Mesabi Trail Project

Building a Trail of Knowledge:
Active Learning Through Civic Engagement

Itasca Community College (ICC) administration, faculty and staff identified civic engagement as an important goal within a new 2002-2007 Strategic Plan. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) "Learning That Lasts" grant opportunities were identified as a means of support for a pilot project that would engage students with community leaders toward the production of materials supporting recreational interests in northern Minnesota. The project cooperators included ICC, staff from the St. Louis and Lake counties regional rail authorities, as well as the Itasca County Parks and Recreation Department. In addition to student learning processes and civic engagement, the project also supports the efforts of the Minnesota Campus Compact, and the economic development vision outlined in the True North concept within the Northeast Higher Education District (NHED).

Service learning, as ascribed to this project is defined as a teaching/learning strategy that combines meaningful community or public service with academic improvement, development of civic responsibility and personal growth. During the spring of 2003 and continuing through the spring of 2004, students at ICC were involved in a variety of service learning projects within three academic disciplines: history, geography (geographic information systems) and English. The primary implementation strategy utilized was the integration of work directly into the course content. However, each course had significantly different academic content, therefore the practical application and development of a set of "products" differed significantly from course to course. Students in history developed historical narratives of local towns along the trail including Bovey and Coleraine. Students within geography utilized their technical skills to develop maps along the trail showing land uses, proposed trail routing via aerial photography, interpretation and global positioning systems, and three dimensional representations of topographic maps and photographs with the Mesabi Trail shown as it crossed such landscapes. Students within English utilized their technical writing skills to plan and prepare a variety of brochures describing activities and events along the trail, such as fishing sites.

Common to all courses was the immediate application of skills and knowledge gained in each course to the larger community project. Thus, students were challenged from the onset to learn the technical skills of the course, initiate and develop ideas for their specific Mesabi Trail project, and implement their ideas and learning toward a final product that the community leaders might utilize on web sites or at kiosks placed along the trail. Students from the different courses involved in the pilot project were often speaking with each other and planning projects that crossed disciplines, such as the preparation of maps (GIS) for technical brochures (English). This led to a reported sense of awareness of the logistical arrangements and coordination that it takes to manage community wide projects.  

Also common to all courses was the administering of an evaluation of student expectations and attitudes before and after the civic engagement experience. Prior to the service learning project experience, students reported a gap in their understanding of what civic engagement actually entailed, and questioned how they might be able to have any impact at all, being college students, on the outcome of a project spanning multiple counties and administrative bodies. Despite the unknowns, however, students also reported a willingness to participate with the community organizations in the project, and a general curiosity about the trail itself and its primary users. 

At the end of the spring semester, 2003, all community members involved with the Mesabi Trail, and all ICC students and involved faculty and administration, were invited to participate in a celebration, and presentation of the work accomplished. At this gathering the students themselves presented to the community leaders the results, attitudes and thoughts about the work they had accomplished. The outcome of the meeting was very positive. Students reported a sense of accomplishment, a realization that the community leaders really appreciated their work and involvement in the process, and the understanding that the trail is important to the community such that their efforts were worthwhile. 

We are very proud of the work our students completed! Examples of the work the GIS students presented included:

•     Interpretation of Landscape Patterns
•     Interactive Linking of Map Locations to Photographs and Databases
•     3-D Visualization Techniques Showing Slope, Elevation, Terrain Representations
•     Viewshed and Visibility Analysis
•     Recommended Future Trail Alignments Based on Existing Land Uses
•     Cartographic Production for Technical Brochures Created in Other Courses

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