Cindy Schletz, the forest preserve's Environmental Learning Center coordinator, was contracted by the university to teach the course. The class studied the identification, anatomy, and physiology of trees, and learned how to monitor and measure their growth. Cooperative groups of students came up with ways that the subject of trees could be used across the curriculum. In Language Arts, for example, students adopt a particular tree, then compose poetry, write expository papers about some aspect of it, and keep detailed logs about its growth. From this workshop, the teachers are in the process of compiling a resource booklet that will offer the faculty insights as to how to utilize the forest to stimulate their students' curiosity about nature.
Community service is another way the students use the trail.
By assisting the forest preserve district and Summit Hill School District in the maintenance of the trail, students become stewards and take responsibility for the land. Their work provides others who use the trail with a safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable environment. Both elements come together in the students' involvement in the planting of trees that will eventually form a linear arboretum linking the five schools in the Summit Hill District. Pieritz said that 150 trees have been planted so far, and the children have assisted in the planting of some of these. A second school, also in Frankfort, signed on to the cooperative agreement with the Forest Preserve District of Will County.