Winona State to float new classroom boat

WINONA, Minn. (AP) — Winona State University is launching a boat that will serve as a floating classroom for students.

It’s the second such effort for Winona State, which operated a floating houseboat in the 2000s before the Coast Guard ruled it out of code.

The university announced this week that that it has secured enough funding to begin work on the Dr. Calvin R. Fremling Floating Interpretive Center and Classroom. Winona State will use the 49-passenger boat primarily for field-based biology classes, as well as general environment and science classes.

Fremling was a longtime professor of biology at Winona State and renowned Mississippi River expert who died in 2010 at age 80.

The Winona Daily News reports Winona State hopes to have the boat ready for use by spring 2014.