ASPB Showcases Plant Biology at the Congressional Life Science Fair on Capitol Hill

ASPB represented plant biology research at the Congressional Life Science Fair on Capitol Hill on July 19, 2023, in the Rayburn House Office Building. This event was hosted by The Coalition for Life Sciences (CLS) and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). The purpose of this event was to showcase the positive … Read more

ASPB to Exhibit at the 2023 White House Easter Egg Roll

The American Society of Plant Biologists announces its participation in a time-honored White House tradition to engage families in the importance of plants.   The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) will engage children and families in fun activities and plant biology discussions at the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday April 10, 2023. … Read more

Undergrads: Build Confidence, Learn Skills with an ASPB Summer Research Fellowship

Submit an Application for an ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships   Undergraduate students seeking opportunities to develop their research skills this summer can get support from ASPB. ASPB’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURFs) provides promising undergraduate students who are researching topics in or closely related to plant biology a $6,000 summer stipend, $700 for materials, … Read more

Green Career Week is October 3-7

October 3-7 has been designated Green Career Week, a nationwide effort led by local horticulture, agriculture and floriculture businesses and organizations around the country designed to expose high school students to the outstanding career opportunities in these fields. During Green Career Week, participating businesses and organizations will connect with local high schools to showcase the … Read more

Applications now open for Plant BLOOME Grant

Applications are now open for ASPB’s Plant Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education (BLOOME) grant! BLOOME provides up to $7,000 to fund the development of curricular materials to support teaching the newly revised Principles for Teaching Plant Biology in K-12 and undergraduate classrooms. The proposed classroom activities/labs must include the following elements: Clearly stated … Read more

Introducing: The Newly Revised Principles for Teaching Plant Biology

The 12 Principles of Plant Biology are a widely used resource for teaching and learning plant biology, especially within the K-12 educational community. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of their development, the Education Committee would like to share with you a revised, expanded set of Principles for Teaching Plant Biology.  What are the … Read more

Applications Open for CourseSource Writing Faculty Mentoring Network

Have you developed new evidence-based teaching activities and/or lessons for online learning in biology undergraduate education? Are you interested in working with a group of peers to write and prepare your Lesson manuscript for submission to the journal CourseSource? CourseSource is partnering with BioQUEST and QUBES to offer semester-long Faculty Mentoring Networks (FMN)! Apply now … Read more

Scaling Up Equity and Inclusion Through K-12, Undergraduate, and Graduate Education

Title slide Building Sustained Commitments to Equity and Inclusion

By Sibongile Mafu (WiPB) and Adam Steinbrenner (EDIC) The Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC) and Women in Plant Biology (WIPB) co-hosted a workshop at the Plant Biology 2021 Annual meeting entitled “Sustained Commitments to Diversity and Inclusion”. The invited panelists have focused their careers on outreach and teaching at critical early stages in student … Read more

Cultivating the next generation of scientists and the scientific literature through micropublications

Guest post by Amy T. Hark, Muhlenberg College Scientific training is largely built on mentoring relationships, often beginning at the undergraduate level.  Students have found increasing opportunities to engage in research and the benefits including promoting engagement and retention are well documented.  But what parts of the research process do undergraduates typically have access to?  … Read more

Help Improve Wikipedia’s Coverage of Plant Biology by Running a Wikipedia Assignment

Through its partnership with Wiki Education, ASPB has been helping to steadily improve Wikipedia’s coverage of Plant Biology for several years. As part of the Wikipedia Student Program, faculty at institutions of higher education across the U.S. and Canada have been asking their students to contribute to Wikipedia as a course assignment, and the results … Read more

Plant BLOOME 2021 Winners Announced

ASPB established the Plant Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials, & Education (Plant BLOOME) grant program with the goal to enhance public awareness and understanding of the essential roles of plants in all areas of life (http://bloome.aspb.org). Congratulations to the 2021 ASPB Plant BLOOME grant recipients!   The Legume-rhizobium Mutualism: A Model for Inquiry in the … Read more

Announcing the 2021 ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF)

The ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program funds promising undergraduate students so they can conduct research in plant biology during the early part of their college careers over the course of 10 consecutive weeks. This year’s SURF recipients will present their research at Plant Biology 2022. Congratulations to these 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows … Read more

CourseSource Online Writing Studios – Application Now Open

In partnership with Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) meeting, CourseSource is hosting Online Writing Studios this summer. The online Writing Studio will be offered twice this summer: July 19-21 from 12-4 pm Eastern each day (for participants writing about online and/or in-person lessons) August 16-18 from 12-4 pm Eastern each day … Read more

Transforming Education in Plant Biology- Request for Proposals 2021

In the United States, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other stakeholders have called for transformation in undergraduate biology education via the Vision and Change report.  The core message of Vision and Change is a focus on student-centered learning with students as active participants.  Some of the … Read more

Join the 2020-2021 Planting Science Master Plant Science Team!

ASPB invites members to join the 2020-2021 PlantingScience Master Plant Science Team. PlantingScience is a free online resource to teachers and schools. The program provides volunteer scientists, resources, and activities to support innovation in teaching, learning, and mentoring. PlantingScience is a learning community where scientists provide online mentorship to student teams as they design and think through … Read more

Adapting Outreach to Remote Instruction

With support from an ASPB Plant BLOOME Grant, in the past year, we assembled a group of graduate students at the University of California, Riverside to learn how to develop educational material in line with Next Generation Science Standards and generate hands-on content for volunteers to take to schools with the unifying theme of plant … Read more

Society Civic Science Initiative: Advancing Collective Support for Civic Science Activities

Addressing many of the most complex and important problems we face—from climate change to global health threats—requires conversations and collaborations among scientists, decision makers, and the public more broadly. For many scientists, these interactions are embedded in their identities and daily realities; they may regularly speak to the media, meet with their elected representatives to … Read more

ASPB in the Windy City – NABT 2019

Chicago was home to this year’s National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) professional development conference, held from November 14th – 17th, 2019 at the Sheraton Grand.  Over 1500 educators and administrators representing all levels of education attended this year’s event, which boasts itself as the largest national conference dedicated exclusively to life science education. The … Read more

Halfway to Establishing the New Primarily Undergraduate Institution Section

BY ANDREAS MADLUNG University of Puget Sound For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to focus my career on working with students; designing curricula, lesson plans, and lab activities; and passing on my excitement about living things to anyone who might share this interest. While in graduate … Read more