Batesville Camp Teaches Elementary Students about Manufacturing

Foundry Fun Day Camp

On March 17, twenty K-3^rd graders spent their Spring Break at the Kids Discovery Factory’s Foundry Fun Day Camp, sponsored by Batesville Products.

Campers learned about manufacturing through several hands-on activities that simulated engineering, metalcasting, machining, and polishing. Similar to how foundries melt and shape metal, campers even melted chocolate to cast in custom-shaped brown sugar “sand” molds!

Kids Discovery Factory

Kids Discovery Factory is a non-profit in Batesville, IN that uses experiential learning to inspire young learners. With frequent school programs, camps, and open play, KDF helps kids innovate and create through the exploration of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics.

All Started with a Children’s Book…

The Foundry Fun Day Camp is just one of the fruits of Batesville Products’ initiative to excite the next generation about American Manufacturing. In October of 2022, Batesville Products released the children’s book Foundry Friends Make a Casting, where young readers follow the story of a metalcasting being produced. The book was donated to 235 classrooms of 15 local schools and libraries.

Seven of these schools welcomed Batesville Products into their first-grade classrooms to talk about manufacturing. Over 500 first graders held on to real-life examples of metalcastings and curiously asked questions like “Where does aluminum come from?” and “How do you turn that block of aluminum into that shape?”

The community embraced the manufacturing children’s book, which blossomed into coloring books, at-home manufacturing experiments, classroom visits, and camps.