What is this workshop about?

This workshop is an opportunity to meet like-minded faculty, share ideas and resources, learn about effective pedagogical approaches, and catch up some cutting edge science.

Workshop goals

• Explore "Wicked Problems" as a way to engage students in active and applied study of biology.
• Use evidence based pedagogical approaches to develop materials for your classroom. 
• Incorporate data and quantitative skills in biology education materials. 
• Apply information and resources from Discipline Based Education Research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to classroom practices.  
• Increase awareness and implementation of Universal Design for Learning in more inclusive, accessible pedagogical practices.  
• Develop communities of engaged faculty that persist beyond the workshop.

Who should apply?

• The summer workshop is appropriate for 2-year and 4-year faculty teaching all levels of undergraduate biology, quantitative biology, and life science-oriented mathematics, and future faculty.  We also welcome high school teachers teaching AP or advanced biology.

• Future faculty are welcome at this event and special programming on career development is offered for this audience. Learn more about future faculty volunteer opportunities: https://qubeshub.org/groups/summer2018/info#futurefaculty

• We encourage teams from a single institution or partner institutions to apply, especially interdisciplinary teams and teams combining part time and full time faculty.  

• The meeting sponsors strive to increase the inclusivity and accessibility of this event, and to that end, we encourage persons requiring accommodations to apply and let us know how we can support their participation.  

• We are exploring childcare options to support parents.  Final arrangements will depend on the number and ages of children needing care.  

• Applicants should be able to commit to attending the full workshop Monday June 18 through Saturday June 23, and are encouraged to continue to work with their group virtually on the QUBESHub in the fall.

Who attended last year's workshop?

Deadlines

Application deadline is April 15 at 11:59 pm.  Upon acceptance, participants must register by April 20.  Full payment must be received by May 21, 2018.
Scholarship application deadline is April 8 at 11:59 pm.
Future Faculty application deadline is April 8 at 11:59 pm.
Poster abstract submission opens March 19 and closes May 31st.

Cost of the Workshop and Payment

Registration for the workshop is $800 which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner (except dinner Thursday) starting with dinner on Monday and ending Saturday with a boxed lunch.  Dinner on Thursday night is on your own.  

Dorms are $60/night for single rooms, and a block of hotel rooms has been reserved at the DoubleTree at $135/night plus tax.  

Parking on campus is free.  

Payment may be made online through the registration site with Visa or MasterCard, or by check.  There is a 3.9% processing charge for credit cards. Checks should be made out to BioQUEST, and mailed to:

BioQUEST
POBox 126
Boyds, MD 20841

Participant Commitment

It is important that all participants are able to commit to the full workshop experience. The greatest benefits are generated in the interactions with colleagues. Participants will share resources, ideas and advice based on their own experiences, and provide each other with feedback on materials or plans. This is a supportive community of people sharing similar goals and challenges. Your contributions are critical to the success of this experience. The ultimate goal of this workshop is to enhance your students' educational experience. You might think of this as structured course prep with a personal advisory group. If you cannot make this kind of commitment at this time, let us know and we can talk about other opportunities that might better fit your schedule.

Commitment overview:

• Participants will attend the full Summer Workshop (June 18-23, 2018).

• Participants will join a group at the Summer Workshop for development or adaptation of classroom materials.

• Participants are encouraged to continue to work with their group virtually on the QUBESHub in the fall.

• Participants are encouraged to share resources and ideas both within their group and publicly on QUBESHub.

Other Opportunities

Future Faculty Program

The workshop organizers are seeking four highly motivated future faculty volunteers who will help with the day to day logistics of the workshop such as signage, registration, posting events to social media sites, recording talks, daily clean up and set up, etc. in exchange for a registration fee waiver.  This is a great opportunity for future faculty to work with high school, two year, four year faculty from across the country and pick up ideas and resources for teaching.  Special career focused programming for future faculty is also offered.  Our volunteers get plenty of participation time as well as helping us out. Learn more and apply on the application page: http://qubeshub.org/groups/summer2018/application

Poster Session

Tell us what you are doing! We invite you to bring a poster to the Summer Workshop. This is an opportunity to share what you have been working on and learn more about your colleagues' projects. Appropriate topics include educational research projects, pedagogical methods, course curricula, modules, reform efforts, discipline based education research projects on any scale, resources, and assessments. 

The poster session will be held on Monday, June 18 from 3:30-5:30 pm. Posters should be no larger than 3’ X 4’. To present a poster, please submit an abstract here: https://goo.gl/forms/a5E9KAlLqJMIavQ52 Submission deadline is May 31st and will be reviewed on a weekly basis. 

HHMI BioInteractive Faculty Mentoring Network

HHMI BioInteractive and the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis project (QUBES) are pleased to offer a unique networking and professional development opportunity from June 2018 –  January 2019 for faculty interested in improving student quantitative skills in biology. Faculty participants in this network will work in small groups to produce teaching resources related to the theme of regulation at different scales (cellular/molecular, physiological, ecological) that support new or existing HHMI BioInteractive materials. To qualify, participants must be willing to incorporate their teaching resource in their Introductory Biology course during the Fall 2018 semester and collect and provide data on implementation. Learn more and apply: https://qubeshub.org/groups/hhmibiointeractive2018

DIG into Data for the Biology Classroom FMN

The DIG into Data for the Biology Classroom FMN is seeking applicants who have experience in bringing data-driven activities into the introductory biology or ecology classroom, and are interested in exploring, adapting, and implementing new teaching modules using authentic research data.  Participants in this network will work towards publishing adaptations on QUBES to dataset teaching resources from a recent special issue of ESA’s Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE). This FMN is part of the DIG project to build collaborative spaces for teaching with quantitative data (funded by an NSF Research Coordination Network (RCN) Incubator Grant DBI 1730122). Learn more and apply: https://qubeshub.org/groups/dig2018

Workshop Partners

BioQUEST
BioQUEST is a consortium of biology educators dedicated to providing students with authentic scientific experiences.  For over 30 years, our 3Ps Philosophy of engaging students in “Problem posing, Problem solving, and Peer persuasion” has guided the community in exploring the educational challenges of the day.  From computer simulations to improving pedagogy, the BioQUEST community has taken an interdisciplinary approach to supporting teaching and learning.  Learn more about BioQUEST here: bioquest.org BioQUEST is a 501(c)3 organization.

QUBES
QUBES is a virtual center that supports a community of faculty dedicated to improving quantitative biology education. QUBES provides a virtual meeting place for sharing ideas, resources, and curriculum pieces.  The community offers professional development around teaching quantitative skills, using tools, and specific quantitative biology methods.  Learn more about current events on QUBES here: qubeshub.org NSF DBI 1346584, DUE 1446269, DUE 1446258, and DUE 1446284

More information

Subscribe to the BioQUEST mailing list to receive summer workshop updates: Subscribe

If you have questions please contact Kristin Jenkins (kristin "dot" jenkins "at" bioquest "dot" org) or Hayley Orndorf (hco1 "at" pitt "dot" edu)