Support

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…"

QUBES is supported by the National Science Foundation under grants 1446258, 1446269, and 1446284

The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium (BQCC) is a community of scientists, educators, and learners of all ages who are interested in supporting biology education that reflects realistic scientific practices.

BioQUEST and QUBES have partnered to collaborate on the development and implementation of the QUBES Project. BioQUEST and QUBES were two presenters of the 2016 National Academies Special Topics Summer Institute on Quantitative Biology, leading to the formation of 17 new faculty working groups.

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of scientists founded in 1915 to promote ecological science by improving communication among ecologists; raise the public’s level of awareness of the importance of ecological science; increase the resources available for the conduct of ecological science; and ensure the appropriate use of ecological science in environmental decision making by enhancing communication between the ecological community and policy-makers.

The Ecological Society of American has partnered with QUBES to promote the use and awareness of ecology-related educational materials. The Scaling Up and Data Discovery Faculty Mentoring Networks helped faculty to implement selected Teaching Issues in Ecology & Evolution (TIEE) modules in their introductory biology or ecology courses, with a focus on providing students with the quantitative skillset needed to ‘scale up’ to large ecological datasets.

NIMBioS brings together researchers from around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to investigate solutions to basic and applied programs in the life sciences. NIMBioS outreach initiatives focus on the enhancement of education at the interface between mathematics and biology and promote cross-disciplinary approaches to science at all education levels.

NIMBioS has partnered with QUBES to run the Unpacking the Black Box working group and collaborate around assessment of the QUBES project.

The Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education (NIBLSE; pronounced "nibbles") is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Coordination Network for Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE). NIBLSE was formed in 2014. The long-term goal of NIBLSE is to establish bioinformatics as an essential component of undergraduate life sciences education by creating a permanent network of investigators to articulate a shared vision of the extent to which, and how best to, integrate bioinformatics into life sciences curricula.

NIBLSE and QUBES have partnered to establish a “developmental incubator” to nurture promising learning resources that would benefit from further refinement or customization for use in diverse teaching contexts. The NIBLSE Page on QUBESHub provides collaborative workspaces for groups to refine and share bioinformatics curriculum.

The Science Case Network, a newly established Research Coordination Network for Undergraduate Biology Education, centers on expanding the use of and knowledge about two effective teaching approaches: case studies and problem based learning (PBL). The Science Case Network seeks to connect case study and PBL innovators, researchers, and user groups to further the understanding of the effectiveness of these methods. Case studies and PBL have been shown to help undergraduates develop superior skills in question formulation and data analysis while they learn as much content as with traditional methods. Using these approaches, students collaboratively analyze a scenario that presents a biological issue within a realistic setting. Students then conduct investigations and report findings.

Science CaseNet and QUBES have partnered to collaborate on the development and implementation of the QUBES Project. Science CaseNet and QUBES were two presenters of the 2016 National Academies Special Topics Summer Institute on Quantitative Biology, leading to the formation of 17 new faculty working groups.

The National Institute for STEM Evaluation and Research (NISER) provides quality evaluation services to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research and education sectors, including academic communities, not-for-profit organizations, and government entities.

NISER has partnered with QUBES to act as an external evaluator and collaborate on research around the impacts of QUBES resources and services. 

The focus of BIO SIGMAA is on the pedagogy of mathematical and computational biology at the undergraduate level. This includes the support of curriculum development, faculty development, and undergraduate research in those fields. The purpose of BIO SIGMAA is to support those activities that will enhance the exchange of ideas and access to educational opportunities among undergraduates and undergraduate faculty in the fields of mathematical and computational biology.

Funding partner.

The Botanical Society of America (BSA) promotes botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into all aspects of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.

BSA has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of their education materials and meetings.

Data Nuggets contain activities that bring real scientific data into the classroom, guiding students through the entire process of science while building their quantitative abilities.

Data Nuggets and QUBES have partnered to raise awareness of the Data Nuggets material within the QUBES community, use the QUBESHub collaborative tools to promote conversations about, and collaborations around, the Data Nuggets teaching materials, and establish a Data Nuggets Faculty Mentoring Network to work intensively with a group of faculty as they customize and implement Data Nuggets resources.

BioInteractive provides free multimedia resources, including apps, animations, videos, interactives and virtual labs, supplemented by teacher guides and classroom activities. Recently, BioInteractive has developed quantitative and data-centric resources, including statistics, data manipulation, and graph generation and interpretation activities. Explore videos of scientific stories with interviews and discussions with actual scientists, or the Holiday lectures by active research scientists.

HHMI BioInteractive has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of their free science education resources with undergraduate faculty. The HHMI BioInteractive Faculty Mentoring Network participants are focused on learning how to promote the application of quantitative processes to biological questions within their introductory biology classrooms and implement active learning strategies within their courses.

The mission of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on continental-scale ecology – by providing infrastructure and consistent methodologies to support research and education in these areas.

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Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education (BLUE) is a curriculum project that is focused on bringing collections data into undergraduate classrooms and using it to teach data skills.

BLUE has partnered with QUBES to share their resources and build a community around their project.

InTeGrate is a 5-year, NSF-funded STEP Center grant, running from 2012 through 2016. The STEP (STEM Talent Expansion Program) Center program enables "a group of faculty representing a cross section of institutions of higher education to identify a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to propose a comprehensive and coordinated set of activities that will be carried out to address that challenge or opportunity within a national context."

InTeGrate and QUBES have partnered to raise awareness of the InTeGrate teaching materials within the QUBES community, use the QUBESHub collaborative tools to promote conversations about, and collaborations around the InTeGrate teaching materials. The InTeGrate Faculty Mentoring Network has helped faculty teach for a sustainable future in their undergraduate biology classrooms.

The mission of iDigBio is to develop a national infrastructure that supports the vision of the National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) by overseeing implementation of standards and best practices for digitization; building and deploying a customized cloud computing environment for collections; recruiting and training personnel, including underserved groups; engaging the research community, collections community, citizen scientists, and the general public through outreach activities; and planning for long-term sustainability of the national digitization effort.

iDigBio has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of their education materials and meetings.

SimBio produces software that uses sophisticated interactive simulations to teach biology in an inquiry-driven learning style. We also conduct grant-funded research to understand how to make educational software more effective. Our products allow students to conduct simulated experiments similar to those performed by practicing scientists, in fields of biology where live experiments are impractical or impossible.

SimBio has partnered with QUBES to facilitate collaboration on the development of tools to make Biology courses more active. The SimBio Faculty Mentoring Network is focused on using SimBio’s SimUText Ecology™ as a platform to incorporate more active learning into ecology classrooms.

NABT recognizes that the true focal point for learning on critical issues is the classroom, and our members enhance the learning experience for millions of students each year. Since its establishment in 1938, the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) has been the recognized "leader in life science education." Thousands of educators have joined NABT to share experiences and expertise with colleagues from around the globe; keep up with trends and developments in the field; and grow professionally.

NABT has recruited participants for QUBES Faculty Mentoring Networks from within their membership and provided workshop sessions for the networks at their annual meeting.

Evo-Ed has developed case studies that track the evolution of traits from their origination in DNA mutation, to the production of different proteins, to the fixation of alternate macroscopic phenotypes in reproductively isolated populations.

Evo-Ed has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of their case studies that trace the evolution of traits.

ESTEEM is a collection of resources for teaching quantitative skills in biology, operating under "The Three E's": Excel, Exploratory, and Experiential.

ESTEEM and QUBES have partnered to increase the use of accessible quantitative materials in the life sciences.

The mission of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.

ASM has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of their education materials and meetings.

The Analyzing Images to learn Mathematics & Statistics (AIMS) project includes examples of how image analysis can be used to capture student's interest and teach quantitative skills in an engaging way.

AIMS and QUBES partnered to run the AIMS Faculty Mentoring Network that provided participants with a basic introduction to image analysis and using image analysis and interesting biological contexts to motivate student learning of mathematics and statistics.

Avida-ED is an award-winning educational application that helps students design and perform experiments to test hypotheses about evolutionary mechanisms using evolving digital organisms.

Avida-Ed has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of the education-related uses of their software. They have a working group on QUBES Hub.

DryadLab is a collection of free, openly-licensed, high-quality, hands-on, educational modules for students to engage in scientific inquiry using real data. DryadLab modules can be easily integrated into existing advanced secondary, undergraduate, and early graduate courses, and can be adapted to meet the specific needs of your course.

DryadLab and QUBES have partnered to raise awareness of the DryadLab teaching materials within the QUBES community, use the QUBESHub collaborative tools to promote conversations about, and collaborations around the DryadLab teaching materials. The DryadLab Faculty Mentoring Network helped participants to develop a plan for integrating data-rich, interactive modules into their biology classes.

Authentic Research Experience in Microbiology (AREM) is a modular approach to integrating genomics research into the general biology or microbiology curriculum. AREM investigates the microbiome of New York City across its boroughs, its streets and parks and across time.

AREM has partnered with QUBES to foster faculty communication and collaboration around microbial genomics research in urban environments.

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) brings together the science of the natural world with the science of human behavior and decision-making to find solutions to complex environmental problems. We convene science teams to work on broad issues of national and international relevance, such as water resources management, land management, agriculture, species protection, among other areas of study. By supporting interdisciplinary science teams and researchers with diverse skills, data, and perspectives, SESYNC seeks to lead in-depth research and scholarship that will inform decisions and accelerate scientific discovery. SESYNC is funded by an award to the University of Maryland from the National Science Foundation.

SESYNC has partnered with QUBES to raise awareness of their education materials. In the SESYNC Faculty Mentoring Network faculty participants adapted and implemented existing interdisciplinary curriculum modules that focus on socio-environmental issues. The educational modules highlighted in this FMN were selected from several online collections.