"
In previous years, we've brought a bunch of retired PCs and challenged the groups to disassemble (down to the motherboard) and reassemble them in working order .. Most students today only have laptops and tablets. As a result, this knowledge doesn't translate into the real world anymore"
That's because the manufacturers design them that way, making them ununrecoverable in the process, all the while preaching their 'green` credentials, fifty dollars to change a battery, come off it. I see students who expereience of electronics being reduced to wiping a touch screen as the equivalent of that 'Doctor` whose entire knowledge consisted of consultant colored slides in some magic
little black bag.