> step 1 would be making sure that they understand the instructions for the kits
That's not the point of hacking.
If I were to get some students to play with robotic kits, I'd give them the parts, instructions and let them do whatever they want. If you remove the "discovery" part, you get something not much different than standarized test itself. If you have kids follow instructions precisely, well, they may as well just watch how it's done on youtube. They won't learn much more from it anyway.
That's not the point of hacking.
If I were to get some students to play with robotic kits, I'd give them the parts, instructions and let them do whatever they want. If you remove the "discovery" part, you get something not much different than standarized test itself. If you have kids follow instructions precisely, well, they may as well just watch how it's done on youtube. They won't learn much more from it anyway.