Journey to Minneapolis

Scientific Meetings  

Throughout my graduate study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I have had the privilege of attending four scientific meetings and collected meeting posters as mementos from each event. Meetings are important in the science industry because they offer a venue to join researchers who may be geographically or institutionally disconnected, and engage in the scholarly discourse of new findings and ideas. I can corroborate this, as each new experience has enriched my training with unique perspectives and encounters that have given me inspiration and insight that may have otherwise been unattainable. Of the meetings I’ve attended, there are two characteristics they all share in common: they all occurred in the Southeast (mostly in Birmingham, AL), and they were all related to my bench research.

What Happens At Meetings?
Scientific research is vital to advancing society through novel innovation and discovery in technology, medicine, materials and knowledge. It is from innovation and discovery that opportunities such as journeying to Mars, holographic communication and therapeutics for hard-to-beat diseases will become available. Often these advances are made possible through conversation and collaboration, and many of these conversations and collaborations happen at meetings.

Science And Education

There is another noble endeavor that has its own unique challenges and obstacles, and that is the undertaking of education. Science and education are not mutually exclusive pursuits. In fact, the two require synergy to progress. Science needs education because the general public must be educated to be made aware of and appreciate the novelty and value of a scientific breakthrough. Likewise, education needs science because science provides tangible evidence of what humans are capable of and establishes a purpose for obtaining an education (of course economic well-being, prestige and social position may be other reasons to get an education as well). I have a passion for education because it offers an opportunity to serve society and elevate scientific literacy in the public. Education is an enormous responsibility as the consumers are mostly members of new generations (i.e., millennial) who are hungry for learning and make up the design of the future workforce. The consumers in science classrooms are theoretically already won-over and should perform well, as they are likely present because they are interested and motivated to learn about science (regardless of intention – medical school); however, in spite of their apparent enthusiasm, science remains a difficult subject to learn.

Learning Science
The question of how to make science a more achievable course of study and improve learning outcomes is a complicated problem to solve as there are many factors, yet there are those who are daring to address this problem and find solutions. These are the educational scientists, where classrooms are their laboratories and teaching interventions are their experiments. Although they may be spread out all over the globe, these scientists meet to exchange ideas, discuss findings and collaborate to increase the knowledge of research-based methods of improving education. When education becomes accessible to and achievable by all students, regardless of prior training or academic discipline, students can impact and educate their communities with the knowledge they've gained. In this way, society can move a step forward in its scientific understanding.

SABER
SABER, or the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research, is holding their national meeting in Minneapolis, MN. The SABER meeting features education researchers who are at the forefront of addressing the learning question, career development and policy in the biology discipline. I will be attending this meeting of minds to pick the brains of seasoned biology education scientists, present my own education research and find out what's cooking in the pipeline of educational innovation. Stay tuned.