KiCAD is completely free and open-source, so every student can install it on day one without licenses, paywalls, or feature restrictions getting in the way. It's also the same tool used in real professional and open-hardware projects - notably by CERN - meaning the skills you learn transfer directly to the real world.
Simple ideas I get in mind for the circuits are:
For a simple, 1 day-ish beginner course we should do a simple LED + resistor board. As boring as it seems, we have no idea what people will be attending and their skill level and I feel like it would be pretty important to teach them how to make their own footprints for example. I feel it's better to do it here at the start, maybe before we even teach them about the standard library. Hitting them with it later on in a project may be more frustrating.
For the next one, I think what would work is something useful but no MCUs yet. I think we should introduce some ICs into the mix but easy to solder and not too complicated. I think some sort of multiple LED souvenir-ish contraption will attract more people than something actually technically very useful. I'm thinking of those heart shaped LED PCB's that fade their lights in and out in different orders, probably would also need a button and a coin cell battery.
This is what I have for now as a skeleton, I am awaiting feedback!