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Instructional Activity

Oak Lake Field Station is used as an instructional site to support university classes, public school instruction and outreach educational programs. Facilities include a modern classroom capable of hosting class sizes of 35 or fewer students, high speed wireless Internet, digital projection, chemical resistant tabletops, computer room and photocopying equipment. Monocular compound microscopes and zoom dissecting scopes are available to support laboratory activities. A digital camera system is also available for projection of specimens. Our field library and Internet service provide access to current literature, field guides, contemporary textbooks and older issues of selected environmental journals. The close proximity of field sites to the classroom/laboratory building enhances field/lab instruction.

University Instructors Using Oak Lake

  • Advanced Plant Ecology (Dr. Xu Lan)
  • American Nature Writing (Dr. Kathleen Danker)
  • Disturbance Ecology (Dr. Nels H. Troelstrup, Jr.)
  • Ecology of Aquatic Invertebrates (Dr. Nels H. Troelstrup, Jr.)
  • Ethnobotany (Dr. Neil Reese)
  • Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment (Dr. Nels H. Troelstrup, Jr.)
  • Large Mammal Ecology & Mgt (Dr. Jon Jenks)
  • Limnology (Dr. Nels H. Troelstrup, Jr.)
  • Natural Resources Techniques (Ms. Leslie Vincent and Dr. Mike Brown)
  • Principles of Ecology (Dr. Xu Lan)
  • Principles of Environmental Science and Engineering (Dr. Todd Trooien)
  • Plant Ecology (Dr. Xu Lan)

Annual Field Station Programs

  • Annual Spring Bird Count (early May)
  • Educational Outreach Programs –Area Schools
  • Natural Resources High School Program (1 week in July)
  • Oak Lake Research Retreat (October)
  • SDState Honors College Hike and Read
  • SDState Horse Camp
  • USFWS Grassland Plant Identification Workshop