Longtime religious studies professor Jay Holstein helps his students decode the Hebrew Bible with a bit of metaphor, a bit of humor, and a dry erase board drawing of the Sinai Peninsula.

Iowans know a thing or two about slicing into pork, but they’re not always taking a scalpel to a preserved fetal pig. That’s exactly what students in a biology lab do as they get a closer look at the organs that keep pigs—and humans—running.

Some 55 students are seated in a TILE classroom, gathered at whiteboards in teams of five or six to solve equilibrium problems, and Professor Sarah Vigmostad walks from group to group, encouraging them to analyze video screen images that resemble segments of a bridge.

With exams coming up, Professor Shaun Vecera asks several hundred students assembled before him, “Wouldn’t it be great if you had perfect recall and didn’t have to study (or even write down) lecture notes to get an A on the test?” Well, he later points out, not really.

Ink is applied to etched plates, paper lays in wait in a pool of water, ink is pressed into grooves, excess ink is scraped off, and the plate and paper become fast friends under the heavy wheel of the press.

As this session of Introduction to Afro-Cuban Dance progresses beyond warm-ups, the students run through a routine with energy and intensity, crisscrossing the studio floor, limbs moving to and fro, faces expressing concentration and joy.

Teaching students how to analyze segments of the acclaimed HBO television series "The Wire" helps them understand the deliberate techniques the show’s producers and editors use to make the show a social commentary, commercial, and aesthetic force.

When Tyler Stercula walks into class, he's not expecting to hold a candle to a hydrogen-filled balloon and ignite a giant fireball in front of his startled classmates—but that's what he does, with four different gases. This is how Professor Robert Mutel likes to teach General Astronomy.

Five-year-old Josie, recovering from surgery, lies on her hospital bed, a stuffed rabbit clutched in her arms. Four nurses enter the room, each taking their turn introducing themselves, checking Josie’s vitals, and helping her as she struggles with pain and nausea.

Lara Shema walks purposely down the halls of Lucas Elementary School in Iowa City, a floral notebook tucked confidently into the bend of her right elbow, a pen at the ready. She hopes to have a classroom of her own someday, but for now she is serving a 10-week practicum at the school while working toward a degree in elementary education.

As students file into John Solow’s class at Pappajohn Business Building and take their seats, the opening guitar riff of The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man” starts to twang over the speaker.

Sixteen students are seated around four tables in a spacious, light-soaked room at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, just steps from the entrance to the basketball court. They’re enrolled in a first-year seminar on college athletics that covers game-day production, facility management, marketing, and more.