Biological collections have increasing value in natural sciences and for more than one hundred years the students, faculty, and researchers at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) have made significant observations and collections of the diverse biota of Northern Michigan. These collections, representing numerous plant, animal and fungal taxa, provide irreplaceable resources for teaching and research. However, the lack of digitization of these records leaves them underutilized in classes and research projects other than those of the faculty member who established the collection. Current faculty and researchers, now motivated to share and reuse data in teaching as well as research, are at a loss when attempting to take advantage of the observations and collections of other researchers. With support from LSA-IT NINI, the Biological Station will embark upon a novel approach to enhancing existing learning opportunities in organismal biology and digitization of collections and observations through the integration of technology in out-of-doors setting at UMBS. To put data collected across taxonomic categories be at the fingertips of faculty and their students, we propose to create 1) a collections and observations database, 2) a student accessible data entry application, 3) a citizen science based crowd sourcing data entry tool, and 4) a collections and observations discovery interface.