I started watching the live (now recorded) ASMCUE 2022 sessions. I started with a microbrew entitled: “Utilizing BioRender in the Classroom for the Visualization of Scientific Concepts” since I am using BioRender more and more now. Sally R. Chamberland from Springfield College teaches several biology, microbiology, and genetics courses and uses BioRender. They spoke about what BioRender is and shared an animation. Chamberland mentioned that it is free for educational purposes though limited to five figures. I am impressed Chamberland is able to use the free version for all the different courses they teach! Chamberland has students create concept maps and Venn Diagrams by creating figures for a Google Jamboard. The example was Innate vs. Adaptive immune systems. Students can also create mind maps. This is a way to study and share. Another example Chamberland shared was the creation of a visual glossary for, for example, a pathogen or an eosinophil. This approach, Chamberland mentioned, is another great study tool. The last example Chamberland shared was summarizing articles as graphical abstracts. The example shared was an article about microbiomes! Several of the questions during the discussion focused on challenges and grading. Chamberland often grades for completion and includes questions. I learned from this session several assignments and uses of BioRender I had not considered!
