Some Michigan City Area Schools students visited the International Manufacturing Trade Show in Chicago on Wednesday. Audra Peterson, director of career and technical education at the A.K. Smith Career Center, recapped the students’ experience - everything from the bus ride there to the excellent opportunity that awaited them at McCormick Place.
Here’s Peterson’s rundown of the educational day trip.
“First off - we had several kids who had NO idea what a ‘cardinal bus’ was and so that in and of itself was an excursion. They were so excited!!”
The students were unbelievably amazed at all that manufacturing had to offer! Considering one student, when asked what they all thought manufacturing was, replied ‘it's when there's an assembly line filling spaghettios cans.’ I was humored by the looks they had when they found out what manufacturing was "REALLY" about!
They loved it! They thanked me when they got off the bus and I asked that they write a one page paper about what they thought and what they learned. The staff also was amazed and excited to return I think to discuss further with the students. They received LOTS of manufactured take aways!
This was an excellent opportunity and certainly showed the students a very broad glimpse of what this was all about!
Thanks to everyone involved for making this experience come alive for these kids!"