ABLE News and Notes
Compiled by Mariëlle Hoefnagels, Labstracts Editor

ABLEweb.org

ABLE Custom Publishing Survey Available

What services matter most to you when choosing a custom publisher for your original laboratory exercises? What new course management technologies would you like to apply in your lab program? State your preferences by taking the ABLE Original Lab Publishing web survey!

Pearson Custom Publishing is pleased to announce that it is hosting a web survey for the ABLE membership. The goal is to give instructors an opportunity to rate the importance of current services offered by custom publishers, evaluate the likelihood of using online course management technologies in their labs, and recommend new features and services for original lab publishing.

Instructors may take the survey by pointing their Internet browser to the following address:

http://www.surveyhosting.net/pearson/able_questionnaire.htm

All respondents completing the survey by December 15, 2004 will be entered in a drawing for a $100 American Express gift certificate.

All individual responses to this survey will be treated as strictly confidential. None of the information gathered will be used for promotional purposes. A summary report of the survey results – and an announcement of the winner of the drawing – will be published in the spring 2005 ABLE newsletter.

Please contact Nathan Wilbur (nathan.wilbur@pearsoncustom.com) if you have questions or comments regarding this survey. We look forward to receiving your responses, and reporting the results back to you all!

Laboratory Teaching Initiative Grants Go Unclaimed!

Remarkably, nobody applied for last year's Laboratory Teaching Initiative Grants! These grants provide up to $2000 to help YOU develop and implement lab initiatives. The purpose of these grants is to encourage, support, and acknowledge developments in biology laboratory teaching at the university and college level. Don't let the scholarship committee rest again this year. The due date for the next round of grant proposals is May 3, 2005. For more information on Laboratory Initiative Teaching Grants and an application form, visit http://www.zoo.toronto.edu/able/grants.htm.

Update on New Major Workshop Evaluation System

Participants in the 2004 annual meeting got to voice their opinions on a new, more comprehensive, feedback system for major workshops. Major workshop co-chair Anne Cordon reports that the response was positive, with most people saying they would be willing to do a more extensive review on at least one session they attended. The new system will supplement the current one-page workshop evaluation forms and help provide some of the peer review that our partnership with BEN requires.

Upcoming Meetings

Here is a short list of upcoming meetings that might interest ABLE members. If you know of others that should be included, please email me.

ABLE (Association for Biology Laboratory Education): The 2005 annual meeting will be from June 21-25, 2005, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.

ACUBE (Association of College and University Biology Educators): You just missed their 48th annual meeting (October 14-16, 2004 at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana). Details on the 2005 meeting have yet to be posted.

AIBS (American Institute of Biological Sciences): AIBS will not be holding an Annual Meeting in 2005. AIBS members are encouraged to attend the two-day symposium, Evolutionary Science and Society: Educating a New Generation, sponsored by AIBS and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, at the 2004 annual convention of the National Association of Biology Teachers, 10 - 13 November 2004, in Chicago, Illinois.

CUR (Council on Undergraduate Research): The 11th National Conference will be at DePauw University, June 24-27, 2006. If you can't wait that long, you can visit the CUR dialog from April 17-19, 2005 at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, VA, or the CUR business meeting hosted by Wabash College from June 22-25, 2005.

NABT (National Association of Biology Teachers): The 2004 annual meeting will be at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago on November 10-13, 2004.

NCUR (National Conferences on Undergraduate Research): The 2005 annual meeting will be from March 17-19 at Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University.

NSTA (National Science Teachers Association): The 2005 annual convention will be in Dallas from
March 31 - April 3, 2005. Regional conventions still to come in 2004 include the following: Midwestern Area Convention, Indianapolis, IN from November 4-6, 2004; Northwestern Area Convention, Seattle, WA from November 18-20, 2004; and Eastern Area Convention, Richmond, VA from December 2-4, 2004.

Project Kaleidoscope is devoted to undergraduate education in mathematics, engineering, and science. Assemblies for 2004 are complete, and those for 2005 were not yet posted at the time of this writing.

Wanted: Contributions to Labstracts

Labstracts is a forum for you, the members of ABLE, to share what you know about biology laboratory education. Labstracts relies on you for ideas and contributions. If you look at this issue, you will see that we have all sorts of items -- from short news clips to longer articles. Any and all submissions are warmly welcomed.

What are your favorite ideas about teaching? What are your problems? What would you like to know about how your colleagues teach? Do you have ideas for articles, even if you don't have time to write one yourself?

If you want to submit an article, or just an idea for an article, please contact me at hoefnagels@ou.edu. If you are submitting an article, please include information about yourself and a scanned picture (if possible) to include with the article. Photos of students or equipment "in action" are, of course, also always welcome. The deadline for the Winter 2005 issue will be February 1, 2005.