Kensington Phone Engineering and Repair is meant to
teach students how cell phones are engineered (made) and how to
repair them. Through this project, students will repair cell phones
in the Kensington community that they live in for people who
otherwise could not afford cell phone repair. Kensington high
school is made up of 98% of students who qualify for free lunch
and over 70% of ESL students. Some students are homeless and
many live in shelters. The Kensington neighborhood has a
staggering 29 percent rise in the number of people living in
poverty compared with 2010 census estimates. This project is
meant to create confidence and embed STEM skills in students
who come from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia,
PA. This is also for many students who do not have their biological
parents to teach them, students who live on the streets, and
students who are often beaten down.

Through this project, students will learn how cell phones are
engineered. The cell phone is ‘the single most transformative tool
for development’. Of the six billion mobile phones in the world,
three-quarters of them are found in developing countries, and
their impact cannot be questioned. Students will look at three areas of engineering (Electronic engineering, Manufacturing
engineering, Telecommunications engineering) that have helped
enable this development of the mobile phone industry and why
they are still busy shaping the future of the cell phone. Students
will then learn how to take a cell phone apart, put it back together
, and how to repair it, whether it’s a cracked screen, a dead battery,
an earpiece, etc. With their newfound knowledge, students will
repair cell phones for members of the Kensington community for
free.