This fall, KI Senior Design Instructor Paul McKone designed and taught INTEG 375 Special Topics: Hands-on Sustainability, a real-world project course to rescue objects from the waste stream, determine why they were discarded, suggest how to refurbish them, and propose how to put them into the hands of those who can use them.
Small groups worked together to learn how to repair and repurpose everyday objects diverted from the landfill. Discussions and activities involved sustainability & social good, including diagnostic skills, hand tools, 3D modeling, adhesives & fasteners.
For their final project, the students were challenged to synthesize the skills they learned by creating a "how-to" guide to fixing or repurposing a specific item, and then share it so that others can benefit from their learning.
Check out some examples of their guides on Instructables, a web site of user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects:
- Im-a-Big-Fan
- Mirror-With-Cork
- Refinished-Cabinet
- Fixing-a-Rusted-Toolbox
- Cat-Tree-From-Two-Chairs
- Fixed-Up-Macbook-Charger
- Chair-Repair-Curbside-Rescue
- Antiquing-a-Worn-Coffee-Table
- Sympathetic-Restoration-of-Metal
- Standing-Mirror-to-Hanging-Mirror
- DIY-Chair-Repair-How-to-Problem-Solve
- The-Trials-and-Tribulations-of-DIY-Projects-Sewing