What Will You Experience at ASMCUE?
- A welcoming community of about 350 people who encourage your new ideas and projects for teaching and learning.
- Networking with creative educators who think deeply about teaching, teach the same classes you do and are genuinely passionate about helping students.
- A format that allows you to find the content and network suited to your professional interests.
- Opportunities to meet and offers from educational partners and companies who will support your teaching and learning endeavors.
Program Schedule
Pre-Conference Workshops
Facilitators:
- Ellen Dow, KBase—Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- Julia Kelliher, NMDC—Los Alamos National Laboratory.
This workshop is sponsored by the KBase Educators Program.
If you are interested in incorporating bioinformatics or data science concepts into a course, or working with students on data that are immediately publishable, then this workshop is for you! The workshop focuses on collecting and analyzing microbial data and metadata with the free, open source tools through the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC; ) and KBase () platforms, outlining a workflow that results in a publishable genomic dataset for an ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿Microbiology Resource Announcement. &²Ô²ú²õ±è;
This workshop will provide examples of how educators use NMDC and KBase with their students, in a variety of courses ranging from CUREs to independent research. Together, we will go through steps for analyzing a genomic dataset and identify the importance of collecting and processing good sample metadata along the way. Participants will be introduced to the NMDC Field Notes mobile app and resources for collecting environmental sample metadata and to resources from MICROnet (NSF #2418285; ) and KBase Educators Program (), which provide teaching materials and template workflows to analyze raw sequence data and prepare students for their first data publication. Everyone will have access to these tools and resources after the workshop to use with their students and adapt for future use! 
For questions, please contact Ellen Dow. &²Ô²ú²õ±è;
Target Audience:
Relevant for educators who want to integrate (new, more, any) environmental microbiome (microbiology) tools and resources into their courses, include best practices in sample collection, incorporate skills in computational biology and bioinformatics data analysis, provide support for student-curated data publications or change up existing course-based undergraduate research experiences.Pre-Requisites:
Currently teaching, or planning to teach, courses and/or independent student research that includes computational biology, bioinformatics and microbiome-related science.
Facilitators:
- Jacqueline Washington, Empire State University.
- Karen Avery, Pennsylvania College of Technology.
This workshop is sponsored by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Zoonotic diseases have been responsible for infectious disease outbreaks over the last century, from the 1918 Spanish Flu to COVID-19. In this participatory workshop, we will use HHMI BioInteractive resources to explore Nipah virus, a highly pathogenic zoonotic virus that poses a public health threat in several countries. Participants attending this workshop will explore evidence-based teaching strategies that support students' understanding of zoonotic outbreaks, including identifying disease agents, investigating epidemiology through analysis, interpreting real data and exploring ways to reduce the spread of disease. The workshop will incorporate hands-on activities to model student learning, group discussions to foster collaboration and dedicated reflection time for implementation considerations. Educators will leave the workshop with the resources and strategies to engage students in understanding the causative agents of zoonotic diseases, analyzing evidence and enhancing their data literacy skills by studying the Nipah Virus.
None, but participants are encouraged to create a free educator account at the HHMI BioInteractive before attending the workshop.
Facilitators:
- Nancy Boury, Iowa State University.
- Rebecca Seipelt-Thiemann, Middle Tennessee State University.
This hands-on workshop is designed for biology and microbiology faculty who are interested in creating engaging, student-centered teaching case studies. Whether you're new to case-based instruction or looking to enhance your current approach, this workshop will provide practical tools and guidance to help you design a case study that fits your course goals and teaching style.
In this workshop, you will:
- Learn the fundamentals of case study pedagogy as used in science education.
- Explore strategies for identifying compelling stories or mysteries for students studying biology or microbiology.
- Collaborate with peers and receive feedback on your ideas.
By the end of the session, you’ll leave with a draft of your own short teaching case study and a plan for implementing it in your classroom.
No prior experience with case studies is required—just bring your curiosity and a desire to make your teaching more interactive and impactful.
2025 ASMCUE Speakers
Robert Duke, Ph.D.
University of Texas
Why Students Don’t Learn What We Think We Teach
Changes in learners’ functional capacities are visible manifestations of changes in the physical structure of the brain. Although teachers seldom think of learning experiences as brain-reorganization activities, they most certainly are. Although it’s necessary at times for teachers to explain and demonstrate, students learn most when they engage in activities that ask them to interpret, reason, write and solve problems, all of which can lead to students’ uncovering and working through gaps in their understanding. Designing tasks that illuminate these gaps and provide strategic opportunities for productive muddling is what great teaching and effective learning are all about.
Davida S. Smyth, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Using Waste to CURE Your Teaching
This session will explore how teaching through real-world issues and integrating research into coursework can significantly impact student learning and engagement in STEM across disciplines—for both majors and non-majors. Using frameworks, such as course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and project-based learning (PBL), students gain insight into the power and limits of science, the importance of multiple perspectives and how they can contribute to solving real-world problems.
CUREs and PBL have been widely implemented across the United States and internationally to increase student engagement, foster science identity and make a measurable impact—especially for students underrepresented in science fields.
Examples from my own teaching will be shared, illustrating how I’ve integrated topics like water and waste into various courses and assessed learning through authentic methods, including e-portfolios, posters and creative works. Finally, we’ll discuss how this approach benefits faculty and explore resources and communities that can support you in “CURE-ing” your own teaching practice.
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