Tuesday, November 17

this field trip rocks

Carly's enrichment class (ACT) has been studying inventors and inventions. Their teacher arranged a field trip downtown Memphis to the Gibson Guitar Factory to actually see an invention being manufactured.
The gift shop was full of gorgeous instruments including 2 Les Paul's with price tags over $10,000. The kids enjoyed walking down the isles and looking at all the different shapes, colors, woods.
We got outfitted with our safety goggles and were ready to head into the factory. Sad news: no photos allowed!
This is one of the best field trips I have ever been on. First it is the ACT class which is smaller (smart kids that have gotten a teacher recommendation reduces the number of trouble makers) and most kids had a parent. My friend Stacy drove so I didn't have to worry about that. Carly was with 3 really good friends and they got along the whole trip. It was well organized. We were the only group there.
And, it was really very interesting.

Some things Carly told about the trip:

  1. This factory only makes electric guitars.
  2. There are 2 other Gibson Factories to make the other types.
  3. These guitars cost 3 to 5 thousand dollars.
  4. Lots of people work on the guitars.
  5. It takes months to make a guitar.
  6. The job she would want would be the tester.
  7. or maybe the painter.
  8. The job she would not want was the lady who used a straight razor to clear the varnish off the edges.
  9. If a flaw is found in the guitar along the way, it is taken to the bandsaw and destroyed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW--what a great field trip. We missed that when we were in Memphis. What great opportunities she is getting.

Jill said...

That looks like a really cool field trip!

Keetha said...

I want to go to school there.

As many times as I've been to Memphis, I've never been. Must fix that!