Students in Louise Flem­ing’s veterinary medicine class at Vinton-Shellsburg High School last week learned how to prepare a heifer for artificial insemination (AI) and how to change ear tags. But they didn’t look at a diagram or even watch a video. They learned in the school’s new animal learning lab, with real heifers.

"We put the CIDR (controlled internal drug release) in last week, and we’re removing it so that way we can synchronize them and breed them all at the same time," said student Sydney Walker, a junior, pointing to a group of three heifers in a holding pen.

The project really began in 2012 when the school’s superintendent challenged...