Is there any one at the School who is familiar with electronics? and also someone computer savy? you need a good interface card, which comes with a schematic, and an understanding of motors and wiring, and a basic understanding of programming. there are places that sell kits on line with a tutorial, look on ebay, you need to know what type of motor you are driving so you can buy the correct driver, unless you have one, then you just need an interface board which hooks up to the computer via parallel port. if you need a motor driver get one that just needs logic inputs( some stepper board need a separate drive circuit with an extra power supply and resistors that need to be matched correctly), with dip switch settings to match to your motors amperage (assuming stepper not servo?) . when you set everything up you should start with the motors and work backwards towards the computer. mach will work that is a given. I guess just take one step at a time, you cant just expect to turn the computer on and say RUN........