You have lots of great ideas above. My sister and I are both engineers and looking back at our childhoods we spent a LOT of time playing with lego and building/fixing stuff with our dad. Our dad was the type of person that when anything broke he'd try to fix it. Even if you aren't mechanically inclined enough to fix things the taking apart was usually the best part anyway. So next time something stops working, break out the screw drivers and have some fun.
If you know anyone that likes working on cars/bikes/etc see if they would be willing to have a helper next time they do a project. After fixing bikes all of the gears, pulleys, etc in first year dynamics weren't just something to memorize for the exam. Being able to think through the problems and really picture how it would work was invaluable and we never had labs in that class for everyone to experience it first hand. If nothing else being able to change my own brakes has saved me a few thousand over the years
