What to Expect | Workshop Goals | Who Should Apply? | Commitment | Future Faculty | Share your Work | Workshop Partners

What to Expect

The Summer Workshop is a unique experience most commonly described by participants as "exhausting but invigorating!"  The workshop launches with a series of hands on sessions about resources, tools, and pedagogical methods.  Throughout the week, speakers share exciting ideas and information, and participants have time to work with colleagues to develop their own materials.  Time is also dedicated to sharing ideas with the larger group to get feedback and new insights. Workshop activities run from 8:30 am to late in the evening. Participants leave with new resources, tools and new collegial connections. The workshop starts online prior to the workshop, and groups will have the opportunity to continue to work together in the QUBES space after the workshop. 

Group work!? One of the benefits of a longer workshop is the opportunity to work with colleagues to develop materials and projects that are of interest to you, that you can take back to your classroom.  During the workshop participants will have large blocks of time to work on projects they bring to the workshop or ideas that are sparked by workshop discussions or presentations.  This is particularly valuable time as experts in various pedagogical approaches and analysis tools are available for consultations.  The workshop staff help facilitate formation of groups on Wednesday, based on topics and resources.  Participants may move between groups if they have multiple interests, and all groups are encouraged to continue working together on QUBES after the workshop. Working groups share their projects with the larger group at the end of the week, so participants are aware of new groups they may wish to follow or join. Feel free to bring ideas or projects to the workshop you are ready to work on, or arrive ready to start a new collaborative project with a team or others you meet at the workshop. If you are ready to start recruiting people to collaborate on a project, feel free to post a “help wanted” ad the forum and start making connections prior to the start of the workshop!

What is Cafe Bio? Cafe Bio will be in room  ISC 1111 this year. Our community establishes a room that we designate "Cafe Bio" where you will find coffee, snacks, materials, staff, colleagues, and the schedule for the day. You can feel to drop in at anytime. This room is also where announcements to others can be placed, and you can coordinate dinner on your own, airport travel, and other logistics.

Workshop goals

• Explore what data science means in terms of biology education.
• Integrate data science concepts and practices in biology courses.
• Use evidence based pedagogical approaches to develop teaching materials for your classroom. 
• Engage in Open Education Practices.
• Increase awareness and implementation of inclusive, accessible pedagogical practices.  
• Actively participate in a community of like minded peers before, during and after the workshop. 

Who should apply?

• The summer workshop is appropriate for two-year and four-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 (graduate students and post-docs) are also welcome at this event, and special programming on career development is offered for this audience. Learn more about future faculty volunteer opportunities.
• 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 as childcare expenses are not included in registration.
• Applicants should commit to attending the full workshop—Sunday, July 14 through Friday, July 19—and are encouraged to continue to work with their group virtually on the QUBESHub in the fall.

Learn more

2019 Attendees

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 (July 14-19, 2019).

• 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 post-doc or graduate student 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, and 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. 

Share your work

There are several opportunities to share what you have been working on and learn more about your colleagues' projects. We invite you to bring a poster, present a session, or bring ideas and resources to the Work in Progress (WIP) session. Appropriate poster topics include educational research projects, pedagogical methods, course curricula, modules, reform efforts, discipline based education research projects on any scale, resources, and assessments. Sessions are hands on introductions to resources and pedagogical approaches, preferably addressing data science skills. Learn more or apply now: http://bit.ly/SW_product

Workshop Partners

BioQUEST and QUBES

BioQUEST is a transformative, collaborative community empowering educators to drive innovation in Life Science education and has been offering this type of immersive workshop for over 30 years.  BioQUEST supports an interdisciplinary community of science and math educators who work to develop and share effective pedagogical approaches to support all students.  The “3 Ps” philosophy of problem posing, problem solving and peer persuasion, has guided the BioQUEST community’s efforts to provide relevant, inclusive educational experiences.  Over the years, BioQUEST has offered many projects designed to explore the frontiers of biology education, supporting faculty in an ever changing landscape of content knowledge, tools and resources.  BioQUEST is a 501c3 organization.
 
QUBES arises from the BioQUEST tradition, and provides a virtual center for an interdisciplinary community of educators to continue to work to improve student outcomes in quantitative biology education.  An NSF funded project (NSF DBI 1346584, DUE 1446269, DUE 1446258, and DUE 1446284), QUBES brings together networks of practitioners, researchers, and developers to contribute to efforts around improving biology education.  The QUBESHub provides a central location for resources and communication, as well as the capacity to run various software tools.  QUBES collaborates with quantitative biology projects to disseminate their work and provide professional development around the use of effective pedagogies and vetted resources.  QUBES also promotes consideration and development of inclusive and equitable practices, such as Universal Design for Learning in the classroom and diversifying participation in science.
 
Both BioQUEST and QUBES espouse Open Education approaches as part of our commitment to equity and inclusion.  BioQUEST makes past project resources available at bioquest.org, and uses OER in workshops around the world.  QUBES supports Open Educational Resources (OER) through a publication system designed to support sharing of adaptations and new resources.  Both BioQUEST and QUBES promote scholarly engagement with Open Education Practices (OEP) by promoting sharing of resources by community members through professional development experiences such as this workshop. During the Summer Workshop, we will consider how OER and OEP can help us reach more diverse students and prepare all students for success. 

More information

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