Research and Teaching Summer Workshop

Location: Bioscience Research Building, University of Maryland
Dates: June 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2009

A forum for the informal exchange of ideas among faculty who research and teach microbiology co-hosted by the University of Maryland and Montgomery College. Students learn best when they are actively engaged and see the relevance in what they are learning. This conference is an effort to think about those current issues / problems in infectious disease (host pathogen interactions -HPI) that can serve as tools towards more effective teaching of basic microbiological concepts.

The goal of the HPI Research and Teaching Summer Workshop will be to discuss current research in host pathogen interactions, as well as current and emerging global issues and problems that require understanding of HPI topics and intersect this conversation with a discussion of current research on how students learn science and the concerns and problems facing those who teach science, specifically topics of microbiology relevant to hos tpathogen interactions. See Workshop Agenda.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE CONFERENCE WILL:

• Learn about current research in science education and how students learn science
• Learn about current research on HPI topics
• Share insight about teaching and researching HPI topics
• Share insight about teaching microbiology to various audiences (nurses, allied health, science majors, and non-science majors)
• Discuss current critical microbiological issues related to infectious disease and other HPI topics that would be useful in creating activities to learn microbiology
• Discuss teaching methods that would be effective in creating learning activities that reveal topics of microbiology and how science knowledge is generated.
• Discuss current and emerging global issues relevant to infectious disease and make decisions regarding urgency with which topics should be addressed in microbiology courses

EXPECTED CONFERENCE OUTCOMES:

• Ideas for development of activities that engage students in learning concepts of host pathogen interactions and reveal how scientific ideas are generated.
• Generation of “current topics in HPI” that conference participants deem as important to be taught in microbiology courses in the 2009/2010 school year.
• Dialog on how students learn science
• Dialog on how we as teachers and researchers communicate the importance of understanding microbiology and the processes of science
• Increased awareness of how students learn about science in the State of Maryland at UM and at Community Colleges represented by participants in attendance

Sponsored by a NSF-CCLI grant “Activities to support deep and research oriented learning of host pathogen interactions” to the University of Maryland and Montgomery College and the University of Maryland College of Chemical and Life Sciences.