AP Environmental Science and AP Human Geography classes took a field trip to Kawasaki and an all-organic farm on Tuesday, April 23.

The classes are learning about how industry affects the environment, so the field trip enabled students to learn these lessons hands-on.

“My class and AP HUG have a unit on agriculture and sustainability,” AP Environmental Science teacher Lori Watson said. “Then for Kawasaki, AP HUG has a manufacturing unit, and we talk a lot about pollution and where we source materials for products and mining and land use.”

The first location students visited was the organic farm owned by Gary Fehr, where they learned about what he does to protect the environment. They also helped plant potatoes.

“We went to a farm that was thirty minutes outside of Lincoln, and it was an all-organic farm, so no GMOs,” sophomore Brynn Ulrich said. “He taught us organic practices like what he grew and how he made an income off of it.”

After the farm, the students visited the heavy manufacturing company Kawasaki.

“We learned how the whole business worked, and how they’re sustainable and do certain things other companies don’t do to make it more sustainable for the environment,” Ulrich said.

One thing many students found interesting is that Kawasaki has several machines that are fully robotic.

“They have little robots at Kawasaki!” senior Maria Trinh said. “There’s something that was fully robotic. It stamps stuff.”

The students learned a lot about how to protect the environment on this field trip, but Watson hopes they take away the main important message.

“I hope they think about where their food comes from and think about the environmental impact of their food, also how their consumer habits can impact the environment,” Watson said.