Slide outline for Lesson 4.3. Day 1 has thirteen slides; Day 2 has nine. [Sal: replace the described photos with photos of your own tools and stations; the breaker panel photo should be a panel like the ones in your students' homes.]
Day 1
Simple Maintenance and Repairs
- Lesson 4.3, Day 1
- Today: the seven small jobs everyone should know, the tools, and the six steps for fixing anything
- Tomorrow: you do them
Teacher notes
Image: a tool tray with a screwdriver, pliers, a wrench, a level, a tape measure, and a plunger laid out in a row.
Do now
- Which of these have you done or watched: change a bulb, reset a breaker, unclog a drain, stop a running toilet, hang something on a wall, change a filter?
- Write the ones you have done
- What happened the last time something in your home broke?
- Two minutes
Teacher notes
Hand vote per job. The count tells you which stations need the most coaching tomorrow.
The bill
- Plumber, running toilet, 15 minutes: $185
- The part: $8
- Today you learn the fifteen minutes
Teacher notes
Image: a made-up invoice with a company name blacked out and the $185 total circled.
The invoice is made up. Say so if asked. The ratio is the point.
Job 1, change a light bulb
- Switch off. Let it cool.
- Read the label on the socket: max watts. Never go over.
- Old bulb out counterclockwise. New bulb in clockwise until snug.
- Pick an LED: same light, a tenth of the power
Teacher notes
Image: a lamp socket with a "60 W MAX" label visible.
Job 2, reset a tripped breaker
- Open the panel door. Find the switch sitting in the middle, not on and not off.
- Push it fully OFF. Then push it ON.
- If it trips again right away: stop. Unplug what you just turned on. Tell an adult.
- Dry hands. No tools in the panel. Ever.
Teacher notes
Image: a breaker panel with a row of switches, one clearly out of line with the others.
Make them say "off, then on." The middle position will not reset from the middle.
Job 3, unclog a drain without chemicals
- Pull the hair out first with a plastic drain tool
- Plunge: cover the drain, water over the cup, push and pull six times
- Then hot water
- Never mix chemicals. Never plunge after chemicals; they splash.
Teacher notes
Image: a bathroom sink with a plastic zip-style drain tool beside it.
Job 4, stop a running toilet
- Lift the tank lid. Look, do not reach yet.
- Is the chain caught under the flapper? Free it.
- Is the flapper sitting flat over the hole? Reseat it.
- Water too high? Bend the float arm down or turn the float screw.
Teacher notes
Image: the inside of a toilet tank with the flapper, chain, and float labeled.
This is the example for the six troubleshooting steps on Slide 11.
Jobs 5 and 6, a loose screw and hanging something
- Screw: match the driver to the head (plus sign is Phillips, slot is flathead). Push in while turning. Stop when snug.
- Wall: find the stud (knock, or a stud finder) or use an anchor
- Mark with a level. Nail or screw at a slight upward angle.
- Not where wires or pipes run: above outlets and beside faucets
Teacher notes
Image: left, two screw heads side by side; right, a level on top of a picture frame.
Job 7, clean a filter
- Furnace filter: every one to three months; the arrow points toward the furnace
- Range hood filter: monthly, in the dishwasher or hot soapy water
- Dryer lint trap: every load. Dryer vent: yearly. Lint is a fire.
- Switch the system off first
Teacher notes
Image: a furnace filter held up to the light, half gray with dust.
Hold up the real filter. Show the arrow.
Tool ID
- Phillips screwdriver, flathead screwdriver
- Pliers, adjustable wrench
- Level, tape measure
- Sink plunger (cup) and toilet plunger (flange)
Teacher notes
Image: the seven tools with names under each, and under the names the Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish words.
Pass the tray, one minute per table. Point to a tool at each table and ask one student to name it.
Six steps for fixing anything
- a. What is the problem?
- b. What should it do?
- c. Test to find the cause
- d. Fix it
- e. Check that the fix worked
- f. Stop it happening again
Teacher notes
Image: the six steps as a loop with the running toilet drawn at each step.
This is the state's troubleshooting process (CTE PSI 3. a)) in plain words. Walk the toilet through all six. Students fill Part 3.
Safety rules for tomorrow
- Eyes protected at the screw station
- No tool leaves its station
- Nothing is plugged in
- Dry hands at the drain station
- One person works, the team coaches
Teacher notes
Students copy all five. These are on the clipboard tomorrow.
Exit card
- 3 tools you can name
- 2 jobs you could do at home this week
- 1 job you would leave to a professional, and why
Day 2
Repair stations
- Lesson 4.3, Day 2
- Five stations, four minutes each, everyone performs once
- The card is the steps. The test is the proof.
Teacher notes
Image: a wide shot of the five stations set up on tables.
Do now
- Name the tool: a bubble in a tube
- Name the tool: a rubber cup on a stick
- Name the tool: a tip shaped like a plus sign
- Which station will be hardest? Why?
- Two minutes
Teacher notes
One-minute debrief; this is the tool ID check.
Rotation
- Four minutes, then the reset cue: lights, countdown, hands empty
- Initial your card only after the test
- Safety glasses on at Station 1
- Coach; do not grab
Teacher notes
Restate the five rules from yesterday. Start the timer.
The five stations
- Station 1: drive a screw flush, then remove it
- Station 2: seat the plunger, feel the seal
- Station 3: measure five lines to the nearest eighth
- Station 4: level the bracket; hang the frame straight
- Station 5: find the tripped breaker, say the reset in order; change the bulb
Teacher notes
Image: five small photos, one per station.
Keep this up during the rotation.
The maintenance calendar
- Monthly: detectors, furnace filter, range hood, lint trap every load
- Fall: gutters, furnace check, fans reversed, hoses in
- Winter: salt the steps, watch for ice dams
- Spring: roof and gutters, AC test, deck check
- Yearly: batteries, water heater drain, extinguisher gauge, ten-year detectors
Teacher notes
Students place every task on the twelve-month grid, Part 4, and justify three.
Argue it
- Where do the gutters go? Why twice?
- When do the batteries get changed?
- Why do the hoses come in before the first freeze?
Teacher notes
Take the two placements teams disagree on most and settle them on the board.
Exit card
- The six troubleshooting steps in order, from memory
- The station that was hardest, and what made it hard
Teacher notes
Sort the cards on the six steps before Lesson 4.5.
Reset
- Screws back in the box, glasses in the bin, water stays in the bucket
- Tape measures wound in slowly
- Station check before you sit
Teacher notes
Same station-check rule as the kitchen. Nobody leaves a station dirty.
Tomorrow
- Lesson 4.4: where a home's energy and water go, and the math that shows what a fix is worth
- Bring your calculator brain