About | What to Expect | Commitment | Who Should Apply? 

About the BIOME Institute

BIOME 2024 offers a unique opportunity to engage with a community of peers to address an educational challenge with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes.  The challenge, in this case, is implementation practices and resources that support students from all backgrounds and engage them in communities to enhance their learning. The community will be supported in this endeavor with access to experts in areas relevant to the challenge, information about useful resources, and community facilitators to guide the development process. BIOME 2024 is offered by BioQUEST, with over 35 years of experience in science education reform.  

Research on professional development has demonstrated that it is difficult for even the most committed faculty to change pedagogical approaches working independently for a variety of reasons including time constraints, institutional resistance, and lack of resources.  Challenges to meaningful pedagogical change are most often identified during planning or implementation.  BIOME 2024 reduces barriers to change by providing faculty with information, resources, community, and guidance as they plan and implement new ideas.  The Summer Session provides a focused, information-rich opportunity to develop ideas, identify collaborators, and begin collecting resources.  The Fall Working Groups provide ongoing support, additional resources, and information, and peer feedback to increase faculty success in achieving their goals. 

Disciplinary and interdisciplinary institutional teams are encouraged to apply.  Individuals from all biological disciplines, as well as quantitative, physical, and social sciences, are welcome to apply.  Future faculty are welcome to apply and are encouraged to partner with a faculty member at their institution.  Upon completion of the BIOME Institute, participants will become BIOME Fellows, and receive a certificate of completion appropriate for tenure and promotion portfolios, teaching portfolios, and CVs.

2024 Theme: Beyond the Content

Embark on a transformative journey into the future of STEM education at BIOME 2024 as we move “Beyond the Content”. In this revolutionary approach, education is no longer confined to traditional disciplinary boundaries; instead, it's a dynamic preparation for the challenges of tomorrow. Step into a future where teaching and learning is an evolving force, shaping students for addressing real world challenges. Beyond the Content emphasizes the cultivation of essential, portable skills to apply outside of the classroom like digital and data literacy, problem-solving, and adaptability. Join a community of educators boldly revolutionizing education, fostering inclusivity, and promoting diversity. Delve into wicked problems such as climate change, pandemics, artificial intelligence, water quality, food security, and health disparities, using them as catalysts for engaging students. Explore innovative pedagogical approaches and embrace interdisciplinary thinking, quantitative reasoning, and data-centric teaching. Together we will build student capacity to solve problems and strengthen hope for the world in future generations. 

Here at BioQUEST, we believe in evolution and revolution in STEM education. For the 2024 BIOME, join us as we step into a new world where teaching is designed with the future of all students in mind. It's time for STEM educators to adapt, evolve, and innovate the landscape of education for current and future generations to come.

BIOQUEST: Evolution and Revolution in STEM Education

 

Goals

• Explore interdisciplinary approaches in teaching methods, breaking away from traditional disciplinary boundaries to provide a more holistic and dynamic STEM education

• Participate in a community of like minded peers. 

• Promote evolution and revolution in STEM education.

• Create communities of engaged faculty that persist beyond the workshop.

• Build new norms for collaboration and connection across the BioQUEST community.

• Develop or adapt teaching materials for your classroom to improve student outcomes using evidence based pedagogical approaches.

What to Expect

The 2024 BIOME offers a community based professional development experience where participants will learn about resources and practices relevant to their teaching. The BIOME Institute is entirely virtual, beginning with a summer experience that sets participants up for fall working groups. 

Summer Session

The summer session will be held for one week, with all required to participate in the activities being held (see the Schedule for more information).  Participants will be placed in small, facilitated discussion groups, which will meet throughout the synchronous workshop week to discuss the keynote and other ideas and events at the BIOME. 

Share your work

There will be several opportunities to share what you have been working on and learn more about your colleagues' projects in virtual sharing sessions. We invite you to share about educational resources, projects, and programs that demonstrate ways to support students by building inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible communities in STEM classrooms.

For more information and to apply to share your work, please click here!

Fall Working Groups

The fall working groups provide an opportunity to engage with like-minded colleagues and work through the challenges of implementing new ideas in the classroom based on participants’ interests. Working groups will form at the conclusion of the Summer Session and be facilitated by members of the BioQUEST communities. Working groups should plan to attend synchronous bi-weekly meetings, while working asynchronously on projects between meetings. 

Commitment

It is important that all participants are able to commit to the full professional development experience which includes:

• Summer Session: Monday, July 15 - Friday, July 19
• Fall Working Groups: September - November

This is a supportive community of people sharing similar goals and challenges.  Colleagues share resources, ideas, and advice based on their own experiences, and provide each other with feedback on materials or plans. Your contributions are critical to the success of this experience. We recognize that unexpected circumstances may change schedules and that participants may not be able to attend synchronous events.  The summer session is designed to provide maximum flexibility by providing recordings of synchronous events and access to resources.  However, there is no substitute for time spent with your working group and we ask all participants to commit to full participation for the entire program.

Who should apply?

• Teachers interested in inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility, and building communities to enhance your students' engagement and belonging in STEM classrooms.
• All levels of educators in STEM are welcome and encouraged to apply: faculty from secondary education, two- and four-year faculty, graduate students, post-docs and outreach specialists. 
• We encourage teams from a single institution or partner institutions to apply, especially interdisciplinary teams and teams combining part-time and full-time faculty. Each team member must complete an application.
  • Team participation is just as flexible as individual participation; teams have the option of joining the same Fall Working Groups and collaborating on institutional projects, but are not required to. We do encourage teams to branch out during the Summer Session and connect with new colleagues. 
• 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.  

More information

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

If you have any questions, please contact Rhianna Kozinski (rkozinski "at" bioquest "dot" org) or Deborah Rook (deb "dot" rook "at" bioquest "dot" org).