Showing up initially at the generator, I had never before been to this location, and was completely oblivious as to what we would find as a class. After having entered the building from the back parking lot, we were immediately surprised to see that the building was much larger than we had initially believed. A large group of our classmates had met in the back of the building, while incidentally a large group had also met in the front of the building. After having realized as a class that there were two separate entrances, the class moved to the front where we began our introduction to our tour, and to the rest of the Generator and what the building provided to its members. In the very beginning of the tour, we had been introduced to the three-dimensional laser printer as well the worlds largest spriograph. We were then informed of the different kinds of memberships that we as students could obtain, and the potential benefits of each membership, as well as the classes which the building provided. After having passed the Spirograph as a class, we moved onto gaming, and arcade games that had been purchased and refurbished by one of the Generators members. Upon being refurbished, the arcade games were then either turned for profit, or had been kept in the building as a gaming system for members to use. After having been introduced to Galaga, we as a class moved onto the wooden flutes, and their creator / inventor, and he demonstrated not only how to play the flutes, but also explained to us how they were created. The last creation we were shown was the miniature model of Downtown Burlington, and we were explained how the model was created, and the different tools that were put into the making of it. Lastly as a class we were asked to put on glasses, and we then entered the metal workshop which consisted of large machines used for welding, and the fusing of metals.Â
For me personally, I found the most interesting part of the workshop to be the creators, and their elaborate explanations as to how they had made their inventions, their creations, and all the time, and effort they actually spent into each of their creations. I found this to be highly interesting, because not only the amount of combined artistic skill, and hands on learning involved, but the collaboration of all of the members of the Generator.
I believe for my personal age group, this was probably one of the most informative trips i have ever taken, or experienced, and I definitely believe looking back to have learned quite a bit of information. The information was admittedly difficult to remember because there was simply so much to be processed. I very much enjoyed the trip, and believe that others probably felt similarly in terms of the amount of information there was to not only intake, but to digest.
