ACSME 2025 – wrap up Posted in Events, News, Teaching and Learning, WIL on October 8, 2025 by Glenda Key. After another fantastic ACSME conference, it is hard to identify highlights as the conference reflected the maturity, excellence and innovation within our science education community. ACSME 2025 was hosted by the University of Melbourne, with a committee drawn from Monash, Deakin and Latrobe, in addition to UoM. Yet again, we had an increased number of in-person participants, resulting in a lively atmosphere throughout the conference. An ongoing theme was the value in coming together as colleagues and friends and learning from each other. We began with Discipline Day (a return to an earlier tradition), which was focussed on career development. Workshops covered demonstrating impact of education roles, education-focussed careers, writing for education journals and work-integrated learning. For the first time, the afternoon included a ‘third space’ workshop in addition to the science discipline workshops. We welcomed educational designers, academic developers, educational technologists and those in similar roles. These people play an increasingly important role in working with discipline-based educators to design STEM education that shapes the future – the conference theme. The theme was evident in our excellent keynote presentations, all of which covered in different ways the need to understand our students and to design educational activities accordingly. This is particularly important as the student body becomes more diverse and we had two powerful sessions on the need to better include First Nations knowledges and students in science education systems. A panel of industry representatives emphasised the value of ‘soft skills’ such as teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability in addition to technical knowledge. This year marks the 30th year of operation for the ACDS, following the 30th ACSME conference last year. We took the opportunity to reflect on the history, impact and achievements of our community with two special presentations co-authored by Alex Yeung, Sarah-Jane Gregory, Manjula Sharma and Liz Johnson. While ACSME allows us to share the excellent educational scholarship and practice happening in science faculties around the country, its success also depends on the fact that it is supported by a clear structure through ACDS. We thank the committee for all their hard work in putting the conference together, our keynote speakers and all participants for the great atmosphere and discussions during the conference. We hope to see everyone at ACSME 2026, hosted by the University of New South Wales. Information will be available on the ACDS website soon. The ACSME 2025 conference proceedings are available online.
