Rick,

Our site, as you can imagine, is difficult for most adults to fully
appriceate.  We don't discourage youngsters and regularly give tours to
school groups from the 3rd and 4th grades.   Most of what we emphasize
relates to the heat, noise, and our infamous friendly ghost.  These
concepts, however, are generally lost in the context of work and
technology.  However, we do offer on special days, actual iron pours with
full smoke, flame, molten iron, and lots of yelling and running around. 
The kids, for about $5 can scratch a design into a block of chemically
hardened sand, which is then filled with molten iron.  After an hour or so,
the iron can be quenched in water and the kids can take home an iron
souviner that they made.  While we discuss the relevance to blast furnaces
to the older kids and adults, the little ones (older kids and adults too)
are generally engrossed by the pouring of iron.   This program has proven
very successful, but because it is relatively new, we havn't  yet learned
how it effects our younger visitors as they grow up.

Bode Morin
Sloss Furnaces
[log in to unmask]