The ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) fund promising undergraduate students so they can conduct research in plant biology during the early part of their college careers. SURF recipients must present their research at ASPB’s annual Plant Biology meeting in the year following the fellowship award. Two 2017 SURF recipients share how their undergraduate research … Read more
ASPB’s Master Educator Program offers financial support to successful applicants to participate in focused, substantive, and practical professional development with the aim of creating undergraduate plant biology instructional materials aligned with the recommendations of Vision and Change and ASPB’s core concepts in plant biology (http://www.aspb.org/education-outreach/higher-education/). Congratulations to the 2018 winner, Dong Wang (Assistant Professor, Department of … Read more
ASPB established the Plant Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education (BLOOME) grant program (the name changed over time) with the goal to enhance public awareness and understanding of the essential roles of plants in all areas of life. Congratulations to the three 2018 ASPB Plant BLOOME recipients! Widely Accessible Virtual Reality Exhibits and Workshops … Read more
ASPB invites members to join the 2018-2019 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 their own … Read more
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 2019. Congratulations to these 2018 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows … Read more
ASPB’s Education and Outreach Committee hosted an outreach booth at the 5th USA Science & Engineering Festival (USASEF) in Washington, DC on April 6-8, 2018. Held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the event brought in over 370,000 visitors and occupied 2.3 million square feet of convention space. The Festival drew a large, diverse … Read more
The ASPB Education Committee hosted an Education & Outreach booth at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia during March 15th– March 17th, 2018. Located at the Georgia World Congress Center, the booth was organized by ASPB Education Committee member Scott Woody and ASPB Education Coordinator Winnie Nham. Local volunteers helping to … Read more
The ASPB Education Committee hosted an Education & Outreach booth at the National Association of Biology Teachers Professional Development Conference in St. Louis, MO this past November. Held in the historic Union Station hotel, this year’s booth was organized by ASPB Education Committee members Valerie Haywood and Scott Woody, and Winnie Nham, ASPB Education Coordinator. … Read more
In a new Commentary in Plant Physiology, Friesner et al. write a compelling vision for next-generation training for plant scientists. We asked three of the 39 authors, Joanna Friesner, Molly Megrew and Siobhan Brady, to tell us about their motivations and goals for writing this commentary. You and several other authors (see the full list … Read more
RCN-UBE (NSF 18-510) is designed to enhance undergraduate biology education using networks of faculty and professionals to communicate and coordinate their research, training, and educational activities. The theme of RCN-UBE proposals can be on any topic likely to enhance undergraduate biology education. RCN-UBE provides opportunities to: foster new collaborations address interdisciplinary topics explore innovative ideas … Read more
Simran Kaur, Sreyashi Ghosh, Juliet Malkowski, and Aileen Wu, high school students at Princeton High School, recently presented at the ASPB Mid-Atlantic conference under the auspices of the ASPB BLOOME Grant, headed by educator Mark Eastburn. They weigh in on their research and bringing STEM to the K-12 classroom below: In a collaboration between researchers … Read more
On September 22, ASPB participated in an evening of outreach at the United States Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C., as an exhibitor at the annual D.C. Teachers’ Night hosted by USBG and the District of Columbia Environmental Education Consortium. The evening features dozens of exhibitors with hands-on activities, lesson plans, and resources for K-12 teachers … Read more
PlantingScience.org is seeking scientists (undergraduates through retired/emeritus) willing to mentor middle and high school students this fall (Sept – Nov). We expect over 1000 student teams and we don’t have enough mentors to work with them all! Mentors work online with 1-3 teams of students to help them design and carry out investigations on a … Read more
At Plant Biology 2017, the Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education (BLOOME) awards were the focus of the Education Booth. These grants are awarded on a competitive basis to fund innovative ideas to increase education and outreach projects focusing on plant science literacy. Four previous award winners came to Hawaii to share the products of … Read more
Can art be used to teach elementary students that plants respond to environmental cues? How can museums make learning about plant evolution more fun? Does writing and editing Wikipedia articles increase student engagement in science writing? How can teachers use schoolyard woodlands to teach students about diversity? Can citizen science be used to demonstrate that … Read more
Big data, computation and bioinformatics have flooded the research community. At Plant Biology 2017, it flooded the classroom as well. The education workshop, “ABC’s (Analysis, Bioinformatics and Computation) in the Classroom,” featured integration of computation and analysis of biological data into the classroom. Dr. Katerina Thompson, University of Maryland, and Dr. Judy Brusslan, California State … Read more
How are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) made? Are they safe to eat? Follow along with Molly Edwards, the creator of Science In Real Life (IRL), as she heads to the Van Eck Lab at the Boyce Thompson Institute and demystifies GMOs by showing how they’re made in the lab and discussing their safety to consumers. Molly is a recipient … Read more
PlantingScience is an online mentoring program that virtually connects scientists with junior high or high school students as they participate in inquiry-based activities with plants. Mentors commit to an hour or so per week over roughly two to four weeks, during which they respond to student questions and help them design and interpret their experiments. … Read more
The ASPB Education Committee hosted an outreach booth at the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) held June 19-22 in St Louis, MO. Many ASPB members might recall that ICAR has, since the 2011 event in Madison, WI, “gone global” and the 2017 event marked the first time ICAR returned to the United States; the … Read more
Are you a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher interested in a chance to get involved and trained in K-12 outreach? Would you like to mentor student research teams, without ever leaving your desk? Do you have the time to commit to mentor 2-3 teams in BOTH the Fall and Spring PlantingScience Sessions? ASPB invites its members to join … Read more