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The clouds were moving in and I thought to myself "Oh, I'll have time to walk somewhere and find something to eat before my meeting" (I was hungry after my flight). The next thing I new I was running through a downpour trying to find safety. My feet were soaked and my umbrella had been turned inside out. I went back to the dorms, changed and headed out to my meeting again. Luckily the rest of the week was drier and beautiful at the University of Kentucky. ABLE members arrived to beautiful horse country, a great university and a few days of interesting workshops. It was exciting to see many new members attending and be reunited with friends made at past conferences.
After I leave an ABLE conference I always think of how I enjoy the field trips, interacting with members and getting new lab ideas to take home. I have incorporated something from just about every ABLE conference into writing our lab manual or into teaching techniques for lab TAs. ABLE truly is a valuable resource for biology educators.
To see what ABLE has to offer, take a look at articles submitted by ABLE members in this issue and read about the past 2007 conference and future conference for June 2008. If you had a great experience at a past ABLE conference, please consider writing an article for Labstracts. We are always talking and sharing information at the meetings, so all of us should have something to write about! And it would be useful information for those who are not able to attend a conference.
This year I presented a major workshop (my first) and I encourage you to do the same. Not only do you provide a new idea or lab exercise for others to use, but the feedback you receive from participants is worth so much. Please think of presenting a lab that you run at your institution at the next ABLE conference. You'll receive lots of constructive criticism, you'll hear "I could use this in my lab!", and you'll get to wear Presenter on your name tag!
In addition, this issue includes information about upcoming conferences, an article on critical thinking in biology, reports from board members (including one from our new president), surveys, photos from previous meetings and a new teaching resource site that I would be happy to add more information to!
Enjoy and happy fall!
Barbara Stegenga
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