In this newsletter:
QUBES News
Kudos
Partner News and Opportunities
Partner Events
Resources and Opportunities
QUBES News
Save the Date for the 2021 BIOME Institute
BioQUEST, in partnership with QUBES, has decided on dates and a theme for the 2021 BIOME Institute:
From Pieces to Patterns: Building a Scientific Worldview
Summer Session: July 19 - August 6, 2021
Fall Working Groups: September 6 - November 19, 2021
Stay tuned for more information, and follow BioQUEST on Twitter and join the Facebook group for updates.
Partners@QUBES Leadership Summit Recap
We loved having so many representatives--over 40 participants--from our partner organizations in the same (Zoom) room and to hear how integral QUBES has become to advancing our partners' goals.
We've published a short recap of the event, including some quotes from our participants.
Please see or join our QUBES Support Community for Partner Projects group for a trove of resources for setting up and managing your online community with QUBES and to connect with other partners.
How QUBES Can Support Your Education Project
QUBES has a comprehensive project support infrastructure, built by and for STEM educators. Hosting a project on QUBES can help to address challenges such as building and coordinating your community, disseminating your products, and documenting your impacts.
Please visit our new Grant Services page to learn more about how QUBES can be used to support education projects. Or fill out this brief form, and we will get in touch with you.
Kudos
Kristin Jenkins Moves to Austin as Director of TIDES
 Kristin Jenkins, BioQUEST’s Executive Director for over 10 years, has taken a position as the new Director of the Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science (TIDES) at the University of Texas at Austin, to begin full-time on March 1, 2021.
Kristin has been an amazing leader of BioQUEST, sustaining and growing programs that have had an incredible impact on STEM educators and ultimately their students. Under her leadership, the BQ Summer Faculty Development Workshop moved away from Beloit College and was hosted by BioQUEST community members including Harvey Mudd College, Michigan State University, William & Mary, among others. She also transitioned BioQUEST to a 501(c)3, while keeping an eye on a sustainable future for the curriculum consortium, and oversaw the first online summer meeting (BIOME).
Kristin is a AAAS Fellow with Section Q - Education. Most importantly, she has been a creative, caring, and skilled collaborator across diverse stakeholders in undergraduate biology education reform.
Kristin will always be a part of the BioQUEST/QUBES family, and she knows we’ll be in touch. “My new position as Director of TIDES includes a mandate to connect with national level projects,” she says. “Quantitative skills, data science and inclusive teaching have been mentioned as areas of interest, so I look forward to collaborations with the QUBES community in the future.”
BEDE Group Members Publish Paper in BioRxiv
 Biological and Environmental Data Education (BEDE) group members published an analysis of data science education in undergraduate biology classes. Check it out!
“Training Data: How can we best prepare instructors to teach data science in undergraduate biology and environmental science courses?”
ISKME and SERC Complete OER Accessibility Guide
ISKME and SERC are completing a six-month project focused on accessibility for STEM open educational resources (OER) that was conducted through the 2020 SCORE Network/Bates College Mini-Grant Program funded by the Hewlett Foundation.
They are delighted to share the completed Framework and Guide, available as an openly licensed Google Document. You can also view the resource on QUBES.
See below for a paid opportunity to pilot the Guidebook!
Congratulations on this contribution!
Partner News and Opportunities
ISKME and SERC Seek Participants to Pilot STEM OER Accessibility Guidebook
ISKME and SERC are offering a new opportunity supported by Bates College to conduct a short pilot study and professional learning cohort with 6 STEM faculty. Cohort participants will assess the STEM OER Accessibility Guidebook as they use it in their own context.
The commitment is: attend 2 zoom calls (1st in mid-Feb and second in early March) to learn about the framework and discuss its application; apply the framework to an open resource of the faculty's choosing; and complete a short closing survey. A stipend of $175 is offered upon completion of the study.
They hope to identify OER authors across STEM subject areas to participate--those of you motivated to explore and learn how you might make your own materials more accessible and how to approach accessibility metadata for materials to be better discovered.
Interested to learn more? Please contact: Amee Evans Godwin (amee"at"iskme"dot"org) and Sean Fox (sfox"at"carleton"dot"edu)
Genomics Education Alliance Seeks Input on Genomics Concepts for Curriculum Development
The Genomics Education Alliance is seeking community input on a set of Genomics Concepts. If you are involved in genomics and/or bioinformatics, we would greatly appreciate your feedback.
Learn more and fill out the Google form here.
Deadline for HITS Case Fellows Program is February 26
Faculty and postdoctoral fellows devoted to the use of case studies and problem-based learning pedagogies can apply to become HITS Case Fellows!
The HITS network will train Case Fellows in the use of case studies based on HT data by using a yearly workshop. Case Fellows receive a yearly stipend and support to attend two workshops. Our HITS 2021 workshop will be held, tentatively, during the month of June 2021.
For more information, download our Case Fellows flyer or visit the HITS QUBEShub page.
The deadline is February 26, 2021.
New Data Release from NEON
NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) will now generate data releases annually, beginning January 2021.
NEON data releases will remain stable and accessible throughout the lifetime of the Observatory, and will be assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). DOI URLs will always resolve back to the dataset, and are thus ideal for citing NEON data in publications and applications.
Learn more about NEON.
Partner Events
SIMIODE EXPO 2021 to Take Place February 12-13
SIMIODE’s first international virtual conference in their Community of Practice will be held February 12-13.
The conference is for all--non-students and students--who are interested in teaching and learning differential equations through modeling. All are welcome--academic, industry, government, non-profit, and individual. See the SIMIODE website for details and registration.
SABER Continues Spring 2021 Seminar Series on Inclusion in Academic Biology
SABER is sponsoring a virtual seminar series "Striving for inclusion in academic biology," every other Thursday in Spring 2021 at 9:00 AM PT. All sessions are virtual, free, and no registration is required. Learn more about the Spring Series here.
The upcoming seminars are:
Thursday, February 18th, 9:00 am PT
“Structural racism, institutional transformation, and diversifying the STEM faculty”
Kimberly Griffin, PhD, University of Maryland
Thursday, March 4th, 9:00 am PT
“The influence of kindness and community in broadening participation”
Mica Estrada, PhD, UC San Francisco
Registration Opens for iDigBio’s Digital Data Conference, June 7-9
Registration is now open for Digital Data 2021: Digital Data Grand Challenge: Expanding Discovery Across Multiple Domains Conference!
The Florida Museum of Natural History in collaboration with iDigBio and the Natural Science Collections Alliance is pleased to announce the fifth annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, to be hosted virtually 7-9 June 2021.
The conference will again provide an important opportunity to explore digital data tools, techniques, research protocols, discoveries, and outcomes across all biodiversity research domains.
Learn more about the conference here.
ASM Announces Virtual Conference for Undergraduate Educators, June 29-July 1
The ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) is driven by, for and with educators just like you! Undergraduate biology and microbiology educators attend ASMCUE to share teaching strategies, brainstorm solutions for common classroom challenges and network with colleagues.
2021 ASMCUE Virtual will be held June 29-July 1, and they are inviting you to contribute to the program! The Program Committee is seeking your innovative ideas and research for sessions, poster abstracts about biology education research, and short talks about your best classroom innovation! Deadline to submit a proposal is April 15, 2021.
Find out more and submit your abstract.
Contact: Rachel Horak, rhorak “at” asmusa “dot” org
Resources and Opportunities
ASCN Transforming Institutions Conference Call for Proposals
The Transforming Institutions Conference is designed to bring together researchers, faculty, change agents, administrators, center staff and directors, and policymakers to focus on transforming undergraduate education.
Participants will have the opportunity to identify critical questions facing institutional change, foster connections with colleagues interested in change, and address important topics related to transforming institutions in higher education.
They are inviting submissions of both early and mature projects that focus on all aspects of institutional change, including change outcomes, change processes, and contexts of change.
The deadline for proposals is March 8. Learn more about the call and the ASCN Conference here.
Request A Woman in STEMM is Now GAGE
The Request A Woman in STEMM directory is a database created by 500 Women Scientists in January 2018 to help address systemic biases women and gender minorities experience in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). In just over two years, Request has grown to over 14,000 members from over 140 countries.
Now, Request is presenting a newer, better and more inclusive version of the directory: Request a Woman in STEMM is now Gage!
Gage is a global search platform where journalists, media outlets, conference planners and others seeking brilliant voices can discover women and gender minorities in STEMM.
CBE-Life Sciences Education Seeks Nominations for Editorial Board
CBE-Life Sciences Education (LSE) is soliciting nominations, including self-nominations, for its editorial board.
As a leading biology education and research journal, LSE publishes original, peer-reviewed articles on research and evaluation related to life sciences education, as well as articles about evidence-based biology instruction at all levels.
Roles of Board Members:
Serving on the LSE editorial board is a fantastic way to influence the future of science education, gain familiarity with new research areas and methodologies, and learn about the publication process. New editors will serve a term from April 1st, 2021, through December 31st, 2023. Editor responsibilities include identifying and assigning reviewers for no more than 1 article per month, composing decision letters based on reviewer feedback, consulting with Editors-In-Chief as needed during review, and attending 1-2 virtual meetings per year with the board or the Editors-In-Chief. Board members might also contribute to special projects or initiatives as interested. Mentorship will be provided for new board members.
Qualifications:
We welcome nominations and self-nominations for individuals at all levels of development, but we ask that nominees have previously published a paper in biology education or a related field. We especially encourage nominations of individuals identifying as scholars of color, those representing marginalized or minoritized communities, and scholars from a wide range of institution types. While not required, experience in the following areas is appreciated:
- Qualitative Methods
- Instrument Development
- Critical Race Theory
- Education/Higher Education Research
- Psychology/Social Science Research
To nominate yourself or others, please complete the form at this address by February 15th.
Members of the QUBES team are always looking to meet others who have a passion for quantitative biology education. Reach out so we can help you gather your collaborators, move projects forward, and continue to move quantitative biology forward. Connect with us by submitting a support ticket.
From left to right: Sam Donovan (Director of OER), Carrie Diaz Eaton (Director of QUBES Consortium), Kristin Jenkins (Director of BioQUEST), Drew LaMar (Director of Cyberinfrastructure), and Jeremy Wojdak (Director of Professional Development).
Do you have a product or result from a QUBES sponsored activity? Help us measure our success by sharing your product or result with QUBES. Learn how to cite QUBES.
|
