PELLSTON, Mich. — The University of Michigan Biological Station is debuting five new courses during the 2025 field season in May, June and July.

The expanded line-up includes the return of immersive educational programming like Ethnobotany, Forest Ecosystems, and Field Ornithology, as well as a fresh slate of options based on student feedback: Field Studies of Insects, Conservation Biology in Practice, Field Mycology, Field Ecology, and Observation and Modeling of Climate Change Biology.

Applications are open for the spring term, which is from May 20 through June 19, and the summer 2025 term, which is from July 1 through July 31. The priority deadline is March 15, 2025.

UMBS students take classes six days a week, with Sundays off.

“Join our living and learning community for the transformational experience of being embedded in nature through intensive, adventurous field courses and hands-on research,” said Dr. Aimée Classen, director of the University of Michigan Biological Station and a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

“We welcome undergraduate and graduate students from universities all over the world. Plus, all students can be considered for UMBS scholarship funding, including guest and international students.”

Learn about available courses, examine how they satisfy academic requirements, review the schedule structure, and access the 2025 application on the UMBS course website.

The research and teaching campus — the largest of U-M’s campuses —is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations.

Laboratories, classrooms and cabins are tucked into more than 11,000 acres along Douglas Lake to support long-term science research and education.

Founded in 1909, the Biological Station is located about 20 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge and is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive north from Ann Arbor.

The University of Michigan Biological Station is where students and scientists from across the globe live and work as a community to learn from the place.

UMBS is hosting a virtual Information Session on Zoom at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5. Registration is required in advance. Student Ambassadors, recent alumni and staff will introduce prospective students to the historic field station and their experiences immersed in nature, as well as answer questions about course credits, scholarships and hands-on research opportunities.

“It’s unique,” said Jasper Mitchell, a U-M first-year student who took Microbiology and General Ecology at the University of Michigan Biological Station in July 2024. “On-campus in Ann Arbor as an introductory class, you’d have something like 200 students in a lecture hall. So having only nine of you is a little nerve-wracking but it’s also so much more enjoyable and you can learn stuff a lot faster. It was a really tight cohort.”

And despite not being “outdoorsy” going into the experience, Mitchell left the Douglas Lake campus with a strong affection for and appreciation of his time in the forests, lakes and rivers of northern Michigan.

“I really, really loved it,” Mitchell said. “I had an awesome time. I met a lot of people, and it was super fun. Better than I could’ve imagined. It taught me a lot about how quickly you can adapt to something. I think that was probably the most powerful thing I learned.”

Carma Johnson, a senior at U-M from Sturgis, Mich., is double majoring in Spanish and the Program in the Environment (PitE), specializing in agroecology. Last summer she took two courses at UMBS: Agroecology and Forest Ecosystems. During summer 2023, she took General Ecology Lecture and Lab.

"The time I spent at the University of Michigan Biological Station was truly transformative,” Johnson said. “I formed lifelong friendships and also established meaningful connections with the professors I had there. I stepped outside of my comfort zone, and, in return, I gained invaluable knowledge and experiences I couldn’t have found elsewhere. It’s an experience that’s worth every moment.”

Isabel Gil is a senior at U-M double majoring in English and PitE, with a specialization in environmental writing and communication. Her minor is sustainability.

The 21-year-old Michigan-native from Ada, just outside of Grand Rapids, served as the science communications intern at UMBS this summer.

In summer 2023 she took General Ecology Lecture and Lab at UMBS.

Read this Q&A to meet Gil and learn why she thinks “heaven is a hammock on the edge of Douglas Lake.”

Subscribe to the UMBS monthly e-newsletter and follow the field station on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).