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2026 Place-Based Activities

SABER and the Place-Based Subcommittee are proud to host two place-based workshops at Michigan State University. Participants must also register for the in-person conference. These pre-conference experiences are concurrent with the biology education research pre-conference workshops. 

Learning from Place: Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center
8:30 am - 2:00 pm | Fee: $25-100 (suggested) to cover transportation and appreciation of our partners. 
Join us for a placed-based experience in partnership with the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center and the Native American Institute at Michigan State University. Participants will learn directly from the place and people on whose land we visit for our conference convening. The day will include a guided tour of the Nokomis Center, presentations from Indigenous scholars, experiential learning through crafting, a tour of the Three Sisters and Medicine Garden, and a shared meal with community members. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on how their own teaching and research can support Indigenous futurity and interrupt the erasure and devaluation of Indigenous Science Knowledge. Workshop will be limited to approximately 30 participants. The Nokomis Center is about 10min drive from campus, and we are in the process of arranging transportation options—stay tuned for details! If the suggested fee is prohibitive, please put down $0. If you have the means, please consider donating more so that we can thank our generous hosts who are providing their time and a lunch without charge.

Bizarre Botany
9:00 -10:30 am | Free to Attend
Join Maeve Bassett, Ethnobotanist and Education Director at Beal Botanical Garden, for a hands-on tour and workshop exploring how the dark, funny, weird, gross, and fascinating history of plants can be used in education and to facilitate connections between people and the natural world. Tours consist of walking on unpaved turf grass. Please let us know if there are any accessibility or mobility issues, and we will accommodate as best we can. 


Click here to register for a Place-Based Pre-Conference Workshop



Engaging with the Local Community

As visitors to conference host cities we share space with residents and contribute to their economy. We can be more than transient tourists by learning about and connecting with host city communities. This process of reciprocity can enrich our time there and give us insight into ways that we can engage with and serve both our host and our home communities.

We invite conference participants to join us in thinking about how we can meaningfully engage with host communities while attending conferences. Questions to get the conversation started include:

  • How can we connect local experience, culture, and knowledge with our conference?
  • How do we demonstrate reciprocity with the community where the annual meeting is held?
  • How could engaging this experience, culture, and knowledge influence our research?
  • How could the process of incorporating local perspectives benefit the communities living where we hold our conference, allowing us to give back in a way that uses both our expertise as BER practitioners and humility as guests of the community?
  • What can we learn from the local community about different ways of living, knowing, and loving each other?


Experiencing local culture through visiting and supporting local businesses and connecting with community-based organizations can allow us to meaningfully engage with our hosts while at the SABER Annual Meeting. The Place-Based Subcommittee is putting together a list of suggested local businesses that will be posted here prior to the meeting. 



Special thanks to the Place-Based Subcommittee for their planning efforts: 

Cathy Ishikawa (California State University - Sacramento)
Jenifer Saldanha (Michigan State University)
Dimitri Smirnoff (University of Minnesota)


Need Help?

The SABER Buddies groups are meant to exist in the weeks before, and during the SABER meeting. 

The goals of the SABER Buddies program are to:

  • welcome people who are new, newish, or returning to the SABER Annual meeting,
  • promote connectivity and networking among attendees,
  • help make the meeting impactful and enjoyable for all. 
Learn More


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