A road less traveled… that connects teachers to the natural world

Established in 1909, Iowa Lakeside Laboratory provides year-round environmental education and research facilities, with over 40 buildings on a 143-acre campus. Buildings on Lakeside Lab campus include numerous teaching laboratories. This is one of five fieldstone labs built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

West Lake Okoboji is part of the “Iowa Great Lakes” which include East and West Lake Okoboji and Spirit Lake View of West Lake (above) and Little Millers Bay (right)

View of the lake from the Lakeside Lab boathouse dock

Scenic trails connect the classrooms, residences, and other buildings on the grounds of Iowa Lakeside Lab.

During week-long residential workshops, 7-9 teachers are housed together in Main Cottage, a 19 th century summer cottage with five bedrooms and a screened porch overlooking West Lake Okoboji.

The workshop classroom is in the Waitt Water Quality Laboratory

Teacher workshop activities in the lab involve a fascinating array of observations and innovative, hands-on investigations with living freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates.

Since 1993, Dr. Charlie Drewes, a professor at Iowa State University, has led biology teacher workshops at Iowa Lakeside Lab. More than 120 teachers from 15 states have attended his workshops. Participants have included middle school, high school, community college, and university teachers. On campus at Iowa State, Charlie teaches courses in invertebrate biology, neurobiology and bioethics.

Wetlands abound in northwest Iowa, providing natural, outdoor ‘classrooms’.

One invertebrate that is collected for lab investigations of regeneration, physiology, and behavior is an aquatic oligochaete worm, Lumbriculus variegatus, which commonly inhabits shallow margins of marshes and ponds.

Teachers here are ‘booted up’ and fully prepared for invertebrate collecting trips.

The Lakeside Lab boathouse and dock provide convenient access to the lake for course field trips, research projects, or leisure. The dining hall serves three meals a day for those at the station.

Field trips on the lake provide opportunities to collect samples for study of zooplankton and plant biodiversity.

A wide array of field-collected invertebrates are maintained and cultured in the lab.

Along with the field components, workshop participants obtain hands- on experience with new, inquiry-based and investigative classroom activities using living invertebrates. These activities are ultimately shared with their students and with other teachers after they return to their schools.

Much time is spent under the microscope discovering and investigating invertebrate diversity, development, and behavior.

Observations and results are documented using three video- microscopy setups. Videotapes are among the many items that teachers bring back to their classrooms.

Commonly available freshwater invertebrates include sponges, hydra, planaria, fingernail clams, snails, annelid worms, bryozoa, daphnia, crayfish, and insect larvae.

Teachers work independently and cooperatively, sharing in the wealth of their biology observations and discoveries.

Although the teacher workshops prove to be “total immersion” experiences… …there is some time for recreational canoeing on the lake or surrounding wetlands

Workshop field trips include a visit to Silver Lake Fen. See: One treads with caution to avoid damaging plant life or breaking through the spongy mats.

Biodiversity abounds! White lady slipper orchid Prairie smoke Toad

Field excursions in the evening provide time to commune with nature in special environmental settings, such as Cayler Prairie, a state preserve consisting of 160 acres of mesic prairie.

Cayler Prairie

I am most grateful for the enthusiasm, cooperation, and inspiration provided by the many teachers who have attended teacher workshops at Iowa Lakeside Lab. The photographs here have been kindly provided by them. Charlie Drewes ( ) For more information about workshops, please contact Dr. Charlie Drewes Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology Room 339 Science II Building Iowa State University Ames, IA Web site: Ph: