West Valley School students recently spent a week learning alongside nine University of Kentucky landscape architecture students to build a one-mile fitness trail at their school.

The West Valley Loop, designed by the university students with input from West Valley students, incorporates features meant to engage the body and mind, according to Ryan Hargrove, a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Kentucky. 

“It is a running trail. There are also fitness stations along the trail where students can do a circuit training series,” Hargrove said. “In addition, there is another experience woven into it as well. We have what we call ‘view ports’ and each of these view ports are designed to frame a view into nature as you look into the opening.”

The view ports are simply fixed rectangular structures. One view port may frame a spot in the sky and another a tree, for example. Although the frames are fixed, the view is always changing.

“Maybe you’re looking into the sky and you see a bird passing by. Ten minutes later maybe there’s a flock of birds passing by, or the clouds are moving. It’s designed to slow a person down and look intently at nature,” Hargrove said. “The idea behind it is getting students to be inspired by the complexity of all that is happening in nature.”

The fitness trail was a service learning project that is part of a design implementation course taught by Hargrove. The service learning projects offer University of Kentucky students the opportunity to go from idea through construction. University students shared their design concepts with a variety of West Valley classes. 

A West Valley fitness class helped work on the shape of the trail while engineering students assisted the university students on layout using Geographic Information System and Global Positioning System technology. Cross-country students provided input on what they wanted at the fitness stations.

“I think we’ve worked with pretty much fifth- through eighth-graders, but I think even as young as second grade,” Hargrove said. “They get to see what landscape architects do.”

The first phase of the running trail is completed. The trail has been turned over to the school to complete the second phase, which involves purchasing and installing stationary fitness equipment at each station.

The equipment such as pull-up bars would be installed when money becomes available either through fundraisers or year-end money.

“I’ve been doing this for seven years and each of the seven I’ve worked with a different school,” Hargrove said. 

“I would say West Valley is a special place when I see teachers really care about kids and doing things that support learning with active engagement.”

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or [email protected].