Every 6th grade class took their very first field trip into the fascinating world of Intel’s history. Although a small museum, every single turn was filled with knowledge, wonder, hilarity, and a very fun gift shop! The trip happened for all the cohorts on various dates between January 10 - 24, except 6G. Unfortunately, 6G’s trip got cancelled but luckily, they were able to take their trip at the end of January.

Intel is a company that designs, manufacturers, and sells computer components such as CPUs and other semiconductors. Intel’s CPUs are their most important product. Intel was started by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. They were from Fairchild Semiconductor Company. However, Moore and Noyce thought that Farichild Semiconductor could be taking more risks and they weren’t happy with the management at Fairchild Semiconductor. So Intel, also known as Integrated Electronics, was created! They thought of calling the company Moore Noyce or more nice, but they decided that people would think it is morenoise company and it did not sound right. Then finally their first ever employee was Arthur Rock.

In the 6th grade field trip, the class was split into two groups, one doing the activity and the other learning about Intel and technology. Let’s start with the tour! The tour guides started with talking about the starting of Intel and about Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. The guide also told us about Moore’s law saying that the number of transistors doubles after every 2 years. Then we got to have a look at some of the technology Intel had created like microchips and old computers . There were many cool exhibits, some interactive and some displays, that displayed many things about Intel and about technology, like smart cities. The last part of the guided tour was when someone would put on a bunny suit; a suit used in the clean rooms. Clean Rooms were where the Intel employees would make the actual microchips. The clean room was REALLY clean, and the bunny suits were a must. The tour guide told us that they are called bunnysuits because they look white like a bunny. There was also an air replacement system that took 16 seconds to complete, and much, much more in these rooms. This was all necessary as the silicon used to make the chips was very fragile, plus all these dust particles and dead cells could interfere with the process. There was an entertaining game in which you could spell out your name in binary. Another one was where you could add a filter, record yourself with it, and then send it to anyone. There was also a game where you could see how fast you could wave your hand in nanoseconds. The small activity was an interesting one where each group of two people would get a puzzle cube that we would have to deconstruct and then reconstruct. But while reconstructing the puzzle, we would have to add instructions. After finishing the activity and the guided tour, you could roam around or take money and buy things from the gift shop. We had 20 minutes of exploring more of the place and having a look at the gift shop. The gift shop had different plushies, keychains, journals, notebooks, pens, and more. The gift shop was located near one of the entrances to Intel, meaning that we got to see a tiny bit of the Intel HQ! On the bus ride back, the students got some souvenirs, a cube puzzle, and a pencil with the Intel Museum. The students could also take photos with bunny suits by sticking their head through the cardboard cutout.

An exhilarating experience, the trip to Intel was very educational, and had an overall lasting impact for many of the 6th graders.