When you register, please select one (1) following Field Trips.
All Field Trips are within walking distance from the Pyle Center. There will be no transportation provided between the Pyle Center and the field trip sites. If you have concerns about walking, please contact us about your field trip selection. If you wish not to participate in a field trip, you may choose to remain at the Pyle Center for self-facilitated discussion about the Wisconsin Idea and the Wisconsin Academy.
Arthur D. Hasler Lab of Limnology with assistant professor Peter McIntyre (limited to 20).
The Hasler Lim Lab, as they call it, is a working research station on the shores of Lake Mendota and home to many key contributors to the Academy’s Waters of Wisconsin and Climate & Energy initiatives, including current director Stephen Carpenter and Academy Fellow John Magnuson. In 2009 the lab detected and brought to light the spiny water flea, an invasive species with no natural predators, which has spread across the Yahara Chain of Lakes and the Great Lakes region. Assistant professor McIntyre will take us behind the scenes of the lab’s preeminent water research. Weather permitting, we will descend to the basement slip where the research boats come to and fro, collecting samples and furthering the center’s many research projects benefiting our state.
Artists' Book Collection at the Kohler Art Library with director Lyn Korenic (limited to 20).
One of the best kept secrets on campus, the Artists’ Book Collection is a library of limited-edition works of art that are meant to be handled by human hands. Every year director Lyn Korenic purchases approximately ten new artists’ books to add to the over 1,000 belonging to the collection. Korenic will give us a close-up, hands-on tour of these, in her words, “creative expressions of the idea of a book,” many of which incorporate painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, papermaking, and music that are utterly stunning as both works of art and also literature.
Wisconsin Historical Archives with senior reference archivist Lee Grady (limited to 20).
The Wisconsin Historical Archives is home to over 300 million items of cultural and historical importance, including many letters and photographs related to the early days of the Wisconsin Academy. In addition to materials related to the Academy and the Wisconsin Idea, Lee Grady will guide us through the Archives’ greatest treasures, including one-of-a-kind artifacts from the U.S. Civil War, the Golden Age of Hollywood, and also the Archives’ building itself.
Geology Museum with the head of tours (limited to 20 - note that this museum is 15-20 minutes walking distance from the Pyle Center).
Established at the first UW-Madison Board of Regents meeting in 1848, the Geology Museum has entertained and educated generations of Wisconsin students. This year curator of collections Carrie Eaton discovered that the Boaz Mastodon, the museum’s most prized exhibit, is actually composed of two different mastodon skeletons, discovered just a year apart in southwest Wisconsin in 1897-1898. Learn the story of how the Geology Museum developed its collection over the course of the University’s history and its important role in the Wisconsin Idea.
