2023 Winter Newsletter

Minneapolis, Minnesota

July 20-23, 2023

The SABER Abstract Committee has just published the Call for Reviewers and the Call for Abstracts to the SABER website. As a reminder, It is expected that individuals who submit an abstract (or who are advisors of individuals submitting abstracts) will also serve to review others’ abstracts. Creating the best meeting program possible requires that we have an active community willing to donate their time to this effort. Please volunteer to serve as a reviewer by entering your information in the google form in the Call for Reviewers link. The 2023 rubrics can also be found on the SABER website. 

There are two opportunities for getting help with abstract writing this year: An abstract writing training session and mentoring in writing abstracts. We hope to see many more deserving folks presenting their research in the form of short talks at SABER. So, please indicate your desire to become involved with mentoring either as a mentor or a mentee specifically for submission of a short talk abstract for SABER 2023 on the Abstract Mentoring Form. More information on both of these opportunities as well as the link to volunteer as a mentor or request mentorship can be found here: 2023 Annual SABER Meeting: Training in Abstract Writing. 

Important Dates: 

• January 23: Online training for abstract writing
• January 31: Deadline to volunteer as a reviewer
• February 10-February 21: Abstract submission

Conference Hotel:

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Graduate Hotel. Please follow this link for booking. 

Upcoming Increase in Membership Rates

SABER membership rates will be increasing starting April 1st, 2023. The new yearly rates are listed below. The rate increases for student memberships are minimal. 

This is the first increase in membership rates since SABER was founded 13 years ago. While we have endeavored to keep our rates low to be more accessible, operational costs have risen. In addition, with our membership numbers growing, an increase in membership rates would allow us to expand our programming and offerings. These new rates were decided after doing a comparative analysis with membership rates of other biology professional societies, with input from the SABER executive board and committee leaders. 

* We will also offer a one-year reduced-fee option for folks who attest to financial hardship.

Updates from Committees

Committee membership is a great way to support SABER's mission and to help grow the organization. Four committees are still recruiting new members for 2023!

• Abstracts
• Awards
• Conference
• Mentoring 

See the spreadsheet for more information about each committee and the available positions. Contact the chair directly to join.

Dec 2022_Open Positions in SABER Committees.xlsx

DBER-SiT has had a very productive 2022 and is excited to continue on this path in 2023! This past year, we held our signature events, Making the Transition: Moving from Graduate Student to Postdoc in Discipline-Based Education Research in March and Discipline-Based Education Research Career Panel in June, which provided graduate students and postdocs with opportunities to consider and plan for the next steps in their careers. Further, we were thrilled to award ten travel awards to trainees to attend the 2022 SABER National Conference.

In the fall, we welcomed four new members to our leadership team—Zack Hazlett of UC Boulder and Ming Yang of MIT are co-chairing our Professional Development Subcommittee, while Jacob Woodbury of Washington State and Bailey Von der Mehden of UT Knoxville began as new co-chairs of the Funding Subcommittee and Bylaws and Elections Subcommittee, respectively. We have also begun hosting periodic social events and writing accountability groups via Zoom to foster connections between DBER-SiT members outside of our larger and more formal events.

In 2023, we look forward to continuing to support DBER-SiT members through providing and publicizing professional development, funding, and social opportunities for trainees in DBER across institutions and disciplines. Graduate students and postdocs are always welcome to volunteer to serve on any of DBER-SiT’s subcommittees—for more information, please visit our website!

Updates from Special Interest Groups

Biology Through Art held a public student art show on December 17, 2022 at the San Diego Natural History Museum. 

Students from National University (San Diego) BIO 414 Invertebrate Zoology displayed acrylic paintings of phylogeny of animal phyla. (Instructor Mike Maxwell)

Students from BIOL 332 Vertebrate Biology California State Univ Fullerton displayed drawings of early tetrapod forelimbs. (Instructor Kristy Forsgren)

Group photo of BIO 414 students and instructor.

Painting by Paola Flores Valdez, National University.

Drawing by Valeria Villa, CSU Fullerton.

ImmunoReach network intends to bridge immunology with other disciplines, promote immune literacy, and allow for increased, earlier access to immunology education. A new classroom activity, developed by ImmunoReach participants (doi:10.25334/JEB5-Y738) uses a jigsaw format, and ties in COVID-19 related information, with immunology and genetics-related principles. The activity can be implemented in introductory biology courses; 2) Did you know that there is a huge discrepancy in textbook definitions of key immunological terms, antigen and immunogen? Check out this latest publication from ImmunoReach network (https://doi.org/10.4049/immunohorizons.2200004), where this discrepancy is discussed in detail. The contextual visual schematic included in this manuscript (Figure 8), describes these key terms, from an immunologist’s perspective, and shows a step by step approach to introduce conceptual nuances associated with these terms; 3) If you are looking to align your learning outcomes with the community-developed core concepts and competencies, in biology, then check out this resource, and feel free to reach out to one of the task force members; 4) Lastly, ImmunoReach community of practice hosts weekly virtual seminars on Fridays at 3 p.m. CST. Please feel free to contact Dr. Sumali Pandey (sumali.pandey@mnstate.edu) if you would like to connect with other like-minded folks, and discuss immunology and biology education.

Everyone who was involved in PALM (including mentors, fellows, steering committee members, and more!) will have the opportunity to participate in a workshop on Vision & Change and focus group adjacent to a key life science conference (which will include SABER 2023 and 2024, SABER West 2024, the American Society of Cell Biology, The Allied Genetics Conference, American Society on Plant Biology, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the National Association of Biology Teachers, and ASM’s Conference on Undergraduate Education).In exchange, our NSF grant will cover your airfare/transportation to/from the conference, as well as lodging and meals for the extra night you are there.

Please be on the lookout for a website and sign-up link that will be emailed out later this month or early February! Questions? Please contact Dina Newman (Dina.Newman@rit.edu) or Jeremy Hsu (hsu@chapman.edu). 

The SABER PEER Network SIG is focused on building community for anyone who identifies as a PEER (Persons Excluded due to their Ethnicity or Race) educator or an ally. The group provides career support, opportunity for research collaboration and networking, and includes subgroups focused on increasing research productivity and providing mentorship. We always welcome new members. If you’re interested in joining, please sign up by scanning the QR code below. 

The PEER Network Advocacy Subgroup, chaired by Jennifer Garcia, led the creation of a new logo for the SIG (the logo was created by Sarah Adkins-Jablonsky, Ph.D). We are pleased to share the new PEER Network logo with the SABER community.

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

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