In person industry tours and site visits

I absolutely loved all of my school's trips to industrial sites.

We went to:

- A Coke bottling facility (when the bottles were still mostly returnable glass ones), it was mesmerising.

- A chocolate and confectionery factory (as you may have guessed, kids were ecstatic about this one).

- A recycling plant processing paper and plastics.

- A nuclear power plant.

All of those between the ages of 10-13 as well, mentioning it now made me realise how vivid those memories are, thanks for helping me to remember them :)

I have visited wastewater treatment plants in two of the cities I have lived in and I honestly think such a visit should be required for everyone--young and old--who lives in a house or apartment serviced by a municipal sewer. It is eye opening to see what happens to every drop of water you flush or wash down the drain, and especially to see what kinds of things make it into the wastewater stream and to the treatment plant. The tours are often run by folks who actually work (or have worked) at the plant as operators and are quite knowledgeable at all the processes in play.

As a college student in the environmental sciences, I toured an awful lot of facilities and parks.

Outdoors, we visited national and state parks, national forests, wastewater treatment ponds, community farms, private hobby farms, ranches, zoos, renewables projects, and more -- from both the visitor's side and also from a behind the scenes perspective, talking to the employees and owners there about how they work.

Indoors, we went to aquariums, landfills and transfer stations, sewage processors, high efficiency refrigerator manufacturing shops, private net-zero energy homes, schools, museums, city councils, public meetings, arboretums, barns, and whatnot.

It was a good swath of the parts of society that touch the environment and outdoor recreation, and profoundly shaped how I view Americana and rural areas in particular. No longer were they globs of indistinguishable wastelands, but filled with interesting (if sparsely populated) peoples and functions that operate largely beneath the radar, unknown to most of the country. That was especially the case after having spent time in the Silicon Valley tech and strip mall bubble.

Most places in my experience would be happy to organize a group tour like that if you just ask nicely (I ran a few). Totally worth it.

I went to a STEM summer camp in Switzerland where we took us to see a variety of industrial sites including the Turbomach generator manufacturing facility, the Gotthard tunnel when it was under construction, an optic fiber connector company, a nuclear power plant, and a few other places that I cannot remember. The visits had a profound impact on me and inspired me, in a large part, to pursue engineering.

I went to visit a post office sorting center with my team at Google in Switzerland once. And honestly even as a grown up, it was a great experience, especially since the thing the sorting center was doing was sort of analogous to what some of our (software) pipelines do. Gave me a new appreciation of how powerful and fungible software is. I believe these tours are also offered to school classes.

In school we visited the local newspaper. There was nothing interesting to see because the printing was outsourced. Two dozen people sitting in front of computers (CRT grayscale monitors), conference rooms, some print-outs on the wall. We got featured in the next issue and all I remember is how uninspiring the afternoon was.

I remember site visits more than anything else from elementary school. The newspaper printing presses and the local tv news station really stand out.

I think it's good. I got a chance to shadow a surgeon and watch some surgeries. I thought the field was interesting, but I was bored out of my mind, during some of the most 'interesting' surgeries. If I didn't know that, I might have wasted a lot of time. (I'm not saying it's boring in general, but this was my opinion, meaning I'm unsuited for it)

A number of cities have "open house" weekends where public and private buildings and infrastructure that is generally closed off is temporarily made open to the public. I've always hoped that these weekends would be expanded to include both manufacturing facilities and many of the utilities that are essential to our lives. I've been fortunate enough to have visited some of these facilities (as an adult) and have both always learned something and gained a greater appreciation of the role technology (non-IT) plays in our lives. In short, practical site visits are a fantastic idea that I'm sure my younger self would have enjoyed tremendously.

Yes, they are fun as adults as well. The Toyota plant in Guelph in Ontario is a good one and Amazon fulfilment centres do them in some locations and are quite fun as well.

Not the same thing, but I remember all the site visits from Mr Roger's Neighborhood, even 40yrs later! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood

Recently took a Volkswagen factory tour and to our surprise they took us into the workshop were they assemble the Bugatti engines. They were working on a 1600hp version and we could talk to the mechanics for a while and take a really close look. I have two teenage sons and honestly do not know if anything ever impressed them more. Btw, this was a normal tour, not for "special guests".

Slightly off-topic: I didn't have the opportunity to visit industrial sites when I was a kid, so I made it up to myself by watching lots of "THE MAKING"[1] as an adult.

[1]: "THE MAKING" is the Japanese equivalent of "How It's Made." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps_X1TqiJZQ&list=PLOEDIkStOh...

Local and university chapters of the American Nuclear Society sometimes organize tours of nuclear power plants in their respective regions. I went on a few of these tours in college and it was truly a unique experience. It's easy to talk about a gigawatt of power, but to actually feel it screaming past you in the turbine hall really opens your eyes to the immense scale of the electrical infrastructure we've built to power our civilization.

Yes, practical exposure to any industry - particularly ones the teenager has an interest in - is a great thing.

I went to what was called a “vocational” high school in the US. In schools like this you rotate between a week of academic class and a week of your chosen specialization. Every week for four years. I was in the “graphic design and publishing” shop so I was learning Photoshop, Illustrator and running offset lithographic printers (small ones lol) with actual industry vets. Other students had auto body, facilities management, electrical, cosmetology, nursing. Freshman year is called your “exploratory” year, where you select something like ~8 of the available trades the school has on offer, with the end goal being you try them and figure out which to commit to. I remember going through Culinary Arts and nearly spilling a bowl of hot soup all over a table of elderly people. That line of work was never in the cards for me.

I’m not in graphic design anymore and “desktop publishing” barely exists as it did then, but the path certainly lead me to where I am today. I have NO clue what I’d be doing without that education.

In the US you can ride along at almost any fire department or private EMS company for a 12 hour day shift. They won't let you ride over night, but you can come back for multiple ride-alongs.

If you're more interested in the fire side, you can get on an engine. If you're interested in the medical side, you can get on an ambulance. You'll run 911 calls and get some healthy exposure to the human condition.

When I was a kid my dad took me to his work a couple of times at the nuclear plant. I remember a little the visitor center and also I think where they did training. So I have a vague memory of being able to pick up and move around pipes simulating fuel using a remote camera system to do the online refueling of the reactor which was new around that time.

I have no idea the exact impact, but I would suspect that these types of experiences are important to build intellectual curiosity.

It's a good idea but for software engineering work, there is not much to see, it's just code on a computer screen. For folks interested in engineering these days, I would recommend going to hacker/maker spaces and meetup events.

As a kid growing up in pre-computer/internet era, we did a bunch of things to engage our curiosity and learn and have fun. But in today's world with access such rich content at your fingertips, it's all very different. These days I spend hours watching interesting stuff on Youtube in the comforts of my bedroom. But I do miss the learnings I would have had through engagement with fellow students in an actual physical tour. So, I would say, do best of both worlds.

Would still love to do such visits!

There's an interesting looking Japanese website encouraging industrial tourism.

https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/eccj/ind_tourism/foods.html is the link for food, but there's a lot more categories such as life sciences and heavy industry.

Hi Helgardt, Reghardt van Katstraat. I think Henrik has written about what he calls onramps in society for younger generations, I am struggling to find the exact reference to it. But his blog is full of ideas similar to what you have written about here.

As economies develop and more specialization is allowed, it takes longer and longer for young people to "actually do work". Which is a good and bad thing.

https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/apprenticeship-online

I’ve been taking myself on field trips like this most of my adulthood; jelly belly factory, distilleries, breweries, watchmaking, vinyl pressing, chocolate factories, coffee roasteries. “How it’s made” tours are a top thing I look for when I travel.

Over here we have a yearly 'Open Bedrijvendag' (Open company day) event. It is very successful and draws big crowds every time. You can e.g. have a tour of the clean room chip production facilities at IMEC. https://www.openbedrijvendag.be/