Join Aquifer at IAMSE 2026

June 6-9, 2026 | Augusta, GA

Teaching basic science in a world where students can Google a diagnosis, use AI to generate a differential, and pass their boards without ever truly understanding why a patient deteriorates—that's the challenge you're navigating every day. And it's exactly what we'll be talking about at the 2026 IAMSE Annual Conference.

Aquifer will be on-site in Augusta from June 6 through 9, and we'd love to connect. Whether you're a current subscriber looking to get more out of your tools, or you're curious about what Aquifer Sciences can offer your program, stop by the booth. We're there for the conversations that matter. The ones about what's actually happening in your program and how we can help.

The Challenge We Keep Hearing

Basic science educators are under pressure from every direction, and this year's IAMSE theme, Flourishing Through Change, captures it well. The conversations will likely touch on challenges you're already living:

• Competency-based medical education and pass/fail grading have shifted how students engage with foundational content, making it harder to know what they've actually internalized.
• Connecting basic science to clinical reasoning remains a persistent gap. Students can recite pathways. What they struggle with is thinking with that knowledge when it counts.
• AI is raising new questions about what foundational learning even needs to look like, and why it still matters.
• Time for curriculum development keeps shrinking, even as expectations for integration and assessment keep growing.
• And the big question, how do you assess integration, not just memorization, still doesn't have an easy answer for most programs.

These are the issues that Aquifer Sciences was built to address. Integrated Illness Scripts (IIS) and Mechanism of Disease (MOD) Maps connect causal mechanisms to patient presentations, giving students a structured way to reason through clinical problems, not just recall facts. And new this year, PracticeSmart questions for IIS give students another tool to assess that reasoning in action.

Come by our booth (#8) if you want to:

• See our Integrated Illness Scripts in action

• Explore ways to increase adoption of science resources

• Get a walkthrough of our Open Curricular Database

• Share input on our preclinical sciences course prototype

• Learn more about our call for assessment authors

• Just chat with our team and Consortium members

We’d love to connect with you!

Don’t Miss our Workshop

Aquifer is sponsoring a Professional Development Workshop at this year's conference:

Integrating Basic Science and Clinical Medicine: From Curriculum to Classroom to Learner Assessment

June 6
Session 1: 8:00-11:00 AM EDT
Session 2: 12:30-3:30 PM EDT

This 6-hour faculty development course is designed for educators who want practical, ready-to-use strategies for curriculum design, classroom integration, and assessment. Participants will work hands-on with the Aquifer Sciences Curriculum, a freely available resource built collaboratively by Aquifer and IAMSE, and explore how Integrated Learning Objectives, IIS, and MOD Maps can work together across a range of educational settings, from pre-clerkship courses to bedside teaching to faculty development.

Aquifer Consortium Members in the Spotlight

Catch members of the Aquifer Sciences Board at these focus sessions on June 8:

Make the Match: Designing Interactive Lab-Clinical Correlation Games for Medical Learners
Melissa Cowan, David Harris, Vania Zayat
Monday, June 8, 2026  |  10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Professional Development of Medical Educators Using the GLASS Tool: Designing Faculty Development Sessions for Leadership in Longitudinal and Integrated Curricula
Stefanie Carter, Youngjin Cho, Charles Gullo, Amy Prunuske, John Szarek, Gabi Waite
Monday, June 8, 2026  |  10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Teaching Students to Fail Well: Applying the Science of Productive Failure 
Lawrence Loo, Khiet Ngo
Monday, June 8, 2026  |  10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Aquifer would like to extend a big thank you to all of the members of our Sciences Board and broader Leadership Team for their dedication to advancing basic science education and keeping the needs of health professions educators at the forefront of everything we do. Learn more at aquifer.org/aquifer-sciences.

Find us in Augusta

Whether you're a current Aquifer subscriber wanting to get more out of your tools or someone exploring clinical education solutions for the first time, we'd love to connect. Visit us at booth #8 to talk through what's working, what isn't, and where we can help.

Can’t make it to IAMSE? Set up a Curricular Consult with our team of Peer Trainers to get bespoke support for your program.