2025 Conference
Crossing Borders, Cultivating Futures:Monarchs, Milkweeds, and Journeys ofTransformation in Science Education
One-day conference sponsored by the NSF-funded project Monarchs and Milkweeds known as CIM2AS (Cultural Immersion in Monarchs and Milkweeds Advancing Science Education)–a partnership among science and science education faculty at UIC, science faculty at community colleges and universities, and high school teachers at Chicago area public high schools. The program includes plenary and parallel sessions with guest speakers and project faculty.
Attendees will learn about transformative possibilities that emerge when exploring both science and socio-cultural-political concepts, processes, and phenomena in science high school and college classrooms and in the field, while focusing on the dynamic system of monarch butterflies, and their larval host plant, milkweeds.
Sessions will explore migration, genetics, physiology, and other aspects of monarch biology, including their intricate relationship with milkweed plants; ways in which undergraduate summer interns engage in research related to the monarch-milkweed system; migration in the science and social worlds; community and Indigenous knowledges; curricular adaptation; teacher evolution; and justice-centered science.
This conference is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IUSE-1928673. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed during the conference are those of the presenters and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Teachers in K-12 schools attending the conference will receive 7.5 professional development units.
Conference Program Heading link
Conference Speakers Heading link
Join our special guest speakers during their Plenary sessions!
Jaime Rojo Heading link
Jaime Rojo is a photographer and National Geographic Explorer with a background in conservation, who focuses on environmental stories about wilderness and wildlife and uses his images as tools to protect nature. He has spent 20 years documenting Monarch butterflies, and his story, “Saving the Monarchs”—a visual exploration of their migration, the threats they face, and the efforts to protect them—was featured on the cover of National Geographic in January 2024. Jaime also serves as a communications advisor to environmental organizations, corporate clients, educational institutions, and government agencies worldwide. He is a TED speaker, a Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a trustee of the WILD Foundation, and has received honors from prestigious competitions such as World Press Photo, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and Pictures of the Year International.
Dr. Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero Heading link
Dr. Sáenz-Romero is currently a full time Professor at Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. His main research interest is the management of forest genetic resources (genecology, population genetics, conservation and reforestation) considering climate change. His research has been conducted at the forest of Mexican Native Indians (First Nations) at Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Michoacán State, Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, and Calimaya, State of México. Recently his research has focused on searching for alternatives for reforestation [using assisted migration of Abies religiosa (Sacred Fir) provenances and shrubs as nurse plants] at the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, center of México.
Dr. Mary V. Ashley Heading link
Mary V. Ashley, Ph.D., is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Biological Sciences at UIC. She taught ecology and evolution to thousands of UIC undergraduates and mentored dozens of graduate students over more than 30 years at UIC. She is the Principal Investigator of the CIM2AS NSF grant and has worked to promote diversity and inclusion in STEM throughout her career. Ashley’s research lab pioneered the use of molecular markers to study mating systems in plants and animals, including the first reports of long-distance pollination in plants. She and her students have conducted important studies in the field of conservation genetics, including genetic assessments of many threatened species. Her awards include UIC’s Graduate Mentoring Award, a University Scholar Award, and UIC Woman of the Year Award.
Dr. Maria Varelas Heading link
Maria Varelas is Professor of Science Education and Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois Chicago and was the Director of the UIC Center for the Advancement of Teaching-Learning Communities. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her research focuses on exploring possibilities and challenges related to student learning when educators consider and practice science education centering equity and justice. With multi-year and multi-collaborator NSF grants totaling over $12M, her research has emerged and unfolded in collaborations with teachers, seeking to create together transformative and generative learning spaces and places, centered on minoritized students’ assets, agency, creativity, and voice, which challenge the power of restrictive structures and scaffold students’ creation of knowledge consequential for their futures and the future of their communities. Varelas has published two books along with many journal articles and book chapters, has held leadership positions in science education, and has received several university awards for her teaching in undergraduate and graduate programs, and for her research.