Author
Jennifer G. Riem1
1 - Ecological Society of America, jennifer@esa.org
Background
The American Microbiology Society Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) is an annual three-day teaching conference that precedes ASM’s General Meeting. ASMCUE is an opportunity for educators to learn and share ways to advance teaching and learning in microbiology. Over the past 14 years, the conference has grown from a half-day workshop into a full weekend conference with an active community of regular attendees. ASM provides travel grants to encourage young faculty and non-ASM members who teach microbiology at schools with a large proportion of underrepresented students to attend the meeting. ASM aspires to further expand the meeting to include educators from across the biological disciplines. To that end, this year’s meeting emphasized integration of microbiology with other areas of biology and highlighted microbial ecology in particular. The conference drew nearly 300 biology educators and included concurrent workshop sessions, three plenary lectures, two poster sessions, exhibits, and many opportunities for informal group discussions.