the “props” might include whatever hardware that is involved, such as used cars, parts thereof or maybe machine tools involved. Don’t ask me because I am just a guy who never studied any of it…
So if we look at how the typical community college teaching this subject operates, what will we see in terms of labor expenditure by the instructor or his assistants? Do they do more work before and after class maintaining the hardware than during class actually teaching students?
In our high school, they started out repairing the cars of the people who took the class. Many of the high school teachers would leave their cars there for the shop students to work on too, and would pay for the parts. Soon, friends and neighbors all wanted their cars to work on cheaply too. They used to just charge for parts, so basically all of the “props” were free since they were paid for by the “customers”. Now I think they charge a small labor charge as well.
Community colleges basically buy the supplies that they will need out of the student fees.