NAPA × Central Creativity
Fill your store with familiesand future technicians
Host a Drive Into STEM Challenge. Students build a car that runs on salt water, right there at your counter, and meet the trade while they do it. The whole event arrives in one box, from $75.
Litchfield Middle School · NAPA pilot, April 2025
What happened at the pilot sites
Pilot phase results · the program is running nationwide
Why host one
New families walk in, many for the first time
Store teams in the pilot saw people come through the door who had never been in before. Parents, grandparents, children who had no reason to visit a parts counter until that afternoon.
That is the near-term reason. The longer one is the technician shortage, which is not really a hiring problem. Most children never meet the trade. They do not know a modern technician works on high-voltage packs, driver-assistance sensors and diagnostic software, or that you can get there without a four-year degree. By the time anyone mentions it, they have usually chosen something else.
An hour at your store changes that, because the person handing them the kit does the job for a living.
“The coolest thing we’ve done all month.”
What parents said — pilot feedback
One that already happened
Sixty students, one Friday, Litchfield Illinois
Litchfield Middle School was one of only four schools in the country chosen for the Drive Into STEM pilot. On a Friday in April, sixty of its students built the cars.
They aligned axles, wheels, gears and motors, and assembled the saltwater fuel cells. When a car did not run, they worked out why and fixed it on the spot — which is the part of the day that looks least like a lesson and most like the job.
Litchfield is a middle school, grades 6 through 8, so the room held three year groups at once. One of the photographs below is an eighth grader walking a sixth grader through the build.
Then they told us what to change. Their feedback on the activity, on the car design and on what would make it better went back to NAPA to help develop the program. The day ended with a tour of the McKay NAPA Auto Parts headquarters, so the careers conversation finished somewhere real.
Photographs: Litchfield Community Unit School District #12
What else it builds
The car that does not run is the useful one
A build that works first time teaches the science. A build that does not teaches everything else.
Wheels come out of alignment. A fuel cell gets three drops when it needed five. The car sits there and does nothing. What happens next is the part of the hour no worksheet reaches: a student has to find the fault, decide what to change, and try again in front of other people. That is productive struggle, and it is why the activity is built to be fiddly rather than foolproof.
What follows it is better still. The student who gets their own car moving starts getting everyone else’s moving. At Litchfield that was an eighth grader walking a sixth grader through the build. At a pilot site in South Carolina a facilitator watched the whole arc happen in one afternoon.
“One of the students struggled at first — he couldn’t get the wheels aligned and got really frustrated. But a NAPA team member knelt beside him, helped troubleshoot, and by the end of the activity, that same kid was coaching others. That’s the kind of transformation that doesn’t show up in the survey scores. But that’s the moment you know it’s working.”
Facilitator — Nonfiction Agency, Greenville, South CarolinaThe build is fiddly on purpose. A car that fails is a problem to solve rather than a craft to finish, and the difference is where the learning sits.
Students diagnose in front of each other, so the method travels around a table without an adult directing it.
The one who fixes their own car becomes the one fixing everyone else’s. It is the shortest route there is from learner to helper.
Persistence, troubleshooting, asking for help and then giving it — the durable skills are hallmarks of hands-on learning, and they are the part that outlasts the car.
What arrives
One box, nothing else to buy
Each individually packaged with every part and printed instructions. Students build, fuel and drive their own car, and keep it.
Step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting and best practices for leading the activity, written for store teams rather than teachers.
Posters, flyers and a press release template, so you can fill the room without building a campaign from scratch.
Live webinars, on-demand video and a digital activity guide. Access arrives with your order confirmation.
$75 for five · $150 for ten · $375 for twenty-five · a flat $15 a student, shipping included
Your part
What hosting actually involves
You are not teaching a science lesson. You are running an event that happens to have a science activity in the middle of it, and the guide walks you through every part of that.
- Before
Register, train, promote
Order the kit and your confirmation brings the training with it. Work through the videos or join a live webinar, put the posters up, pick your date, and set out tables with room for people to move around.
- On the day
Welcome, build, talk
Greet families, guide the build, and talk about what technicians actually do. The activity runs about an hour, and the cars are the easy part. The conversation is the point.
- After
Share and report back
Submit your event data, send photos or a story, and tell us what worked. That feedback is what shapes the next round for everyone else.
Before you commit
The questions store teams ask first
Do I need to know any science?
No. Training is required and it is built for people who have never led an activity like this. In the pilot, 93% of facilitators said they felt confident going in. Troubleshooting for the car builds is in the guide and the video, and you can call us during an event if something goes wrong.
When can I hold it?
The program is anchored to November 8, National STEM Day, but you can host any time. Pick a date that suits your store.
Where does it happen?
In your store or shop, or at a school or community location if you would rather take it to them. You need space for tables, activity stations and people moving between them.
How many kits do I get, and how many can I order?
Five, ten or twenty-five cars, whichever suits the room you are expecting. Shipping is included and there is no cap — order as many as you can fill, and tell us if you are planning something bigger than twenty-five.
Can I post photos from my event?
Yes, and you are encouraged to. If minors are clearly identifiable you need a signed parent or guardian release first, and a release form comes in your event materials. The simplest approach is to shoot the cars and the hands rather than faces. If you are hosting at a school or community site, follow their policy as well.
What does it cost?
A flat $15 a student at every size — $75 for five cars, $150 for ten, $375 for twenty-five, shipping included. That covers the kits, the facilitator guides, the marketing materials and the training. There is nothing else to buy.
Next step
Pick a date and we will take care of the rest
Order your kit and your confirmation email brings the training, the digital resources and the marketing materials with it. Then pick a date.
Support: support@centralcreativity.com · (866) 381–1760
Bring it to your area
Become a NAPA partner site
Central Creativity is the official educational ambassador for NAPA’s Drive Into STEM Challenge.
A kit runs one event. A partner site brings the whole experience to a community and keeps it there, year after year, with us and NAPA behind it. We will train your facilitators, help you plan the day, and facilitate the first one alongside you if that is what it takes — for schools and districts, workforce boards, youth programs, museums, libraries and NAPA stores alike.
Live or on demand, built for people who have never taught a science lesson. Across the pilot sites, 93% of facilitators felt confident leading their event.
Sizing the room, filling it, and troubleshooting on the floor on the day. Most sites run the next one themselves.
The activity, the career story and the materials arrive as one piece, so the hour points at the trade instead of ending at a toy car.
For companies
This is what a partner program looks like
Drive Into STEM is what happens when a company with a workforce problem and a company that builds hands-on learning sit down together. Central Creativity designed the activity around the industry, built the facilitator training for non-teachers, supplied the marketing, instrumented the whole thing for measurement, and handed back a report that said what it did.
The saltwater car is NAPA’s version. The method transfers. If your field has a pipeline problem, that is the conversation — info@centralcreativity.com or (866) 381–1760.