Museums are an ideal venue for active, engaged learning across disciplines. We encourage UI instructors to bring classes or assign students to use the building, the permanent exhibits, and our education and research collections.
We may be able to arrange for your class to meet with exhibit curators or educators. We can also serve as a venue for final readings, exhibit, or performance projects. Departments and colleges we've worked with include biology, earth and environmental sciences, English, history, rhetoric, creative writing, and art and art history. We are happy to meet to brainstorm ideas on ways our collections or spaces can help to illustrate your learning objectives. We can also arrange to bring objects and specimens from our collections to your classroom.
UI class visits are not limited to public museum hours; we are happy to arrange a schedule that works for your course. We have often arranged access for early morning and evening lab sessions, or for courses that meet on Mondays. Please contact us in advance to prevent conflicts with other groups or tours and so we can ensure we have the right staff on hand.
For collections tours (galleries or behind-the-scenes) or specimen/artifact visits or rentals contact UIPM Director of Research Collections Cindy Opitz. For large-group gallery visits contact the UIPM Director of Education & Outreach Julia DeSpain.