BAY VILLAGE, Ohio — This is the ER … named by the Bay Village middle schoolers who work here. Repairing the Chromebook computers of their fellow students.
"It's kind of interesting to see what goes on inside of them,” said 8th grader Max Bobrosky. “It’s like dissecting, but less weird."
Dropped or crushed in bookbags, the group called Chromie Homies comes to the rescue. These Bay Village students have seen it all.
"Broken keyboards with like a key picked out," said Bobrosky.
"The motherboard when they break the on off switch," added Alexandra Bubniw, an 8th grader.
"I feel like case repairs would be really common since like that gets like bonked a lot," said Bobrosky.
They know their stuff. In fact, these students are even certified by ACER, the Chromebook manufacturer, to do repairs. Parts come from older machines or bought at cost. This is the second year for this elective class, and it's expanding.
"Having that real-world experience for the students is fantastic,” said Brian Reynolds, the director of technology for the Bay Village City School District. “That's another reason we wanted to make sure we expanded to the high school, because the Bay High School recently has offered some experience-ships for our students."
Each repair they complete builds their confidence.
"I feel like I just accomplished something very good. Like something great,” said Bubniw. “You work so hard on it, and you finish it, and you are like I can't wait to see them use it."
It not only benefits the students, but the school district as well.
"As a result of that, we realized in the first year about a $40,000 reduction in what we paid for this particular service with a third-party vendor," said Bay Village Schools Superintendent, Scot Prebles.
It's not just satisfaction for a job well done, the Chromie Homies are learning skills that can put them on the path, for a future career.
Bay Village Schools says so far this year, repair requests are down in numbers. But there's still plenty of work for the Chromie Homies.
Bay Village students repair computers for their school: Growing STEM
Bay Village City Schools saw an opportunity to have students repair laptops for their classmates, providing valuable learning and saving the district about $40,000.