Our Monday feature is the recently completed history of the NU Golf Teams.

Researched, compiled, and written by coach and faculty member Lee Weber, this comprehensive history of golf at NU from 1968 through 2012 includes many wonderful photos, stories, and memories from those who participated over the years.

We cannot express enough thanks to Coach Weber for putting in the incredible amount of work necessary to ensure the history of golf at NU was recorded for us all.

Thank you Coach!

You can read the entire history as part of the NU Archives on UNI's Rod Library website.
(Use this direct link.)


A golf team reunion is planned for this summer during the Sturgis Falls Celebration. 
Keep watching our website and facebook pages for more details as we get closer.

Sharing another memory for this Monday. This one is from Bill Sindlinger, Class of 1969.

Bill shares about growing up in the neighborhood around campus and his memories of the laboratory school. Everything from the elementary playground to advanced classes in the high school. Bill's wonderful memories touch on a little bit of every part of life in and around Price Lab.

Read Bill's submission here: Recollections From the 1960s


As we work to collect and curate the history of the lab school it is memories like Bill's and like yours that are invaluable to us. Please consider taking a moment to share some of your stories through the "Our Memories" page here at pricelabhistory.org

4 Notable Lab School Achievements

Throughout its 129 years, the lab school was known for leading the way. As we explore its history, we are uncovering many notable achievements. Here are 4 we've recently begun to look into. You can read about more achievements, recognitions, and awards on the About Malcolm Price Laboratory School page. If you know of other notable achievements we should look into please let us know! You can contact us through our website or by email: pricelabhistory @ gmail.com

 
1. One of the first high school Defense Councils formed in the United States after Pearl Harbor.

ISTC Laboratory School Director Dr. Guy Wagner formed the Council in January 1942. It consisted of 11 Laboratory School seniors, including ISTC  President Malcolm Price’s daughter, Nancy (today the nationally-known novelist). The Council collected and mailed boxes of food, books, and magazines to soldiers—especially Lab School alumni. It also worked to conserve electricity, paper, and soap to make the shortages less. A Victory Corps for the whole school was soon organized which focused on recycling waste, physical fitness, and Red Cross work.

Both programs received national magazine attention.

2. Pre-school string quartets – begun in the late 1940s by Lab School music teacher Melvin Schnieder.

The Suzuki method of nursery and kindergarten violin playing came to the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Again the Laboratory School was pioneering.

3. Nationally praised Atomic Energy curriculum in 1950 for elementary grades through high school.

This full atomic energy curriculum was the first of its kind attempted in the United States.

The “Iowa Plan for the Study of Atomic Energy” was described as “the best being done” by the July 10, 1950 Newsweek magazine. A committee led by Dr. Guy Wagner created the elementary “bulletins” which were shared in one-day teacher institutes in 32 Iowa communities. Iowa teachers could incorporate the atomic energy “course” into existing science or social studies courses or they could teach the unit independently. Students studied both the science of atomic energy and its historical and ethical dimensions. The program was first tried at the ISTC Laboratory School.

4. 1994 – Helping plan for the Internet

The Lab School fourth-grade was one of three classes in the nation chosen to participate in a teleconference to help determine the route of the “information highway” (Internet)

These are just a few of the many noteworthy achievements credited to the lab school. Keep watching our website for more history of these and other projects as we continue to research the legacy of the lab school.

For the next few featured Monday's we'll be sharing and highlighting memories shared by you! We've had many memories of the lab school submitted on our website and we hope reading some of the thoughts shared by others will encourage you to do the same.


Our first featured Monday Memory was submitted by Joel Shepherd, Class of 1987, and may involve a confession or two of mischief "within" the building. How many of you knew this little secret of our school?


The Hollow Walls of NU High
by Joel Shepherd
Class of 1987


Thanks for sharing your memory Joel!


Be sure to visit Our Memories to read all the recollections shared so far, comment if you'd like, and find the link to submit your own stories. We'd love to hear from you!

This month your Price Lab History Committee has been busy exploring the wealth of materials collected and stored in the university's archives at Rod Library. The staff and student volunteers there and many other departments on campus have done a wonderful job cataloging the materials and beginning the process of transferring much of it to digital formats to both preserve the materials and make them available online. It is our hope that these materials and recollections of the alumni, friends, and faculty of the lab school will help us to complete a comprehensive history.

The Special Collections department has a listing of what is in the archives that you can view here: UNI Special Collections

IndexUNI is another great resource for insight into the lab school's history, with items like this news story on the approval of funding for the construction of a new teaching facility on 19th and Campus Streets from 1948:



As always, we hope you'll take some time to explore these wonderful resources, and if they happen to spark a memory or two, be sure to visit pricelabhistory.org/our-memories and share them with us. We love to hear from you!