The first tree was planted in the MMC Middle School Native Iowa Arboretum on Saturday, April 17, 1996. This interdisciplinary curriculum service learning activity resulted in forty additional trees being planted. Forty of the forty-one trees are species that were native to Iowa when it became a state in 1846, with the research being done in science class. The positioning and plotting of the trees was completed using computer graphing in the Industrial Technology Education Laboratory. The donated trees were planted by MMC Middle School students and staff along with community volunteers. Many of the tree identification markers were placed in cooperation with a Lutheran Brotherhood Service project. An Environmental Shelter was constructed in the middle of the present Arboretum.

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