PC Workshop teaching notes
For teachers, co-op leaders and parents. These notes give a plan for three sessions, the places where students stop, and questions to ask. You do not need hardware knowledge to use them.
Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work. mytekDev is also available from the Google Workspace Marketplace, so your school's Google admin can install it for everyone.A first lesson: Everyone gets the same job and budget, builds and benchmarks a machine, then the class compares scores and argues about where the money went.
Set up a free class Share to Google Classroom- What you need
- Session 1: build and start
- Session 2: case and benchmark
- Session 3: improve one thing
- A short lesson: repairs
- Where students stop
- Questions that show understanding
- For students who finish early
- Evidence of learning
- From PC Workshop to System Design Lab
What you need
- One computer or Chromebook for each student, or for each pair of students.
- A browser. Nothing is installed.
- A free teacher account and a class. Students then get accounts without an email address.
- About 45 minutes for each session.
Students can also try the app without an account. Without an account, the work is not saved and there is no leaderboard.
Session 1: build and start
Decide before the lesson how students start. With Choose my own parts, students meet compatibility and the budget first. With Start building, students reach the bench in the first minute and meet the parts list later, when they want a better score. The table below uses Choose my own parts.
| Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 | Give every student the same job and the same budget. Gaming with $800 works well. Tell them to click Choose my own parts first. |
| 10 | Students choose the parts. Do not explain compatibility. The app explains each refusal. |
| 20 | Students build on the bench. The gold ring stays on. |
| 5 | Students start the computer. Some computers do not start. This is the lesson. |
| 5 | Two students explain which light was on and what they repaired. |
Session 2: case and benchmark
| Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 20 | Students move the computer into the case and fit case fans. |
| 10 | Students run the benchmark. They write down the peak score, the held score and the CPU temperature. |
| 15 | The class compares. Find the best held score and the best score for each $100. |
Session 3: improve one thing
Each student changes one part or one setting. Before the test, the student writes a prediction of the new score. Then the student runs the benchmark again.
- Add case fans.
- Use a larger cooler.
- Move the memory to the correct slots.
- Choose a different graphics card inside the same budget.
- Overclock the CPU.
A short lesson: repairs
Use repairs when you have 20 minutes, or when students have finished a build. Each student repairs a computer that another person built.
| Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 2 | Students click Fix a machine and choose a computer. Let them choose. |
| 10 | Students find the problem and repair it. |
| 8 | Each student writes a repair note with four lines: the problem that the owner reported, the evidence, the cause, and the repair. |
The repair note is the evidence of learning. A student who writes the evidence before the cause is working like a technician.
- The app does not give points for a repair. This is on purpose.
- Any repair that makes the computer work is accepted. Two students can repair the same computer in different ways.
- Some computers show nothing wrong on the screen and the lights. They need the benchmark, the start messages on the monitor, or SETUP.
Where students stop
This table comes from the saved work of real students.
| What you see | Cause | What to say |
|---|---|---|
| All parts are picked, and the bench was never opened. | The student did not see the next step. | Click the blue button Next: build it. |
| The computer starts, and the student stops. | The score on the screen looks like the end. | Press RUN THE BENCHMARK. |
| The benchmark is done, but the student is not on the leaderboard. | The computer is still on the open bench. | Put the computer in the case. Run the benchmark again. |
| The score is lower after the move to the case. | The case keeps heat inside, and there are no case fans. | What changed between the two tests? |
| The memory score is low. | Both pieces of memory are in the same channel. | Which two slots did you use? |
| The screen is black, and everything else works. | The monitor cable is in the port on the motherboard. | Follow the monitor cable. Where does it end? |
| Nothing happens. | The wall plug, or the switch on the power supply. | Start at the wall. Follow the power. |
Questions that show understanding
- Why does that motherboard not work with your CPU?
- How much power does your computer use? Why is your power supply larger than that?
- Your score is lower after the move to the case. Nothing else changed. Why?
- You get $200 more. Which part do you change, and why?
- Two servers run on your computer. Why is each server slower than one server alone?
For students who finish early
- Repair a computer. Click Fix a machine on a new project.
- Build for a different job with the same budget.
- Build the cheapest computer that reaches a held score of 60.
- Install an operating system.
- Use the computer as a server in System Design Lab.
Evidence of learning
The build report lists every part with its price. The benchmark result lists the scores and the temperatures. Both are on the 3. Boot tab. A student can save them as a screenshot.
A shared project page shows the computer, the score, and the place on the leaderboard.
From PC Workshop to System Design Lab
System Design Lab is the place where students run servers: web sites, databases and load balancers. A server there normally runs on a rented cloud plan. A student can also run a server on the computer that the student built.
- Build a computer in PC Workshop. The job Home server / rack and a 4U rack case fit best. Any finished computer works.
- Put the computer in its case and run the benchmark.
- Save the project.
- Open System Design Lab and create a server.
- In the list Hardware, pick the computer by its name.
| In PC Workshop | In System Design Lab |
|---|---|
| The cores and threads of the CPU | The commands nproc and lscpu show the same numbers. |
| The size of the memory | The command free shows the size. |
| Each drive and its size | The commands df and lsblk show the drives. |
| The benchmark score | The speed of the server in a load test. |
| A rack case | The computer appears in the rack in the server room view. |
What students learn from this:
- Two servers on one computer share its speed. When a student creates a second server on the same computer, both servers get slower.
- The size of this server cannot be changed with a click. To make the server faster, the student returns to PC Workshop and upgrades a part.
- A cloud server is a part of a computer that belongs to another company.
A sequence that works over four sessions:
- Build a home server inside a budget. Compare the scores on the home server leaderboard.
- Use the computer as a server. Install a web server from the terminal.
- Publish a web site. Run a load test and write down the numbers.
- Upgrade one part in PC Workshop. Run the load test again. Explain the difference.
More help
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Page last reviewed September 2026.
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