The hum of machinery is the soundtrack to a delicious Learn by Doing experience: ice cream making.

On this summer day at the Cal Poly Creamery, students are making a batch of their best-selling Mud Pie flavor — a chocolate ice cream with hints of coffee and swirls of crushed Oreo cookies — and training a new crop of students. 

Since the students are just making one flavor of ice cream today, it’s considered a “slow” day — but they’ll still fill hundreds of pints.

Toni Rocha, a fifth-year food science major, bustles around the processing area, helping the newer hires in different spots on the assembly line and answering questions.

“We’re always getting new students, and I really like helping and teaching them,” said Rocha, who has worked at the Creamery for about a year. “We’re all figuring things out and working together as a team.”

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