On October 20, 2008, 13 graduate students enrolled in Fall 2008 Air Quality Management class undertook a field trip to “Trace Die Cast” in Bowling Green. Dr. Emmanuel Iyiegbuniwe, the course instructor, has incorporated field trips in the form of City as Text” or “Industry as Text” as pedagogical techniques for teaching air quality management and other environmental health sciences to both undergraduate and graduate students. Simply stated, City as Text or Industry as Text is based on the concept of “active learning” or “experiential learning” (Kolb 1984). It is a form of student engagement or service learning program that “humanizes” environmental health science as well as demonstrates key scientific methodology and values. Additionally, students are able to develop practical and critical thinking skills in a real world, industry-learning environment. Such skills are very relevant for solving contemporary public health problems in today’s global environment.

Trace Die Cast is a Kentucky manufacturing company that produces aluminum die casts for automotive parts. The company, established in 1988 by Mr. Lowell .M. Guthrie, has about 230 salary and hourly-wage employees and an annual net sales in excess of 80 million dollars, The students undertook a tour and walk-around inspection of two of the three plants that make up the company’s facilities. The facility Director, Mr. Thomas Fischer, gave an in-depth explanation of plant-wide activities and processes. After the tour, there was a forum for group reflection on various activities observed by the students. Students reflected on key air pollution and environmental health issues including regulatory compliance, general safety concerns, engineering and administrative controls and personal protective equipment programs. A majority of the students, particularly international students who have never been to a US industry prior to this visit, were amazed by the existing automation processes that involved the use of robots and high temperature furnaces used in die casting.

The culminating experience for this field trip was the requirement for every student to write a final report based on three key strategies: mapping, observation, and listening. The students included Alexander Ufelle, Sushmita Meher, Sandeep Kumar Singh, Poornima Balne, Shabbar Ranapurwala, Matthew Hill, Debbie Reed, Chika Ejike, Jitendra Pandya, Srikanta Nimmagadda, Vipul Dhumak, Pooja Chugh, and Akshath Rai.