Experience Learn by Doing
For generations, our alumni have carried Learn by Doing into their careers, driving industries forward while giving back their expertise and support to Cal Poly. As part of our 125th Anniversary Celebration, we invite you to return, explore and experience the Learn by Doing legacy you helped create.
Learn by Doing Tours
Every day, Cal Poly students learn, work and conduct research in state-of-the-art labs, fields, orchards, forests and facilities that prepare them to lead their industries. Built and shaped over decades, these living laboratories continue to evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.
Agricultural Education and Communication
Walk through 40 years of Brock Center history and discover the people, stories, and experiences that have shaped its legacy in agricultural communication. Explore how the center has evolved over four decades and continues to support the next generation of agricultural communicators.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the department’s media production capabilities through a multi-camera interview experience. Visitors will be invited to share their Cal Poly stories on camera, with recorded interviews and event footage later edited into a polished vodcast-style feature.
Experience Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing spirit through engaging, hands-on activities inspired by the lessons our teacher candidates bring to high school classrooms. Explore, experiment and discover the joy of learning by doing.
Agribusiness
Meet agribusiness students participating in new industry engagement opportunities. Learn how they are building professional connections, gaining real-world experience and preparing to lead in the agricultural industry.
Visit booths featuring agribusiness students who have turned their ideas into products and businesses. Meet the innovators, explore their creations and see Learn by Doing in action.
Animal Science
Tour the newly opened Charles and Claire Jacobson Animal Health Center, a state-of-the-art facility supporting the next generation of leaders in veterinary medicine, animal agriculture and health care through teaching, research and clinical training.
Charles and Claire Jacobson Animal Health Center, Building 165
Discover how Cal Poly’s favorite ice cream and cheese products are crafted, from farm to finished flavor.
Leprino Foods Dairy Innovation Institute, Building 18A
Explore the Oppenheimer Family Equine Center on a walking tour of its facilities. Learn how students gain real-world experience in equine care, training and management while preparing to become future leaders in the industry.
The Oppenheimer Family Equine Center, Building 32
Discover one of the nation’s largest student-supported dairies on a guided tour of this innovative complex. See how students gain hands-on experience in production, processing and product technology.
Dairy Science Complex, Building 18
Ride along on a student-guided tour of Cal Poly’s agricultural facilities aboard the AgVenture Bus. Visit the J and G Lau Family Meat Processing Center, Animal Nutrition Center, Poultry Unit, Beef Cattle Evaluation Center and Sheep/Goat Unit to see Learn by Doing in action.
Tour start location: TBD
BioResource and Agricultural Engineering
Tour the newly opened Marderosian Family and Bee Sweet Automation Lab and see the hands-on projects Cal Poly students are developing. Meet the students behind the lab’s robotic innovations and learn how they are applying technology to real-world challenges.
The Marderosian Family Foundation and Bee Sweet Citrus Automation Lab at the George Wurzel Plant Sciences Building, Building 159
Come by the BRAE ramp and learn by doing the difference between pressure compensation and non-pressure compensating drip emitters. Through a faculty-guided experiment visitors can measure and calculate the difference and learn how to estimate their own water savings based on the use of pressure-compensating emitters.
Saturday from 1 - 2 p.m.
BRAE Ramp, Building 8
Experience Industry Management
Explore interactive project displays and create an experience of your own. Discover how students, faculty, staff and industry partners are reimagining human-centered experiences through Learn by Doing.
George P. Johnson Experience Innovation Lab, Building 181, Room 205
Food Science and Nutrition
Sample a focaccia made with wine grape pomace and a roasted carrot pomace romesco. This food demonstration highlights ongoing student research into upcycling food-processing byproducts and student product developed to reduce food waste.
Oreggia Family Foundation Culinary Lab, Building 181, Room 124
Step into the Sensory Analysis Teaching and Research Lab for a fun, interactive “final exam” in food science. Sample puffed snacks and bites while participating in a sensory test modeled after the consumer research Cal Poly students conduct to evaluate product preference, perception and acceptance. Put your taste buds to work and see how your feedback helps shape the foods of tomorrow.
Sensory Analysis Teaching and Research Lab, Building 181, Room 123
Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences
Visit the Logging Unit and experience forestry education in action. The Cal Poly Logging Team will be giving a taste of their technical skills and the competitive events that regularly produce champions.
Visitors can explore displays from affiliated student clubs and research programs, offering a closer look at the hands-on learning and innovation shaping the future of natural resources.
Plant Sciences
Tour the Leaning Pine Arboretum, a student managed five-acre display garden of Meiterranean climate region plants and trees.
Environmental Horticultural Science, Building 48
Stop by the newly opened Plant Sciences Complex to explore the growth chamber, classrooms and laboratories. See student research demonstrations and experience the spaces where Cal Poly students learn, discover and innovate.
George Wurzel Plant Sciences Building, Building 159
Take a walking tour and see the growing operations and experience the hands-on learning opportunities that our students have everyday. The guided tour will take you around the orchards and fields directly outside JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture and Crops Unit.
Get hands-on with a student research project exploring potting mixes and production methods. Learn how Cal Poly students are testing solutions that support plant growth and sustainable horticulture.
Howard C. Brown Horticultural Greenhouse Complex, Building 48
Visit the Howard C. Brown Horticultural Greenhouse Complex for an inside look at where students grow plants.
Howard C. Brown Horticultural Greenhouse Complex, Building 48
Wine and Viticulture
Tour the JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture, home to a state-of-the-art 5,000-case bonded winery, viticulture and enology labs, and teaching and gathering spaces. See where students gain hands-on experience in winemaking and grape growing.
Tours will take place at 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. People can join the group anytime.
JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture, Building 156
Grimm Family Center for Organic Production and Research at Cal Poly
Explore the Grimm Family Soil Health and Sustainability Open Lab and discover how Cal Poly students and faculty are advancing healthier soils, sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship through hands-on research and learning.
Grimm Family Center for Organic Production and Research at Cal Poly, Building 11, Room 103
Eats and Drinks
It's time to enjoy the fruits (and cheeses, and ice creams and wines) of our labors. Food brings people together and we are excited to share ours with you.
Cal Poly Creamery
Mustang Scoop Shop
Treat yourself to craft ice cream made by Cal Poly students using milk from the Cal Poly Dairy and local farms. Samples and ice cream for purchase will be available.
Agricultural Engineering Society
BRAE Barbecue
Commonly known as the BRAE barbecue this decades-old campus tradition serves up a delicious hamburger lunch cooked over an open pit and hosted by the students of the Agricultural Engineering Society. Lunch includes salad, chili, chips and a drink.
Building 8, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.