Summer 2023 Newsletter

Committee Activities

Diversity & Inclusion: DEI Climate Survey

The SABER community and conference always strive to present diverse and inclusive perspectives from all areas of the life sciences. We are on a continuous journey to ensure that everyone's voices are heard and addressed. As representatives of the DEI committee, we are glad to disseminate the first official climate survey, the goal of which is to gauge the community's sense of inclusion and belonging to the broader SABER community and to the SABER conferences. 

Please access this survey using the following link: https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9nLN3pfyb6Av2ce. 

The survey is estimated to take you 15-20 minutes. We are also looking forward to discussing emerging results and hearing feedback from SABER participants about future steps at a SABER roundtable, which will occur on Friday, July 21 at 12:45. If you are interested in sharing your perspectives and ideas, please consider attending this roundtable as we would love to hear all of your voices. Please email our DEI committee co-chair Ariel Chasen (achasen@utexas.edu) if you have any questions or concerns. 

Special Interest Group Activities

Community outreach.  San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering.  March 4, 2023.  Interactive display by National University (comparative zoology) and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (cyanotypes).

Biology through Art Annual Workshop.  University of San Diego.  May 19-20, 2023.  Theme:  "Interdisciplinary Exchange."  Attendees from National University, California State University Fullerton, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, High Tech High School Chula Vista.

Community outreach.  Presbys Play Day at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (La Jolla location).  March 12, 2023.  "Biology through Art" theme.  Kinetic sand and color wheel (National University), virtual reality scuba and kelp presses (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego), DNA and microscope jewelry (Microscopya), walk-in herpetology painting (Patrick Henry High School). 

Community outreach.  Student art exhibition at the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center (San Diego, CA).  June 24, 2023.  Artwork presented by students at National University (ecology course), California State University Fullerton (marine biology course), plus workshop by art instructor Jason Rogalski.

ImmunoReach network intends to bridge immunology with other disciplines, promote immune literacy, and allow for increased, earlier access to immunology education. Within this context, here are two new activities developed by ImmunoReach participants. The first one (see here) connects immunology with microbiology, animal behaviour and ecology, and was developed by Drs. Adam Kleinschmit and Andrea Bixler. The activity can be implemented in introductory biology classrooms - for majors and/or non-majors. The resource also discusses possible modifications for upper-level, discipline-specific courses. The second activity (see here) introduces students to the chemical basis of cell staining and can be implemented in introductory chemistry or biology classrooms - for majors and/or non-majors or in microbiology, biochemistry and cell biology classrooms. This activity was developed by Drs. Archana Lal and Thiru Vanniasinkam and can be a segue to discuss immune cell staining patterns. Lastly, a couple of us will be present at SABER 2023. Find Immunology Education SIG on Saturday, July 22nd at 4:15p.m. to connect with one of us.

Sharday Ewell and Fernando Tenjo-Fernandez will take over leadership of the PEER Network at the end of the SABER Annual Meeting. Sami Raut and Miriam Segura-Totten will step down and assist in the transition. 

PEER Spotlight

The SABER PEER Network Advocacy subgroup is focused on advocating for anyone who identifies as a PEER (Persons Excluded due to their Ethnicity or Race). The subgroup now posts quarterly Spotlights on the SABER website to highlight the accomplishments and visions of PEER members within the SABER community.

Our first PEER Spotlight is Jennifer Garcia. Jennifer Garcia is the current chair of SABER’s PEER Network’s Advocacy Group and a graduate student in the Chemistry Department at Purdue University. She’s recently been accepted into several Future Faculty Programs, won the Boiler Changemaker Award, and won the Gordon Research Conference Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship. 

Multi-Society Climate Survey

A group of professional societies, including SABER, have convened to assess the extent to which individuals, particularly in different demographic groups, feel included within their respective societies, in the workplace, and in the broader biology community.  Therefore, SABER is requesting your participation in a brief (<10-minute) survey about your experience in biology: https://tinyurl.com/5n8w22nz  

Your input will be completely anonymous. If you are associated with more than one of the participating societies, you may be invited to participate in this survey more than once.  You only need to complete the survey one time and will have the opportunity to report on your experiences in all participating societies that you are affiliated with.  

We value your experience and hope to use the results to make our respective communities more inclusive.  

Thank you!  

The American Society of Cell Biology  

The Biophysical Society  

The Genetics Society of America  

The International Society for Stem Cell Research  

The Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research  

Virtual Seminar Series Summary

Over the past three years, SABER has helped to sponsor and host a virtual seminar series in which invited speakers shared findings from their work related to education research broadly and diversity, equity, and inclusion specifically. Speakers were selected to highlight a diversity of identities and amplify voices of marginalized communities, and all speakers were compensated for their time. In a few particularly noteworthy talks, Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab from Temple University discussed the economic challenges that college students faced during the pandemic and provided methods of addressing those challenges, Dr. Terrell Morton from the University of Missouri explored Critical Race Theory as a framework for attending to the impacts of structural racism in the culture of science, and Angela Byars-Winston from the University of Wisconsin-Madison highlighted research on effective and culturally responsive mentoring in STEM. In total, there were 26 talks in the virtual seminar series, and recordings of all talks are freely available to anyone at the following links:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Seminars:
 https://saberbio.wildapricot.org/Diversity_Inclusion

Spring 2023 Seminar Series: https://saberbio.wildapricot.org/page-18247

Special thanks to Ph.D. students Erika Nadile and Baylee Edwards for their help with all the logistics, the moderators and speakers for their time and energy, and a NSF grant to SABER, ASU’s RISE Center, SEISMIC Collaboration, CC Bio INSITES, and UC Santa Barbara for funding support at certain points.  

Special Issue of CBE - Life Sciences Education (LSE) on Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Justice in Biology Education

Guest Co-Editors: Mark Barsoum, Derek Braun, Sara Brownell, Terrell Morton, Tatiane Russo Tait, Starlette Sharp, Jeff Schinske, and Kimberly Tanner

To bring attention to Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Justice in biology education, CBE – Life Sciences Education (LSE; http://www.lifescied.org/) will publish a special issue in 2024 highlighting research articles, essays, and features that offer new insights into these topics. A key goal of this special issue is to elevate research that investigates the unique experiences, assets, and resilience of communities impacted by systemic oppression in ways that intentionally marginalize them within the life sciences, biology education and other research, and STEM education. An additional goal of this special issue is to bring the theoretical frameworks, anti-deficit perspectives, methodological approaches, and critical lenses from fields such as higher education, race and resistance studies, gender and sexuality studies, disability justice, and other disciplines to biology education research and to the LSE readership. The full call for papers can be found at https://tinyurl.com/2023LSESpecialIssue

Members of the special issue editorial team will be at the SABER Annual Meeting and would be happy to speak with authors there!

SABER Newsletters are published on a quarterly basis. Please contact Emily Grunspan, SABER Managing Director, with content suggestions. 

This message was sent to you by the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time.