop for middle and high schoolers — the how-to’s of repair presented within a container outlining where repair fits into addressing the climate crisis; developing self reliance; and assuming a proactive stance relative to consumerism. Includes support for finding additional resources.
b) Websites
Age — Middle School and beyond
Age — Teachers
Cost — Free
Access — See below
Extensive information about all aspects of how repair fits into modern life, from the impact on the environment to sustainable development to understanding consumerism. Links to extensive additional resources.
Repair Generation / Génération Réparation: Aims to raise awareness and introduce middle and high school students to repairing everyday devices. Initiated and supported by ADEME and Spareka.
ADEME is a public establishment under the joint oversight of the French Ministry of the Ecological and Solidarity Transition and the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. (in English)
ADEME — extensive materials suitable to supplement classroom instruction
ADEME — Free resources for educators about teaching sustainable development, as well as materials for instruction.
Spareka is a leading commercial site for replacement parts, repair instruction and links to other useful source of repair information.
23. Rediscover Fashion
Program Materials — Fashion and the Environment
Age — Teenagers to Adults
Cost — Free
Access —
Textile Repair and Upcycling Guides
Relove Fashion
Instructional materials published by the Rediscovery Centre: ”the National Centre for the Circular Economy in Ireland. A creative movement connecting people, ideas and resources to support greener low-carbon living.”
Relove Fashion is a sustainable fashion competition for high school age students. “The competition challenges secondary school students to explore creative reuse options such as upcycling, repairs, alterations and mending, inspiring them to take a closer look at how their clothing is made.”
24. Another “R”: Repair!
Teacher Lesson Plan and Student Worksheets
Age — 3rd - 5th grade
Cost — Free
Access — Another “R”: Repair!
“We know the 4R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot (Compost). Now, we want to introduce one more important “R”: Repair!”
“This activity gives students the opportunity to practice observation skills by noting broken items in their home. They will be prompted to reflect on and discuss the theme of “Repair” using cause-and-effect reasoning. Students will also engage in creative problem-solving by brainstorming possible solutions and sketching”
Includes Common Core Standards, One Planet Living Topic, and Environmental Principles and Concepts information.
From RethinkWaste, a waste management authority in San Mateo County, San Francisco Bay Area.