2026 ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators

Pre-registration required through ASMCUE registration process. There are still openings for this workshop.

What role can a storyline approach and rich instructional materials play in expanding students’ understanding of the immune system? In this workshop, participants will explore HHMI BioInteractive’s engaging immune system activities, including an illustrated story of smallpox, to introduce the cells of the immune system. Using the Immune System Interactive and case studies, pedagogical strategies, such as scaffolding, will be highlighted to support and assess students' conceptual connections between innate and adaptive responses. The workshop will culminate in a guided discussion on how to incorporate this storyline into their own classes. Participants should have a laptop to participate fully in the workshop. This workshop is sponsored by HHMI BioInteractive.

Historical perspectives can help students explore the nature of science, the development of microbiological knowledge, and the connections between microbes, society, and human health. This roundtable discussion will introduce educators to the American Society for Microbiology Committee on the History of Microbiology and Archives (CHOMA), including collections that can be incorporated into undergraduate microbiology education. I will briefly share how archival resources are being utilized in the Microbiology Time Machine, a first-year elective I am teaching at the University of Washington Bothell where students are collaborating with CHOMA to create teaching artifacts centered on key milestones in microbiology. This conversation will build community among faculty interested in using historical perspectives to enrich their teaching while identifying educator needs, brainstorming priorities for teaching toolkits, and exploring how CHOMA can support educators interested in integrating microbiology history into undergraduate education.

This workshop will use dual active learning, participant execution and examining a deployed student machine learning (ML) use case, to better understand how to develop and run ML code for course assignments. Using a simulation case assignment of predicted MS phenotype based on IL-17 expression after microbial exposure, participants will examine the implementation and run ML code. Participants will demonstrate python code extraction and implement a code scheme in a free Jupyter notebook environment.

The Microbiology Achievement through Research and Valuable Experiential Learning (MARVEL) program was developed as an early post-secondary curriculum intervention to promote academic success, persistence and retention in STEM by focusing professional development activities. MARVEL workshops focusing on STEM communication, networking, teamwork, and relational skills are incorporated directly into their majors first-semester seminar course within the broader Microbiology community to promote belonging and STEM identity development. Workshop participants will become familiar with the MARVEL curriculum, practice learning activities used in the workshop "Embracing the Mentor-Mentee Relationship," and discuss strategies of how to implement the MARVEL curriculum effectively at their home institutions.

Co-curricular activities help students to build and sustain their sense of belonging, professional identity, and career readiness. In response to declines in participation in co-curricular science clubs resulting from repeated shifts in student leadership, faculty at our institution developed a sustainable, faculty-led STEM Society to provide equitable and regular programming that students can depend upon. By intentionally embedding opportunities for connection across science disciplines, faculty are showcased as an approachable source of support. This has resulted in students feeling empowered to inform faculty of resources needed for success. In response our STEM Society now offers an MCAT study group, peer study group facilitators, career panels, internship fairs, and student achievement celebrations. During this interactive presentation we will introduce our faculty-led model, share the programming framework, and engage participants in discussions about opportunities and challenges of developing sustainable co-curricular programming aimed at promoting belonging, persistence, and career readiness at their institutions.

STEM careers in healthcare and biomedical sciences continue to be stable and growing professions. However, learners often struggle to connect foundational science disciplines to real-world applications. The Rural Appalachian Health Disparities minor at WVU provides a curricular framework that integrates basic science, community engagement, and public health policy to address health challenges in rural Appalachia. This roundtable will explore strategies for leveraging existing curricula to demonstrate how disciplines such as microbiology, immunology, and molecular biology inform public health initiatives and community partnerships. Participants will discuss strategies for fostering interdisciplinary collaborations across their institutions and explore how integrating community-relevant health challenges into foundational science curricula can better prepare and retain students from diverse backgrounds for careers in healthcare, biomedical research, and public health while reinforcing the societal relevance of basic science.

As undergraduate programs increasingly seek to incorporate industry-recognized credentials (IRCs), faculty and educators face an important question: how well do bioscience industry standards align with academic preparation and existing coursework? IRCs provide a tangible connection between the classroom and the workplace by validating competencies valued by employers, but what does meaningful integration look like in practice? This interactive roundtable invites participants to complete, at no cost, the Biotechnology Aptitude and Competency Exam (BACE) and/or the Aseptic Processing Technician Exam (APTE) prior to the session. By experiencing the exams firsthand, participants will gain insight into their rigor, content, and workforce relevance. Guided discussion will focus on strategies for aligning curricula with industry-defined competencies, adapting existing courses, developing credential-forward learning experiences, and examining the role of IRCs in enhancing student opportunity, employability, and career readiness. Participants will leave with practical ideas for bridging academic and workforce expectations.

Long-term professional development (PD) programs can improve student learning, but they are not easy to build or run. This session highlights practical PD frameworks that create lasting change by detailing the Biologists and Graph Interpretation (BioGraphI) Project, an NSF-funded network that promotes evidence-based teaching. BioGraphI is an online community of practice (CoP) that has trained over 100 faculty across multiple institutions. We will describe the structure, curriculum, facilitator tools, evaluation, and faculty outcomes of BioGraphI. Using BioGraphI’s materials as a guide, participants will draft a plan to build their own CoP and connect with others to explore potential collaborations.

Today's microbiology educators are increasingly called upon to lead change across classrooms, departments, and institutions. Yet few professional development experiences prepare faculty for the complexity of this work. Drawing on Project Kaleidoscope’s STEM leadership development, this interactive session will introduce an evidence-informed professional development model grounded in systems thinking, organizational change, and reflective practice. Through a facilitated case study presentation and discussion, attendees will learn how to diagnose complex challenges before acting, recognize the visible and invisible forces shaping institutional change, navigate competing perspectives, and lead with greater consciousness, ownership, and resonance.