Spotlight on the American Society for Microbiology

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is the world's oldest and largest life science membership organization. Beginning with 59 scientists in 1899, ASM now has over 40,000 members, representing 24 disciplines of microbiological specialization plus a division for microbiology educators.

The American Society for Microbiology sponsors an annual, task-oriented Undergraduate Microbiology Education Conference. Participants at the 1996 conference were greeted by Ms. Mary Lou Potter, lab coordinator, and Dr. Marion Socolofsky, professor, both of the Microbiology Department at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, La.). The 1996 conference, “Actively Learning Microbiology: Strategies for Incorporating the Core Curriculum,” yielded a series of active learning exercises for microbiology classes.

ASM has launched and maintained a comprehensive array of educational initiatives. At each ASM general meeting, the Education Division coordinates a symposium on contemporary educational topics. The 1998 symposium included an interactive session in which participants reviewed examination questions that test critical thinking in microbiology.

The mission of the ASM Board of Education and Training is to 1) promote access, excellence, and advancement in microbiology education and training; 2) enhance the community of microbiology educators and professionals; and 3) develop and promote leadership in the profession and at ASM. The board, which has several full-time support staff and is organized into distinctive committees, reaffirms ASM's core values that provide the ethical and professional framework for the mission and fundamental aims of ASM, including service, leadership, quality, and diversity. In addition, the board has identified one guiding principle that is unique to education and training and provides direction into the twenty-first century C the continued development of a microbiologist's intellectual, technical, and creative capabilities is essential due to rapid changes in the microbiological sciences. For this reason, the board is committed to lifelong education and training.

During the past five years, a major activity of the ASM Committee on Undergraduate Education has been the sponsorship of an annual, task-oriented conference for undergraduate microbiology faculty in conjunction with ASM's general meeting. As part of an ongoing process, conference participants articulate curricular guidelines for introductory courses, develop innovative curricular resources for microbiology classroom and laboratory instruction, and share effective teaching approaches. Foundational concepts, content, thinking skills, and laboratory safety about which all students should become knowledgeable have been endorsed. Participants have reaffirmed the inclusion of laboratory experience as an integral part of all microbiology courses.

Serving minority groups and international communities

As part of its commitment to helping students build successful careers, ASM awards research fellowships that enable undergraduates to participate in research at their institutions and present their research results. In the last 10 years, ASM has made a special effort to sponsor undergraduate and graduate students from under-represented minority groups and postdoctoral or early career scientists from international communities to participate in research fellowships. Moreover, ASM ensures that such fellows receive effective mentoring, networking opportunities, and professional development beyond their tenure with the fellowship program. The ASM Fellowship Endowment, established in 1993, provides the resources to build and sustain ASM's education and training efforts, particularly for undergraduate students or students from underrepresented minority groups. In addition, ASM is planning to extend its program in career development to help those graduate students who want to enrich their pedagogical skills in anticipation of faculty positions with teaching responsibilities.

In the last decade, ASM activities such as faculty fellowships, the undergraduate education newsletter, establishment of a core curriculum for introductory microbiology, regional and national conferences, and special support of underrepresented populations have fostered reconsideration of traditional biology instruction. The society has also initiated many services for members of underrepresented and underserved groups to increase their participation in ASM and the microbial sciences. Dr. Spencer Benson, chair of the ASM Committee on Undergraduate Education and associate professor of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland at College Park, applauded the society's educational initiatives in this area: "I am inspired by the work of my ASM colleagues in ensuring that biology education is a priority for all. Their vision, leadership, and dedication have combined to make ASM a leader in educational innovations in the biological sciences."

New projects for faculty and students

Now ASM is embarking on two projects that address the changing demographics of the student and faculty populations. A new program for "Unseen Microbiologists" seeks to include faculty who may not have felt an affiliation with ASM but who teach large numbers of students, including significant numbers of minority students and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. ASM invites these faculty, who often teach introductory microbiology at community colleges, to work with national leaders in planning major programs to improve undergraduate microbiology for the twenty-first century.

A second project that addresses the changing needs of college students is the microbiology telecourse, made up of 12 half-hour video programs and grounded in the consensus curriculum defined by over 500 ASM members who have participated in the series of undergraduate microbiology education conferences. The telecourse takes advantage of distance education technology to provide nontraditional students with high-quality, inexpensive educational materials.

A challenge for ASM in the next decade is to define and promote the scholarship of teaching. Already, ASM produces the Focus on Microbiology Education newsletter, which supports the scholarly and creative endeavor of teaching microbiology. It includes "how-to" columns, feature articles, essays, and news items pertinent to microbiology educators, and ASM is considering including refereed articles. ASM encourages the field testing of curricular activities developed during its undergraduate education conferences. In addition to disseminating imaginative new materials, ASM is developing strategies for the peer review of high-quality, existing materials via the Internet.

"The challenges of educating the next generation of biologists are as rich for me as the most engaging research questions," said Dr. Benson. "ASM is helping researchers and educators to work together to better meet both types of challenges."