In addition to our own educational programming, the Itasca Station invites instructors from the University of Minnesota and outside higher education institutions to teach their course (or part of a course) at the station. The common thread in all visiting courses is a focus on environmental science and the natural world.
Our Campus
The station is a campus in its own right, but it’s also much more thanks to our prime location for immersion learning in a field setting in the northwoods of Minnesota. Teaching amenities and facilities at Itasca include the following:
Technology-enabled classrooms
Some of our classrooms are housed in our LEED certified Biome Center (built in 2014). Others are located in historic buildings spread across our 49 acre campus. All of our classrooms have projectors and high speed wifi.
Well-equipped "dirty" and "clean" teaching labs
We offer spaces to do clean laboratory-based teaching as well as spaces that are amenable to field-based teaching allowing instructors and students to bring “the outside in”, where tracking in dirt and examining field collections are not only tolerated but encouraged!
Computer lab
Desktop Mac and Windows computers are available for use, along with printing.
Library
The station houses a physical library with hard copies of student theses, books, maps, and other Itasca relevant resources. See our Publications and Digital Archives page for more information about our collections and the station's library.
Waterfront and boathouses
The station provides canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards for all users. Station motorboats are also available for teaching and research purposes. Instructors can take students out on Lake Itasca or trailer boats to nearby waterbodies. See our motorboat protocol for more information about access to our motorboats.
Camp-style dining and lodging
Unlike a typical campus, students are housed in bunkhouses instead of dorms. Faculty stay in fully equipped cabins. Students eat in our dining hall alongside their professors, enjoying home-cooked style meals prepared by our caring staff. See our lodging and dining pages for more information.
Recreation
In their downtime, students paddle station canoes and kayaks, bike and hike on state park trails, play volleyball and soccer on our fields, and play boardgames and ping pong in our assembly hall. See our Life at the Station page for more information about recreation and other aspects of living at IBSL.
Teaching Support
Education specialists on station staff are ready to help you onboard your students into the learning environment at Itasca. Students may have some trepidation about taking field-based courses, and we have resources for instructors to share with their students to help alleviate some of the unknowns about living and learning at a field station and to orient themselves to Itasca State Park. We also can help instructors identify sites in the Park and surrounding area that are well suited for class activities.
Learn more
If you are interested in learning more about scheduling your course at Itasca, please reach out to us at ibsl@umn.edu, and we are happy to answer any questions and help you think through the options that are available.