I've help mentor a local robotics team the last few years. I help the students build their practice field elements using their school's wood shop (it's one of only 3 schools in a very large public school system that still has a wood shop).
The first year I started with the team, about half the students didn't know how to read a tape measure. They'd simply never had a chance to learn…too busy taking AP courses to make time for wood shop and nobody at home used a tape measure (or if they did, they weren't making time to teach about it).
They've always been eager to learn and quickly picked up on basic shop skills. But, cutting a straight line by hand, even with a jigsaw or circular saw takes practice….same as it would with a classic Disston.
Given their homework loads, extracurricular load (robotics, sports, etc), it's unlikely a non-trivial number of them will put in the practice to get good at the basic shop skills in a reasonable amount of time.
Today's 20-somethings and 30-somethings grew up in a world that discouraged wood shop, looked down on tool users, and often simply never had an opportunity to learn basic shop skills….the same basic situation I see in the students on the local robotics team.
This year, the team convinced a local makerspace to sponsor them which gave the students access to CNC machinery (they already had access to a well-equipped wood shop at school).
Getting straight cuts on odd shapes for play field elements is much easier when they can draw what they need on a computer (a tool they've already put in the time to be proficient with).
I see it as a hook to get them interested in creating especially since it builds on skills they already have or are building (this high school teaches CAD…combining that with CNC is an easy learning curve).
I expect it should be fairly simple to follow that up by showing how those same CNC machines can do basic carvings, build cabinets, etc. That gives an opening to discuss traditional furniture (which was frequently carved and used more sophisticated joinery) vs. modern (which is stripped of most ornamentation in the interest of shaving a few cents off the manufacturing cost).
The fancier joinery should naturally tug at their budding engineering interests…another hook...
Speak a language they already know. Use tools they're interested in. Build on what they're learning within the existing STE(A)M programs.
As they gain skills in the shop, they'll be much more open to learning how it used to be done (especially since traditional tools still have a solid place in the "modern" shop).
Tim S.