Description

Abstract

BioQUEST is a long-standing (35+ years) 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that acts as a support community for STEM educators who are interested in reforming their teaching and learning practices. BioQUEST’s mission is to build a transformative, collaborative community that empowers teachers to drive innovation in STEM education for all students. In support of this mission BioQUEST provides diverse services to the reform community including project support; professional development; open educational resources publishing; and the QUBES platform - an online space for collaboration around teaching and learning scholarship. This poster will provide an overview of these services through a series of examples and highlight opportunities for faculty to connect with the community and participate in reform activities.

Who is BioQUEST?
A Community of Transformation

BioQUEST has been recognized as one of the four “Communities of Transformation” by Kezar & Gehrke’s (2015).

• “There is a sense at BioQUEST of being on the cutting edge of biology, anticipating its future.”
• “BioQUEST [is noted] as having a culture of creativity; the community does not provide pre-packaged ideas for teaching, but pushes people to develop their own approaches.”
• “An important part of this orientation is the idea of openness—making all materials free and available.”

Values:

• Faculty as change agents
• Open Education
• Social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
• Science as interdisciplinary, applied, and socially integrated

QUBES: an Open Education Platform

OPEN Education Resource Library

Publications: 3,092
Unique Authors: 3,924

Sharing teaching resources is a great way to document and track the impact of teaching scholarship. 
On the QUBES platform, you can:

• Find, download, use, adapt and reshare OERs
  • Publish your adapted resources 
  • Tag and search with rich metadata
• Create and Publish your own new resources
  • auto DOI generation
• Measure impact and usage
• Comment and engage with others

Project, Group, and Individual Spaces

• Project Website hosting
  • connected to OER library
• Private group site hosting
  • private collection spaces
• Individual professional profile
  • shows impact and engagement
• Tools for collaboration and sharing
• Extensive network of faculty - recruit, engage, share

BIOME Summer Workshop
Participants: 345 (2020-2024)

• Virtual summer workshop with fall working groups
• Learning, creating, sharing, building community
• Access to experts and community facilitators
• Useful resources and guided development

Faculty Mentoring Networks (FMNs)
FMNs Run: 84
Total Participants: 1,071

• Virtual learning opportunities
  • adapt, implement, create, publish OERs
  • engage with educational reform
• Sustained community of practice
• Partner/Project support for recruitment, engagement, and dissemination

Visit our website: bioquest.org
Follow our social media: @bioquested

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