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UnConference May 2017


oCUBE is delighted to invite you to the EIGHTH annual (Un)Conference to discuss pedagogical matters in a small group setting in beautiful Muskoka. The (Un)Conference is designed to support a community of practice among people dedicated to an exceptionally satisfying experience of undergraduate biology education. Faculty, staff, graduate students, and administrators interested in biology education are all welcome. Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis (maximum of 35 participants). Twitter hashtag: #oCUBE17.

Our 2017 (Un)Conference will be held Tuesday May 23 to Friday May 26,at Shamrock

Lodge (see below). oCUBE in general, and the (Un)Conference in particular, are answers to the question, "How can we sustain a vibrant Community of Practice among people determined to improve the quality of experience of undergrad biology education for students and instructors?"

We thank Nelson Education, Pearson Education & MacMillan publishing for their generous donations.


8th oCUBE UnConference invitation poster


Check out the 2017 (Un)Conference program above! There is an interactive spreadsheet, and at the bottom, a pdf copy that can be downloaded.

We can't say it enough times - the UnConference is truly a community effort. Facilitators help moderate discussions about topics of interest to our UnConference participants, while scribes diligently take notes for the group and for those who couldn't attend. Time-keepers are very valued members - keeping us on task! Thank you to all who helped out! For the third year in a row, we used Scribe forms (a Google form), so notes were collected in real-time and posted somewhat immediately to the website. This year all sessions were captured - where session notes are available, there are clickable links in the program spreadsheet (link is above).

As with other years, we had a few different types of sessions: BIGS (Big Idea Group Sessions; ~ 55 min) and GIFTS (Great Ideas For Teaching Sessions; ~ 25 min), which are often concurrent, the now regular Fix My Sh%#*!, and new this year Tips & Tricks! While we have worked out many of the knottier parts of programming, because making a schedule on the fly after votination is a bit chaotic and stressful, we had three pre-planned anchor sessions. These were pitched by and voted for by participants two weeks before the UnConference. These helped populate the earlier sessions on Wednesday allowing the schedulers to do their thing without a looming sense of doom threatening to consume them.

This year we welcomed some old faces and some new people who we hope will make coming to the UnConference an annual event. We hope that everyone got something from the UnConference and would love to hear what you plan to do with what you learned!





oCUBE is partnered with

Open Consortium of Undergraduate Biology Educators is a non-profit. 

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