"My name is Sasha and I was one of the students that attended the field trip with UNLV last week, I wanted to personally thank you for the tour and for providing us with a project to finish at our home. This has been the most educational and the most memorable experience I have had in my college education. Thank you so much to the Garner Holt team for creating such an amazing experience and for allowing me to be a part of it!"

I think the tour was extremely effective at showing all the different aspects of being an engineer. First, they introduced the idea of creating animatronics as an interesting career path to me. I have never thought about it as a growing industry or a profitable one, until I took the tour. Also, they took you through all the work spaces and conditions of the people that work as engineers there. It showed me a certain type of workspace, one that differs from the more office setting of the one my father works in. It also showed me the power of creativity, as the engineers for the animatronics would have to create the mechanisms inside the robots out of scratch. Overall, the field trip opened my eyes about new career path in my future and showed me what it takes to be an engineer.

The experience at Garner Holt Productions was awe-inspiring for me. The experience of the founder of Garner Holt Productions also inspired me to understand how important passion is and how effective the help of my school friends, teachers, and journalists is. During this field trip, I learned about the process of making some electronic animation and performance equipment, the production time, and how much it costs to sell them. Here many people from different fields gathered together; there are 3D designers, mechanical designers, software engineers, character designers, carpenters, costume designers, and so on. I saw how people from different professions work together and how to communicate. During this field trip, I also tried to make some small things, experienced how to use air pressure to push the lever, and made my own motor bug. This exercised my hands-on and independent thinking skills.

I really enjoyed my experience at Garner Holt Productions. I found their factory to be extremely interesting because of all the different varieties of tools and equipment in one area. The animatronics also really blew me away, especially the giant spider. I was interested and engaged during the whole tour because of some of the really cool animatronics, but some of the weird displays really interested me. My experience at Garner Holt Productions was a very enjoyable one, the amount of meticulous work I saw was very inspiring.

My experience at Garner Holt Productions this time is very novel. I have never been to a factory to see the production steps of various projects. In this factory, I saw many character models that I had seen in Disney and Universal Studios, such as dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, Kung Fu Panda and so on. I'm interested in how those models are driven. There we use two syringes to simulate the working of a hydraulic press. I feel that these things are amazing, and this experience has been very rewarding for me.

GHP is such a creative, stimulating workplace! I appreciated the opportunity for students to learn about fun, fulfilling jobs where they don’t necessarily need a traditional college education. The focus on learning, creating, and following their passions was a wonderful lesson for the kids.

My experience at Garner Holt was very interesting and quite different from what I expected. Going into the field trip I thought we were going to sit in a room and study the different components and mechanics involved in creating an animatronic. The tour format of the field trip was very entertaining. Being able to step foot into the workplace felt like a special behind-the-scenes experience. Being able to see the entire process from start to finish of how an animatronic is made was intriguing. Seeing the amount of engineering and time that goes into creating an animatronic helped me realize how complex an animatronic is. Before this field trip, I always thought animatronics were a thing of the past. Something that people did not pay much attention to anymore. I had no idea that the industry was so complex and diverse. I enjoyed the hands-on experience through the pneumonics crane and vibrating bug. It was a very enjoyable way to learn about the force powering the animatronics.

The professionalism, knowledge, and enthusiasm of the GHP staff enhanced the experience for teachers, parents, and students. I appreciated the opportunities for students to independently problem-solve during the hands-on activities.

At Garner Holt, I was able to take a peek behind the curtain of my childhood in a sense. The characters I had grown up with and seen come to life by these machines. As an engineer, it’s always fun to find out how machines like these work which is exactly what I accomplished during this field trip. The other cool thing was seeing how an engineer had actually taken what he was interested in and made a career out of it.

My time at Garner Holt Productions was amazing. I learned about the design process and mechanics that go into a simple animatronic. I learned lots about how hydraulics and pneumatics work and how they are used in making animatronics move and make facial expressions. I also learned that it is not simply just a mechanical thing and there are digital and electrical elements to making an animatronic move. I learned that there are many design stages to making an animatronic, from its concept, to a rough model, then passed off to be checked off by the customer, then made to a full scale with lots of mechanical parts in the animatronic to make it work and move and look alive. Not only did I learn a lot but I got to see some behind the scenes stuff for some movies and rides for theme parks, and got to meet some very interesting people. In conclusion I learned a lot and had an amazing time.

The Garner Holt field trip was the ultimate demonstration of what S.T.E.A.M. is supposed to be about. If more schools and districts could see how multiple disciplines interrelate in the real world, perhaps then we could change the way education is being delivered to our students for the better. Garner Holt and companies like it show proof as to why we should fight to keep “shop” classes in our high schools. The skills gained in those classes are the same skills needed to succeed across all industries.

The most exciting thing about Garner Holt Productions is the validation it provides to more creative students. I saw my students' horizons broadened right before my eyes. They also loved knowing this amazing facility is right here in San Bernardino

This truly was unlike anything I'd ever seen before! It was enlightening! I had always been curious about how animatronics work and I learned that during my visit. Thank you!! OH, and I actually got a chance to shake hands with Garner Holt himself!! Thank you again for the opportunity you provided me as well as my 6th graders! We truly appreciated it and found it memorable!!

The girls in my Troop loved the tour. The girls talked all the way home on all the stuff they got to see and all the stuff the learned it was an amazing opportunity for them. Thank you for the learning experience.

The trip was very interesting. The people who spoke to our group were polite, professional, patient, and informative. My group's guide was also polite, professional, patient and informative. I expected to be treated well, but was very impressed with the level of courtesy shown us.

This excursion is phenomenal for students to experience and learn behind the scenes how animatronics are made.