I have noticed that undergraduate syllabi continue to list laboratory experiences under ‘practicals’ with an implicit goal of introducing students to methods and techniques that have helped us understand core concepts of a certain area of knowledge or field. An example is the “Proposed Scheme for Choice-based Credit System in B.Sc. Microbiology” (first year) from the Telangana State Council of Higher Education, Government of Telangana. Brownell et al discuss traditionally structured labs like these, termed as ‘cookbook’ labs because they provide students with step-by-step instructions on how to carry out an investigation. Published studies from the American system show that cookbook labs engage students intellectually at a lower level. The significance of experimental results is lost on students when they follow recipe-like activities. Moreover, students are exposed to poor and inaccurate representations of research when they perform cookbook labs.

Some might argue that cookbook labs have their place in an undergraduate curriculum. Integrating the labs and lecture-discussions can create a cohesive learning experience for students throughout the semester/academic year. If a deliberate and diligent attempt to integrate lecture-discussion sessions with laboratory work is done, students may be broadly engaged with learning the objectives or experiments listed above. However, are these techniques and procedures, as taught by the instructors and experienced by the students, relevant to current needs?

Designing an effective and engaging learning experience will depend on what the desired outcome is. The students should be aware of the clarity of the outcome; without an explicit understanding about where they are headed, students might not always be engaged in the process, and they might not find it relevant to take part in the journey. Making labs relevant and engaging to students are the two key aspects of making them effective tools for deeper learning. In this direction, course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are gaining prominence and popularity. There is a good amount of literature that describes the value of CUREs, feasibility of transforming traditional labs into CUREs, and the impact of CUREs on various aspects of student experience.

One example of a CURE that is increasingly becoming popular in the United States is the Small World Initiative (SWI). As per its website - “SWI is an innovative program that successfully encourages students to pursue careers in science through hands-on experience and real-world applicable laboratory and field research in introductory courses. As part of SWI, students from around the world isolate bacteria from soil in their local environment that could lead to novel antibiotics. This is particularly relevant since over two thirds of antibiotics originate from soil bacteria or fungi. Differentiating itself from traditional courses, SWI’s biology course provides original research opportunities rather than relying on cookbook experiments with predetermined results. Through a series of student-driven experiments, students collect soil samples, isolate diverse bacteria, test bacteria against clinically-relevant microorganisms, and characterize the ones showing inhibitory activity. SWI’s approach also provides a platform to crowdsource antibiotic discovery by tapping onto the intellectual power of many people concurrently addressing a global challenge and advances promising candidates into the drug development pipeline. This unique class approach harnesses the power of active learning to achieve both educational and scientific goals.”

SWI as a structured program was formulated and founded at Yale University and piloted in 2012. The focus of this program is to address a worldwide health threat – the diminishing supply of effective antibiotics in the wake of increasing antibiotic resistance. SWI claims that since their inception, the program has grown rapidly to include more than 170 participating schools across 35 US states, Puerto Rico, and 12 countries. Incidentally, India is one of those countries; the program is being implemented at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) in Hyderabad. In addition to expanding SWI on a global scale, it is also developing the infrastructure to allow SWI’s antibiotic discovery to move forward into R&D programs. As part of its expansion, SWI’s introductory biology course is being taken to the high school setting to increase its impact and act as a feeder into college programs.

An effort like SWI not only benefits students in their academic pursuit but also adds great community (health) relevance in the age of multi-drug resistant microbes. Other ideas can exploit cutting edge technologies like genome engineering that not only are exciting from a scientific perspective but can have important social, ethical and legal implications. My own personal experience offering a CURE using the CRISPR-Cas9 technology to first year students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been exciting and intellectually stimulating. Student feedback tells me that they too enjoyed the experience. Though they don’t remember every detail of the experience, I have evidence from my CURE that there is a positive impact on academic performance of students.

The idea underlying SWI and other such CUREs is by no means exclusive to the United States. Many teachers in other parts of the world, including India, would have attempted similar ideas. But the lack of widespread and consistent use of CUREs, especially in Indian undergraduate institutions, makes it appear that these efforts have not been sustainable. It would be prudent to understand the reasons for lack of sustainability of such ideas and efforts. If there are indeed programs that have been ongoing in a sustained manner, it is important that they are made widely known and they should motivate other similar efforts across the nation. If we do not act now and create/promote engaging and authentic learning experiences for students, we are doing ourselves a great disservice.

Involving every student in the class

I teach in the Zoology department at IIS University in Jaipur, where I have taught for the last 12 years. My guiding principle is that teachers should encourage students, stoke their curiosity. To that end, we ought to implement those teaching strategies that draw their attention on underlying concepts while also giving room for students to interact during lectures.

One such example that I recently implemented in one of my classes, was to teach a lab exercise on “studying of giant chromosome from live Chironomus larvae”. The experiment was performed by postgraduate students. Students have a preliminary idea about chromosome structure, from having seen diagrams in textbooks.

Usually this practical is conducted using permanent slides. But instead, I motivated the students to collect live larvae for the lab. During the class, I gave them instructions on the habitat and ecological conditions of the larvae, and how students could identify them. These larvae are bright red in colour and show characteristic undulating movements.

They enthusiastically collected the larvae and brought to the lab. I demonstrated the dissection from the salivary gland of the larva for separating the chromosome. Students counted the arms of the chromosome and were asked to stain them. Each student then performed the experiment. The larva is big and readily available, and can also be used as an alternative to study polytene chromosomes other than Drosophila sp.

My primary objective through this exercise was to involve every student, while also improving my own teaching efficiency. It was very rewarding to witness their enthusiastic participation in the class. I realised that “completing syllabus” doesn’t have to be a drag, that inculcating enthusiasm in students can be achieved along with it.

Learning by playing

Ranjana Agrawal, HOD Biotechnology and Assistant Professor in Zoology, Kanoria PG Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Jaipur; supplements classroom teaching with games to engage students as she assesses their learning.

To break the monotony of traditional lectures, sometimes I supplement classroom pedagogy with games. Usually, I will select a topic that has been recently taught and design diverse games around that, ranging from painting to acting.

Students are divided in two teams for Charades, which I have used to review syllabus items; such as terms pertaining to instruments or biological processes. Once it is answered correctly, we quickly revise the corresponding topics. I regularly organise Rangoli and painting competitions where students draw phenomena like replication, cloning, bacterial gene transfer, etc. Drawing helps students in understanding the concepts and adding vivid colours from their imagination gives them a creative high.

Many times, I try to give daily life examples, to help students understand complex concepts. For instance, while teaching Immunology, I connect body’s defence system with our country’s defence system. Our army, navy and air wings have different functions and work together to fight foreign invaders trying to invade Line of Control. Similarly, our body’s defence [immune] system has different cells with specialised functions to fight the pathogenic microbes that invade the body. The signaling molecules or ligands specifically interact with receptors, akin to a postman bringing messages to specific addresses. Examples such as these are intended to make biological concepts more concrete and relatable to students.

On occasion, I also ask students to give extempore speeches, to gauge their knowledge about a concept. This also helps them develop their public speaking skills. One class a week, I divide the whole class in 3 or 4 teams for quizzes. These can include combinations of visual rounds, buzzer rounds, and rapid-fire rounds on specific themes like immunology, biochemistry, haematology etc. Quizzes help them quickly review what they have studied in previous classes. Together with the ease of design and execution during regular lectures, games such as these make teaching and learning enjoyable. This serves many purposes− students have fun learning, develop healthy competitive spirit towards their peers; and as their instructor, I can analyse their understanding of the topic.

Recall technique based on the concept maps

Aashutosh Mule teaches BSc (Biotechnology) at Vivekanand Education Society's College of Arts Science & Commerce, Mumbai. He shares his ‘recall technique’ based on concept maps.

(Image credit: Aashutosh Mule)

Concept mapping is a well known instructional technique. However, for all its benefits; understanding how to draw concept maps does not come naturally to students. Here I describe how I help my students develop this skill.

When a student studies a topic, whether during a lecture or during self-study, I call it a focussed mode session. As depicted in the figure, the first focussed mode session on the path of learning a topic is the first lecture attended by the students. At this point, they use keywords from the textbook, lecture notes or blackboard, to start on their concept maps.

In the next class, I start by asking them to recall content covered in the previous class on a blank sheet. I emphasize the amount of recall as the yardstick by which I assess their level of understanding -- my goal is to get them to 100% through successive attempts. In subsequent lectures, more of the content on the same topic is taught, and after each class, students add new information to the same concept map they developed at the beginning of each class.

Through implementing this technique, I have witnessed increased excitement in students for the revision sessions, which otherwise can seem monotonous and boring. Not just that, they also seem excited to put their understanding to test. The process infuses confidence in students to willingly come forward to test themselves.

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We are also currently seeking new entries for future segments of this series. This can include a way to make lectures interactive, or trying any pedagogical method apart from traditional lecturing. Interested in sharing your experience? Drop a line to hello@indiabioscience.org

An Innovative Tool for teaching-learning Zoology

In the process of developing an online Wiki for Zoology practicals, Sarita Kumar (Acharya Narendra Dev College, Delhi) encouraged students to become active participants in their learning; instead of passively observing preserved specimens and making drawing from the books.

How students understand core concepts and how they relate to their learning at the beginning of college years has, I believe, long-term impacts on their achievements, skills and confidence levels. Being a Zoology teacher, it is my responsibility to think of innovations and alternates to familiarize the students to biodiversity of animals around them and make it an enriching experience for them to study this course. Zoology, or science in general, should not be confined to textbook or class-time. I felt I had to turn their attention, their interest, outward. Thus started the idea of developing an online repository of biological specimens, which could replace the classical laboratory and augment the quality of teaching-learning.

Constrained with a limited window or scope for long discussions or huge prior preparations; the parameters and concepts for the repository were immediately defined - simple language, correctness of information, no copyright infringement to ensure the quick cataloguing and digitizing available information. An online repository using Wiki platform was thus created without any technical or financial support. Students loved the idea, and volunteered to help put it together.

In order to improve and enhance the quality and content, I started a different experiment each academic year. During classes, I assign students tasks -- take pictures of any organisms in nature (in campus as well as around their houses), collate the information and upload in the same online repository. The resource is being supplemented and complemented by students with the sketches of specimens drawn by them depicting the morphological details of the species. We have also uploaded videos recorded by students, describing the morphology, physiology and behaviour. We are in the process of adding more learning tools - quizzes, short answers questions, Multiple Choice Questions, animations, etc.

Our experience of implementing this digital resource for students has been very rewarding. All students have welcomed the concept wholeheartedly. Using this resource, and helping develop it further, has added creativity in implementing the syllabus; which otherwise can become quite monotonous. Instead of just watching the preserved specimens and making drawing from the books; they observe organisms in nature with their detailed morphology and behaviour. They look thrilled observing organisms in the fields and clicking their pictures. Learning with joy not only gives them clarity on key concepts but also inculcates a sense of team-spirit. Further, students were excited as the digital resources helped them to do away with the burden of purchasing/carrying heavy books on their shoulders.

Teachers elsewhere in India, we hope will join in and adapt this resource in teaching Zoology labs. Users are free to re-use, and supplement the information.

Approaches to teaching-learning and evaluation of Physiology lessons

Challenged by students’ disinterest in Physiology, Sushama Yermal came up with ways to involve students in their learning by linking course topics to actual life examples, & changing the style of test questions.

As a new Assistant Professor at Centre for Basic Sciences (Mumbai), I was asked to teach a module on Physiology to first year undergraduates. By training, I am a Developmental Biologist and a Geneticist; so even though I find Physiology interesting, it is not my forte. But I was willing to give this a try. The students came from diverse academic backgrounds, about half the class of 26 students having gladly dropped biology at the Plus 2 level because of 'a bias towards Maths and Physics'. On top of that, many don’t favour Physiology particularly, and consider it strictly as “full of names”-- of metabolites, jargon representing reactions, etc.

The outline provided as part of the first 'General Biology' course had two sets of topics:

1. Cell physiology: Cellular metabolism, energy metabolism, respiration, photosynthesis

2. Human body physiology: Functional organisation of the human body; control of the "internal environment” in digestive system, circulatory system, nervous system, respiratory system, excretory system, & reproductive system.

I tried to facilitate the students learning in the following ways:

a) Taught the whole content from the homeostasis perspective. Instead of taking each system in isolation and looking at the molecular pathways, I tried connecting to tangible experiences of students themselves as much as possible. For example, I asked the class to think aloud about a) why do we get goosebumps in cold breeze? b) what happens to fingertips in cold climates? Because of this, they felt curious enough to think of the mechanisms. Thus, we came to connect the circulatory and nervous systems to thermal regulation.

b) Asked the class whether some of them would like to explain one of systems from the prescribed syllabus, to their peers in short, 10-minute seminars. The students who did choose to present, did a really good job and I filled in the details where required. As a result, those who knew the details didn’t get bored during class; the rest paid attention to the content because it was being taught by one of them.

c) Questions were prepared by posing a situation, providing required technical terms/ values and asking them to arrive at a logical conclusion. Often, multiple choices of results were given and the students were asked to explain their choice. Here is one example of such a question, that requires them to understand the logic behind any given physiologic response;, while at the same time, minimises the need to memorise numerical values and terminology:

Q) Fingers exposed to cold climate turn blue or pale and later swell up. The reasons are:

a) deoxygenated blood is preferentially transported to cooler organs resulting in blueness and swelling

b) the blood vessels initially constrict to limit loss of warmth from blood

c) control of fluid circulation in limbs is independent of the thermoregulatory centre

d) when the finger becomes cold and pale, oxygenated blood is supplied in excess

It was satisfying to see that they vociferously approved of this kind of test, where their understanding was being tested, not memory.

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We are also currently seeking new entries for future segments of this series. This can include a way to make lectures interactive, or trying any pedagogical method apart from traditional lecturing. Interested in sharing your experience? Drop a line to hello@indiabioscience.org

Simply put, plagiarism is to take the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another person without crediting them; instead passing these off as one’s own. You need only a cursory glance through Practical records of students and project reports they submit, to see how rampant it is in our education system. Clearly this is a cause of social concern, especially to educators as most academic misconducts have roots in classrooms.

Information today, is available at the click of a button. This is expected to be the academic resource the students will access. However, what is not expected is the reproduction of information verbatim, without quoting the source. The activities (posters, literature surveys and case studies, etc.) that are meant to encourage critical thinking, creativity, enhance writing skills and expression, degenerate into a hash that leaves the student cold and the tutor frustrated as mandatory grading these activities is a futile exercise. All this work if done with spirit of learning and with ethical responsibility is in reality excellent training for a good professional. Why do students fail to appreciate this fact and continue to plagiarise? We addressed this question by surveying 24 faculty members and 284 students (12th standard, B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels).

Class XII students we surveyed conveyed they possess an instinctive idea about plagiarism - they know what is right and wrong; but there are wide grey areas. They have not been taught to write footnotes or references. They have another huge problem: it is drilled into them that reproducing text from books without a single change in word or phrase is the only way of getting good marks. Plagiarism is a non-issue at this stage. All originality is put on a subconscious back burner, to be expressed, if at all, outside the classroom.

At the UG level, teachers do give repeated instructions encouraging students to avoid copy-pasting. The instructions are often not heeded. To make matters worse, there is no system in place to catch the offenders nor is there a defined code of conduct communicated to the students. If a student is caught cheating during an examination, there are clear instructions to the teacher and the student about punishment to be given. On the other hand, no well-defined rules are available to penalise an offender who has submitted an assignment plagiarised to various extent. It is easier to let go of the offender with a verbal warning and opportunity to re write the document.

Another glaring finding from our survey was as many as 50% of students surveyed were not even aware of referencing. Often in student assignments, we (and our peers) find Bibliography is either poorly written or entirely absent. Posters that students present, when they include images that are not original, are not credited to their original source. Through this survey, we found that teachers did give instructions about correct referencing; however, it seemed to have missed its mark. Or have the students perceived that this as an academic soft crime that is permitted? Interestingly, teachers too do not find it necessary to acknowledge the source in the Powerpoint presentations they use for classroom teaching.

Postgraduate students, we found, appear to be aware of plagiarism and in general comply with the instructions given. They were, however, not aware of self-plagiarism. They were also unaware that text picked up without any change in words needs to be mentioned in quotes. While using images and diagrams from published literature, the issue of copyright it seems, does not cross their mind. It is often argued that, in reality, all information or ideas available to students to date are generated by others and it is practically impossible to acknowledge everybody involved. Likewise, there are technical details that can be expressed using only specific phrases. These are grey areas where students can greatly benefit from discussion with mentors. Unfortunately, very often the issues goes unaddressed and as long as there is no major, glaring default, the students move on to professional lives. It is not surprising then that there are several instances of academics failing the litmus test of plagiarism.

We suggest a few simple changes to our peers to address the problem of plagiarism in classrooms:

1. Encourage writing skills in students: All journal work should be a true record of what happened in the laboratory that day. No printed or part-printed journal should be provided. Manual for experimental procedure with appropriate references would suffice to provide technical details. Another way of improving writing skills is to push students to do assignments on proximal issues, for which they will not find readymade material. For instance, describing events on the campus- a demonstration experiment done by a senior, a review of a movie clip shown in class, comments on a news item read in local newspaper- several such exercises can be planned. Original expression puts you on a high that the students must taste…when they can write themselves, students are unlikely to copy.

2. Talk to your students about plagiarism, through informal interactions in class or organised workshops. Peer group interactions, with seniors explaining to juniors the rules of writing might go a long way in effective communication. Handouts can be provided, with examples about how references need to be written so that the students have explicit information.

3. Evolve a strong local code of conduct which should be repeatedly communicated. Plagiarism should be declared a serious ethical offence, as wrong as cheating in a formal examination. Many universities do have detailed code of conduct on plagiarism which needs to be implemented.

This write up is based on a paper presented at the meeting of Asian Association Biology Education held in Goa, October 2016. The findings are submitted to the Indian Journal of Education, NCERT.

We would be happy to share the questions with teachers/administrators interested in conducting similar survey in their departments.

Updating syllabi for most of the university-affiliated colleges takes place once every five years irrespective of new scientific discoveries and availability of new technologies. This should change and I am hopeful it will, but what till then?

In my experience, practical courses give relatively more freedom and flexibility than theory courses to try new teaching approaches. One of such ‘experiment’ I tried was blending isolated prescribed practicals into a consolidated, mini-research project. I have found conducting practicals as a small project is especially important for those UG / PG courses where students don't get any exposure to doing research projects.

Starting with a probable questions in relation to the prescribed practical (instead of the usual 'Aim') followed by hypothesis-building (instead of lengthy prologue) certainly excites the young minds. This can lead to a good experiment design where students participate and discuss their own ideas and approaches. The process can be very enriching for students to understand various scientific concepts as well as specific, subject-related techniques that they can try. I have been following this strategy in practical courses I teach for some years now. For example, in PG Bioinformatics practical course (MSc 2nd year), I ask students to select genes or gene products that they are interested in. We perform all practicals as prescribed by the curriculum, with students using their selected biomolecules to complete the experiments. The added benefit here is that this exercise helps them in their Thesis research projects the following year -- they may choose to continue to work with the same biomolecules of their choice and deepen their understanding of the concerned topic of research using bioinformatic tools we cover in the class.

As another example, in my Environmental Biology course (MSc 1st year), I blend all the separate practicals (Isolation of microorganisms from polluted soil, Qualitative and Quantitative analysis of Pesticide degradation, Genotoxicity assay and pollen germination assay; Estimation of TSS, DO, BOD and COD: Acquisition of “Google Earth” images) in a small outcome-oriented research project. For one batch, we tried understanding the pollution status of Mutha river flowing through Pune. My idea was for them to check the status of the river whilst performing all the techniques mentioned in the syllabus. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids were determined for the water samples taken from four locations along the river. A very simple Wrinkler's Dissolved Oxygen estimation method was used. We tested Genotoxicity of same river water via assays given in the syllabus. We compared the samples with the intent of answering a broad question: the health status of the river. It gave us an estimate of the degradable organic content of the water sample.

Students divided themselves in groups and collected samples right from the mouth of river where it enters the city from the Khadakwasla dam to the confluence of the Mutha and Mula rivers and further downstream. I took weekly feedbacks from these groups to put everyone on the same page and monitored their progress. They surveyed the scientific literature to finalise methods and analysis of their results. Some of the results were as expected but some were not, like for example, the BOD upstream of confluence was anticipated to be low but it was higher. The discussions over the results gave me a chance to clear few fundamental concepts and also gave them clarity and confidence so as to independently carry out basic research work. More than that, they all did their part to raise awareness toward their own city environment, to which they can relate to and hence appreciate the course more. The results showed that the river is in a dire need of attention for its health improvement and survival of life depending on it.

Examples I have shared in this, and previous article, can be seen as anecdotes but they started as trial and error experiments by an unsatisfied teacher. The golden balance between pushing the boundaries of rigid syllabi by active scientific teaching and the performance of students during centrally assessed examination is not always easy to achieve.

There are issues that I cannot change of the present education system but there are still more that I can change within the boundaries of the given framework. I strongly believe that as educators, the way we conduct any course we are charged with, and the ways in which to get the most out of the syllabus, is in our hands.

To teach well, in my opinion, requires deep knowledge of the content as well as the ability to communicate that knowledge effectively to students. At Pune’s Abasaheb Garware College where I have been since 2008, I currently teach Biodiversity and Systematics course to undergraduates and Environmental Biotechnology, Bioinformatics and Genomics-Proteomics courses to MSc students.

Initially it was hard for me to break the stereotype of a teacher that students have in their minds. The process started when I realized that first I have to break the stereotype of a teacher that I had in my mind. Evidently residual from their high school days, students would expect readymade materials from me. It became clear that my goal of inculcating understanding of subject matter in students would not be met, by a long shot, if my students are focused on regurgitating answers in examinations without processing. It took me a while to reach where I am engaging students and fulfilling the learning objectives I set for my classes.

Over the years I have developed student-centric approaches of active learning, helping them adapt to understanding by engaging them, and aligning my teaching outcomes with assessments. I wish to share some such manageable approaches, tried and tested in my classes, that also taught me substantially as a teacher.

‘Teacher/blackboard-centric’ classrooms, I think, are counter to a conducive learning environment. There are, of course, genuine practical constraints to changing every classroom. But lack of resources cannot be an excuse if I want to really improve this scenario, I told myself. I started working on how to create a student-centric classroom. Meanwhile, I was aware of Robin Wright, at the University of Minnesota, has changed the way classrooms are designed in many US universities. Scientific studies done on redesigning learning spaces in classrooms have only confirmed their efficacy in improving learning and understanding in students. Meeting Robin Wright during the organisation of ‘National Workshop for Undergraduate Biology Teachers’, profoundly changed the way in which I used to think of a UG/PG classrooms. For starters, I changed the sitting arrangement for students in my class. They sit facing each other rather than me or the backboard. I chose modules from the course that would be appropriate to generate peer discussions and they could perform activities such as generating explanations for key terms, generating hypothesis on a given query, building models to explain given predictions, solving short quizzes and critically evaluating a given conclusion etc. For example, while teaching central ecological concepts such as ‘Habitat’ or ‘Niche’, I ask students to first discuss their own understanding of relevant terms (Habit, Habitat and Niche) and draw few examples from their surroundings to evaluate whether they see the distinction between these.

In general, the teaching strategies I opt for depends on what I expect students to take away from that specific topic. For the modules where conceptual understanding is important, I use active learning methods in the classroom; for information based modules (like Biogeography or study of biomolecular databases) I assign small problems that require students to survey original scientific literature for answers. There are modules where visual stimulus is important ( such as protein structure prediction or study of an ecosystem), I teach with live demos or online tools or on-field trips which are supplemented with open discussions. I also use few (powerpoint) slides to reiterate fundamental concepts that students discuss.

The first discussions usually take a fair bit of time as students are not normally encouraged to 'talk among themselves'. Once they start apprehending the importance of such discussions for their own understanding, they become more open and responsive. Peer discussions followed by peer evaluations can then be used to teach various modules from the curriculum. But here one has to take care of the diversity of students that are there in each group, making sure each one of them participates and updates her understanding of the concepts. During class sessions, Formative Assessment tasks are helpful in assessing the levels of understanding, such as Think-pair-share, using Wikipedia or online worksheets where student do things actively which are relevant in the understanding current scientific scenario. I also mentor them via Piazza 24x7 classroom. Such mentoring is especially important when I expect them to come across difficulties in assignments/ tasks but at the same time want them to try to acquaint themselves with the knowledge of current research issues. Using Piazza also helps me manage my time and non academic activities to be performed in my college. In Biodiversity course I take students out on the field trips to help them ‘see’ what they have learnt. All these activities beyond a classroom also help me get in sync with students.

Initially, it was difficult for me to control students who tend to deviate from the main discussion or group assignments but I learnt to identify potential drifters and started giving duties as a group representative or a summary writer that made them focus. I assessed the effectiveness of this method by surveying the responses of students in comparison with regular classes engaged by me. Below are some of the questions I asked in an anonymous survey (using Google Forms) and students' responses.

To validate the effectiveness of my methods, I correlate their positive responses in the surveys to student scores in the final exams. The data points from such surveys are important feedback, but perhaps more important are non-quantifiable observations made during rearranged classrooms, that gives an idea of where a class is heading. Students otherwise non-responsive start to discuss in class. I was able to identify students that struggle with writing answers but are otherwise good in conceptual understanding. At times, ideas generated during discussions got converted to small exercises or mini-projects. For example, in one of the classes, while discussing factors affecting growth of seedlings, we devised experiments to monitor growth of roots and shoots with respect to direction of gravity. On their own accord, the students designed and executed small experiments at their homes to see what happens if seeds are sown in inverted or in slanting pots etc. Further they included other parameters such as direction of sunlight or type of seed. I also used a soft board for putting up student assignments, sharing co-curricular reading I thought they’d find interesting, and even stress-busting cartoons; which, I found, helps create an environment for students to feel comfortable and focus on their performance.

Part II: Blending practical classes to engage students, will feature next week.

Further readings:

1. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academy Press, Brief Summary & Implications for Teaching, Prepared by: Jose Mestre.

2. Scientific Teaching (1st Ed). By Jo Handelsman, Sarah Miller, Christine Pfund. W H Freeman Publishers

3. P Mohanan: Assessing Quality of Education in Higher Education

Relegating decision-making responsibility is very easy to do, easier still when people don’t have the tools to dissect the veracity of information for themselves. Within the scientific community, the answer for “should you believe any given report” generally includes “was it peer-reviewed”. The point of peer review being that we don’t believe something just because “a very senior scientist says so”— there are standards that have to be met -- a decision made by other scientists in the same field (peers of scientists doing the study). The strict criteria that apply to doing science, can they be made part of learning science? How can science students be taught the process of critical assessment and feedback? Peer Instruction offers one possibility to do that.

Sometimes clubbed with many ways of class discussion, there are multiple elements to peer instruction. As the name suggests, students “instruct” their peers; only, unlike the lecture setting, here the instruction is in the form of a discussion. It requires students to self-evaluate what they know, present their point of view to their peers (the instruction part) and try to understand their peers’ arguments in turn. Teachers use it either for formative assessment of student understanding in real-time, and/or for specific needs of a project/assignment. For many, it is also a preferred method to teach students how to read original scientific papers.

When done right, this mode of instruction involves arguments being judged for their merit, like it is in peer review. “Translating” principles of peer review to peer instruction in class would include asking students to summarise their peers point of view, assess whether the argument [they heard] is logical, put forth their own argument and give reasons for agreeing/disagreeing with their peer(s).

Though discussion is an integral part of peer instruction, teachers who use this method advise to carefully introduce the format and to ensure it is made clear to students what’s expected of them; lest it becomes another case of “fisheye teaching” where discussion becomes confined between the teacher and a few extroverted students, sidelining the rest of the class.

In any form of discussion, shy students do have their work cut out for them. Not sure whether to clarify a doubt they have, not confident in their own point of view, or lacking the surety to debate another student’s opinion, they either don’t speak up or easily get disheartened when they get shouted down by other students. Here again, it is up to the teacher — to set the ground rules for discussion participation.

In the Indian context, several factors can make it a tricky business to adapt peer instruction. Culture plays a big role, always, in framing learners’ behaviours. Frequently, teachers report hesitation on parts of students to be direct, for worries it might be misconstrued and they’d end up alienating their friends. Not for nothing, but another reason discussions can be unsettling for students is that they are comfortable with “one-right-answer” evaluation system. Whereas with methods like peer instruction, having the right answer is not the end-of-story. Students have to be able to show how they got there. Swati Patankar, faculty at IIT Bombay, has been using peer instruction for 7-8 years. In one particular instance, her students, after learning ‘regulation of gene expression’ do a group exercise to “design your own genetic switch”. The class is divided in groups, and each group grades the presentations of the other groups, based on pre-set criteria. “I do need to nudge them to develop the criteria they must rely on to grade their peers. I make sure they understand it is not enough for any of them to give loose responses like ‘this was good’; ‘I liked it’. With some encouragement, students do come up with reliable benchmarks: ‘was the argument presented scientifically sound’; ‘was the presentation clear and easy to understand’; etc. For this to work, it is up to the instructor to set it up really well — to make it clear to students what it is that is being evaluated.”

For teachers using peer instruction, it is often rewarding to see students “get” the difference between what they know and what they think they know. “I do believe doing such peer activities gives students a holistic understanding of science process”, says Asim Auti of MES Garware college, Pune. “Students have to be trained to give critical feedback. I think this training is a long process, but totally worth the effort. In one of the courses I teach MSc Biotech students, their response was so overwhelmingly positive, it was incredible -- they asked “why is it we don’t learn science this way in school and undergrad too!”

Asim M. Auti is an Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biotechnology, MES Abasaheb Garware College, Pune. He has also been an 'Education Fellow' with the National Academy of Sciences, USA, for 2013-14.

Urmi Bajpai is an Associate Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Science, Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi.

Q. How did you come to choose teaching as your profession?

Asim: Teaching, for me, became a natural extension in the process of my growth. Especially after trying my hand in hard core wet lab research, I became even more certain I would be happier in an academic setup experimenting with teaching. Hence I joined my college as a teacher. I think a professional is someone who has completed her training to do a job but a teacher is always a learner. I was also fortunate to have such teachers who also became my mentors.

Urmi: Actually teaching as a career option was not what I had planned for myself. However once I took the job, I could estimate the stakes involved and understand the rigors of the profession. I was the first in-charge of a new course (B.Sc.Hons in Biomedical Science) at our college and meeting those young bright kids with high aspirations made me realize that teaching is a serious business! One has to dive in deep; skimming the surface won’t do.

Q. How would you describe your teaching philosophy?

Asim: I see my role as inspiring enthusiasm in potential learners, engaging them in active learning and enhancing their knowledge and skills. My job is to empower them in making academic/scientific decisions on their own. I believe one has to understand the diversity in learners, adapt to this diversity and build a two-way relationship so that we trust each other.

Urmi: My philosophy has evolved over the last 19 years that I have been teaching. What has stayed constant is my motivation to let students become independent, active learners. My aim is to design activities that evoke interest, stimulate discussions and take away the monotony of passive listening at a stretch.

Q. How do you see your role in the classroom?

Asim: I see myself more as a mentor than a chalk-and-talk teacher. I have to put on different hats while in a classroom: majority of times I am a facilitator as students are engaged in active learning. I also become a trainer or a coach during technical sessions. I have to become an evaluator at some point to assess improvements. Student-centric class is what I strive for.

Urmi: Over the years my role has become increasingly student-centric. Gone past are the days of the teacher as a ‘sage on the stage’. Sensitizing students about the ethical practices, plagiarism, cost of an experiment - both for the pocket and the environment etc., are just some of the ways that might help them become more responsible and aware.

Q. What are main teaching methods you rely on?

Asim: Active learning for students - that's always the goal. In any given class, it may involve discussions, group/pair assignments, problem solving activities, or information-gathering and subsequent presentation to the class. Peer-learning in the class (and also outside) is given importance. I use handouts, online videos and web-platforms like Piazza for virtual teaching and learning. Availability of resources allows us to build new tools, but unavailability has never limited my methods. Sometimes students themselves can give you ideas and suggest modifications and one should be open to it.

Urmi: Of late, I have been experimenting using techniques I learnt while attending workshops on pedagogy: at The Summer Institute, annual conference of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), and through a videoconferencing course organized by Ohio State University. ‘Flipped classroom’ is one method, where students are given the prepared content beforehand, and the classroom time is kept for discussions. Another is teaching biochemical pathways by ‘strip sequence’ method (see reference at the end of article), where students write steps on paper strips (virtual equivalent can also be tried) and use the jumbled up strips to construct pathway. This enables them to make logical connections. Similarly asking students to enact a component (electron donors and acceptors) of an iterative process such as electron transport chain or a huddle to understand protein folding are other examples. Through ideation, students are asked to design alternative experiments to develop a technique that is already available or to build a new hypothesis or challenge an existing one. With some batches, I have tried to investigate how students like to learn, what are the limitations they report about themselves; and accordingly tried to mould the class. I think there is a large unmet need in India to further develop and apply assessment tools to fathom the differential learning abilities of students and then integrate the findings to create more customized teaching.

Q. How do you assess your students?

Asim: I use formative assessment for most of my courses. I try to set the assessment so that it covers needs of the fast learners as well as slow learners. If possible I give choice to learners to choose their test assessment method so that they try and push themselves to excel in tests they are behind others.

Urmi: I try to give an assortment of short questions with an emphasis on reasoning. For instance, during viva, their imagination and ability to connect and apply what they've learnt is given importance over recall of facts and data. I firmly believe that we need to regularly gauge how well have students comprehended the topic and one of the best tool can be the clickers (we need to popularize them more). Currently I am using voting cards -- this is a small PDF file that students download to their smartphones; containing color-coded ‘A’- ‘D’ options. After completing a topic, I pose a few simple MCQs to the class and students respond by holding up their screens to their respective choice. This exercise encourages every student in the class to participate and their answers help me assessing them in real time.

Q. Do you agree or disagree with the statement — “today’s students are lazier, or less prepared, or less motivated than my generation.”

Asim: Rather I will say today's learners are more active and motivated. They have all the information at their fingertips, literally. They are getting used to faster, ready-to-be-used information. This is where the differences may start to crop up between learners and teachers. It is up to us to adapt to it and give learners what they need in a way they can identify, keeping in mind our learning goals.

Urmi: Students today have a lot going for them; with various opportunities, multiple career options and also many technology-enabled distractions too. My Master’s thesis, on the other hand, was done on a typewrite! So, comparison with my generation may not be as straightforward. Having said that, keeping students gainfully engaged and interested in the subject is a continuous challenge and there might not be just one formula.

Q. What are some myths you think are around regarding teaching profession?

Asim: A common myth is that teachers have no work other than teaching in a classroom; when in reality, we have to be shuffle between a researcher, an accountant, a manager, a performer, to an administrator. Teaching in class is just what one sees on the surface.

Urmi: The most-often heard comment is: “what keeps you busy?’’ I think teaching is considered to be a one-dimensional activity since the hours shown in the timetable is what is visible to most. Enormous efforts go in the preparation of teaching material, test papers & assignments and in their evaluation. Add to this the undergraduate & advanced research programs and multifarious co-curricular, extracurricular and administrative activities, carried out through various committees which teachers convene and coordinate. This whole process is a continuous one, and needless to say requires a whole lot more time and effort than what is the popular public perception.

Q. What are your views on research experience as being part of students’ undergraduate training?

Asim: I encourage research based learning in my courses and try to fit in inquiry based experimental learning during practical and mini projects. Some of the UG projects has resulted in presentations and publications at national and international conferences where my students got the opportunity to explore the research world at a young age. We were able to do the research with the available resources without much of high tech instrumentation.

Urmi: I am a strong proponent of undergraduate research programs. In my assessment, research experience not only advances the understanding of student in an academic discipline but also imparts intellectual maturation that comes from designing experiments and taking responsibility for the process. Research projects need not necessarily be complex in nature that require high-end equipment or expensive consumables. A learning environment is created that inculcates strong analytical and reasoning abilities, fosters creativity and instills confidence amongst the students. Besides, there are several personal gains such as ability to work independently as well as in teams, time management etc, which remain useful to students in all spheres of life.

Further reading:

Scientific Teaching by Jo Handelsman, Sarah Miller, Christine Pfund. 2011 Ed. Macmillan Science Publishers.

A study published in Science (2012) suggested that the way toddlers learn is, qualitatively, not different from how scientists pursue their passions. Both groups frame hypothesis, do experiments, discard or accept hypotheses based on the results — all this without the kids being taught how science is done. How unfortunate that in the name of their education, this inherent tendency is systematically stifled; replacing curious minds with memorising automatons, rewarding and encouraging acquisition of facts over understanding concepts, rote learning over understanding, copying over research.

Though research is how science is done, it is frequently not the way science is taught. A recent workshop in the Research-Based Pedagogical Tools (RBPT) series, conducted for undergraduate teachers by Centre for Excellence in Science and Mathematics, IISER Pune, in collaboration with British Council of India, at Tezpur University, Assam; was a step in the direction of changing science teaching to resemble more the process of doing science. The trainers, who were all from Sheffield Hallam University UK, stressed that (in RBPT) students must do an activity by themselves to learn. “To start and get them going, you have to give them a good attractive context that is catchy ” said Julie, one of the trainers.

Teaching by this method, research is an integral component. The entire pedagogy should consist of 4 Rs: there should be a component of Research; which should get Refined along the way and the outcome of the learning exercise should be Reported. Students’ work should be Rewarded for the research component — by way of grades or equivalent. Students do an activity designed by the teacher to find about or understand a concept. The teacher’s role is more of a facilitator, helping students refine their research, to overcome glitches or obstacles in their investigations.

On the last day of the workshop, participants who have worked in groups to design a poster presenting their chosen topic in RBPT method presented them for discussions and criticisms, exchanging and suggesting new ideas among themselves. For this exercise, my group developed a plan for teaching an exercise in Bioinformatics — that of constructing phylogenetic trees (see figure). In the traditional lecturing method, this concept can seem rather abstract, or esoteric even. Therefore, following RBPT template, we would begin by giving students a context they can relate to — the SARS epidemic. The ultimate objective, the exercise for students, is to construct a phylogenetic tree to find the closest related known virus to SARS, so as to extract usable information to develop a vaccine. The first step for the students, the “hook,” is to let them familiarise themselves with epidemiological information of the last epidemic (top left). We also discussed possibilities for some students to perhaps enact a skit in class, highlighting basic biology of antigen-antibody interactions and the principle of vaccination, to further engross them in the topic, and develop their soft skills in the process.

To introduce them to the main concept, that of constructing phylogenetic trees for viruses, we could start by asking them to first work with DNA sequences of known vertebrate animals (right panel). This would help them to discover that phylogenetic tree actually reflects evolutionary relationships. Here we are beginning to Refine our research. Finally when the teacher feels that the students are confident about tree building, the students would try it with actual viral sequences drawn from the internet databases and build a phylogenetic tree to find out the next closely related virus. That’s our pivotal question. The answer that they obtain should then be used to gain knowledge about the SARS itself which could help in the development of vaccine. This brings the exercise to full circle to the question with which we began.

A few days prior to the Tezpur workshop, a similar workshop had been conducted at IISER-Mohali by the same trainers. It was interesting to watch the response of the participants at both the workshops. It followed a pattern of initial dismissal, to re-thinking, to acceptance, and by the end of the workshop, active enthusiasm on their part; though many did worry about uncooperative management at their colleges.

All in all, participating in this workshop was quite a revelation for me! I returned to Bangalore thinking how I could kindle the inherent ‘curiosity of toddlers’ in my undergraduate students. For a set of bioinformatics practicals I teach, I am currently engaged in amalgamating these experiments to design a workflow based on this RBPT approach. Students will use this workflow to solve a problem that appeals to them, and of course, learning about the basic concepts in Bioinformatics along the way.

Innumerable articles and tea-time discussions on education focus on a common problem—our education gives us knowledge but almost no ability to actually discover new knowledge, or make use of it. Many solutions are being implemented— introducing activity oriented textbooks, increased emphasis on learning by doing (here), integrating science teaching and research (here and here) etc.

A team of old and young educationists (team ThinQ) is following a different and a more fundamental path. Our education largely ignores the process of discovery. We teach science as a ‘finished product’, and largely sideline the actual process of discovery. Similarly, mathematics, history, economics are taught as “subjects”, but not as a process of discovering patterns and relations between quantities (mathematics), what happened in the past (history), or the laws of wealth (economics). The process of discovery is fundamental to all knowledge, but is never taught to us. This brings us to the solution proposed by team ThinQ: a focus on inquiry and integration. As the names suggests, their approach aims to combine inquiry with integration (the process of combining inquiry with knowledge of various disciplines). To steer our education towards these, ThinQ has come up with a detailed and rigorous online course meant for practicing or would-be teachers, educators, or anyone else who shares this cause and passion. In this article, we describe the course that was run in 2016, and will be offered again starting May 2017.

In the 3rd edition of the course in 2016, about a hundred participants were enrolled. They included teachers and principals, apprentices and experienced educationists, the interested and concerned parents. Altogether a diverse mix, it was perfect for the exchange and churning of ideas. The course progressed via a series of reading assignments and videos, called Learning Triggers. Every alternate week was assigned for reading and reflection, and the following week for an online discussion. One part of every assigned reading was drawn from a book on inquiry by experienced educationists of the ThinQ team, Tara Mohanan and KP Mohanan. Typically one or two elements of a rational inquiry—observing, describing, classifying, generalizing, defining, reasoning, justifying, debating etc, were introduced in each reading. These elements and their nuances were demonstrated by using examples and exercises that participants could reflect over, engage with, and even use in their classes. The readings were accompanied by videos of the same ideas being discussed with high school students in a classroom setting. After reading and reflecting on the given material, participants were asked to submit their thoughts as written assignments. In the subsequent week, all responses were made available to the entire group. The phase of alternating reading assignments and online discussions was followed by a face to face interactive workshop for select participants.

Participants often asked questions about concepts that were difficult to grasp, some were concerned whether too much skepticism was a good idea, and some wanted to know how to teach inquiry when students come with varying backgrounds and inclinations. The ThinQ team responded to issues of common interest and an online discussion then ensued.

For a taste of what the readings contained, sample this imaginary student-teacher dialogue [abridged and paraphrased] about the textbook definition of solids and liquids:

Student: What are solids and liquids exactly?

Teacher: Solids have definite volume and shape; liquids have a definite volume, but take the shape of their container.

Student: Oh! So is a handful of wheat grains a liquid?

Teacher: Hmm… A liquid will spread flat if poured on a surface, but not wheat grains.

Student: What about a bunch of metal balls then?

Teacher: Anything made of solid particles is a solid.

Student: But a soap bubble has fixed shape and volume, and is made of liquid water! And what about an oobleck?

Mind you, the goal was not to teach what are solids or liquids or ooblecks, but to confront the participants with the inadequacy of textbook definitions, the ideas of rational skepticism, and conceptual inquiry. Another exercise was to find out if tulsi-ginger tea really cures common cold. The goal of this exercise was to understand the different components of an experimental inquiry—hypothesis, experimentation, and statistical inference.

Once students learn how to inquire, they can become truly independent learners. However, this is almost a byproduct. If students develop a taste for inquiry and acquire the necessary toolkit, they will be eager to challenge existing knowledge and discover new knowledge. After all, this is the crux of science and the key to discovery, innovation, and development, and also to a rational society.

For all this to happen, teachers need to have an appreciation of inquiry and integration. Fortunately, the teachers who participated in this course were very happy to embrace this approach. Some of them have already roped in peers and are applying what they learnt to their classrooms. One teacher participant says this, “I have already started introducing [what I learnt] in bits and pieces in my class. Personally, my perspective is also changing … it is fun to see [students] uncomfortable, and thinking deeply”.

If you are worried your students may not like this approach, consider what another participant says: “[I wish] it becomes part of me and reflects in all my conversations with young minds. They like questioning, inquiry and are ready to change too.”

Registration is now open for the 2017 edition of the course.

A two-day workshop co-organised by IndiaBioscience and Abasaheb Garware college in Pune (Feb 3-4, 2017), featured sessions where undergraduate teachers interacted with senior educators, and scientists from research centers as well as from industry. The final session was an open discussion focusing on prominent challenges faced by teachers, and panelists’ views on possible solutions. A conspicuous part of the discussion centered on how undergraduate teachers should mentor their students — what should their top priorities be?

Graduates from life science streams typically have low employability. Popular opinion is that it’s because BSc is not a “technical degree”. But is that all there is: a difference of what degree a student has, what coursework they have done? What is expected of students — what should they know if they wish to enter the job market after BSc; and how can teachers support them while they pursue their undergraduate degrees. “I look for an attitude to solve problems”, remarked Abhay Jere (Persistent Labs, Pune). “Sadly, the importance of problem solving ability — the approach, attitude and the aptitude— is not part of college education”, lamented Jere. Along the same lines, Ashok Giri (National Chemical Labs, Pune), shared “I don’t expect a fresh graduate to know about machines they have never seen before… I am not looking to see whether the student has information. I want to see they know what to do with the information they have”. Chaitanya Athale (IISER Pune) echoed these sentiments, and added that “for higher education to have any meaning, it has to be able to connect factual information (terms, equations, techniques, etc.) with the ability to think (and know how to use the facts). When that connection is successfully made, it equips the students to pursue any career path they choose. What matters is the ability to think independently.” He encourages his students to not be afraid to make mistakes — it’s only then that they learn. He suggested teachers pose problems within the structured learning environment that is the norm for our classrooms.

The premise of present day education seems directed at a single objective: high scores. Highest scorer in a class is, by default, deemed the smartest one. It seems teachers and students alike buy into the belief that if you score well, it makes your CV more attractive. But people doing the hiring say otherwise. “When making decision on who to hire, we don’t look at marks. All we see is if it’s above 60%! Beyond that, it is not their marks that matter”, commented Giri. “The paradox in India is that while a lot of graduates are looking for jobs, not many are trained for jobs”, he said.

The conversation subsequently veered into lack of necessary resources for training - a concern shared by virtually all participating faculty. While acknowledging this reality, panelists also maintained that there are still steps that can be taken to improve status quo, without waiting for authorities to take rectifying measures. Abhay Jere strongly asserted we are limiting our own thinking this way. “Facilities don’t define us, rather it is the problem statement that should define the facilities.” B.D.Bhole, Head of Microbiology department at Garware college, laid out his view on currently under-utilised, rather un-utilised, resources already available to educators. For instance, he suggested to invite scientists from industry, from research centres, to join ‘Board of studies’ meetings where curricular outlook for a given academic year is defined. Colleges can also foster small informal gatherings where students can interact with scientists. The second un-utilised resource, according to him, are the alumni. Not only can they provide much-needed input to students on employability, current students can also learn to network their way to new opportunities.

After the discussion, Niranjan Patil, currently teaching Microbiology at Garware college after having worked in industry (Invitrogen), shared “job-specific skills can be learned on the job. Inculcating problem-solving abilities in students is the direction we have to head”; adding that teachers may need resources so teaching can transition to that point.

When I first started teaching biology at IIT Bombay almost fourteen years ago, I quickly realised that if I taught facts my students and I would have an awful time in class. This was because my students had learned these facts very recently, were much better at memorizing information than me; and in terms of being a repository of facts, my real competition was the internet, which I did not have a hope of beating.

Interestingly, and very intuitively, my strategy to handle this was to use the scientific method to teach biology. Let us quickly remind ourselves what the scientific method involves (see the figure above for a visual representation).

The crux of the scientific method involves making observations and asking questions. To answer these questions, scientists come up with many hypotheses and then systematically test each hypothesis with experimental approaches. Some hypotheses do not stand the test of rigorous experimental validation and are therefore discarded. The valid hypotheses are further tested by more experiments and finally the one hypothesis that still stands is now used to make predictions. Yet more experiments based on these predictions will tell us whether the hypothesis is valid, needs to be modified or possibly discarded. When the hypothesis has not been falsified for a long time, it becomes a theory. This structure of doing science has been used for centuries.

So now let us get into how one might use the scientific method as a structure for teaching biology and its benefits.

1) Classroom teaching

I have been teaching Molecular Biology for over a decade now and structure many topics along the lines of the scientific method. For example, when we study the discovery of Okazaki fragments, the class is first introduced to the observations that led to the classic Okazaki experiments. These observations include the knowledge that DNA replication is semiconservative , starts at a bi-directional replication fork and occurs only from 5ʹ to 3ʹ. These observations lead to a conceptual problem which is that both of the two strands of DNA cannot be replicated in the same direction as the movement of the replication fork. Indeed, one strand will have a direction of replication that is opposite to the direction of the replication fork (see the figure for a visual representation). The mugged up answer to this problem is “One strand (the lagging strand) is synthesized as short fragments called Okazaki fragments while the other (the leading strand) is synthesized as a continuous, long polymer”.

I next ask the students to come up with at least 3 other mechanisms by which the problem can be solved. This forces them to think of new hypotheses beyond their mugged up facts. Then we look at the experiments and data from the Okazaki experiments and eliminate any of their hypotheses that do not fit the data. While looking at data, the students realise that the early results actually showed short fragments on both strands, not just the lagging strand! This is quite a shock to the students who have mugged up that DNA replication is semi-discontinuous. We further explore the data and the students go off and search the internet for why the data is not consistent with their expectations. I also show them a figure from a biochemistry textbook (Lehninger) from the 70s and 80s showing short fragments on both strands of the replicating DNA, illustrating that even textbooks evolve as more and more experiments are performed. By the way, if anyone is interested in the mystery behind the early observations that both strands appear discontinuous, do a Google search for discontinuous DNA replication and uracil-excision repair and have a look at papers from the 70s and 80s.

When taught through the scientific method, students realise that textbook information is based on data that can change with the next experiment. They are forced to question facts and so leave the class appreciating that biology is more than cramming 'facts'. This method can be applied to any professional setting: “look at the data and decide for yourself” is a good learning even at McKinsey consulting or a bank.

2) Setting exams

The scientific method works well for setting exams. For the first year B. Tech class (~450 students who just cracked the Joint Entrance Exam for IITs and dropped biology years ago), I set an exam paper based on a real case of food poisoning at the hostel mess that had been covered by InsIghT, the student magazine at IIT Bombay. The first question went like this:

You are now an expert in Biology and are called upon as one of the members of the committee that is examining the case. You find that the Chinese dinner contains bacteria called Salmonella that is known to cause food poisoning. You do some further tests on the bacteria.The first test you perform is Gram staining of these Salmonella bacteria. You find it is a rod shaped, Gram-negative bacteria. Draw a schematic of the plasma membrane and cell wall of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. (2 marks)

This way of framing the question gets the students to think about structure of the bacterial cell wall in the context of a scientific problem.

You treat the 16 hospitalized students with Penicillin (an antibiotic whose target is the peptidoglycan cell wall) and find to your surprise that they do not recover from the food poisoning because the Gram negative Salmonella bacteria are not killed efficiently by Penicillin. Based on your answer in Qs 1a, propose an explanation for why Penicillin is not effective for Gram negative bacteria. (2 marks)

Now, the students have to connect the diagrams of the bacterial cell wall from the previous answer with new information and interpret the new data.

You next treat the students with Erythromycin and they all recover except two. Unfortunately, one of these students seems to have a drug resistant Salmonella infection. Upon further study, the bacteria are seen to have acquired foreign DNA. As a Biology expert, you know drug resistance can be explained by evolution driven via natural selection. One of the 4 concepts in natural selection is variation. Give two ways by which the drug resistant bacteria can acquire genetic variation. (2 marks)

Now, the students are given a completely different topic (evolution) in the context of the same question. In fact, the food poisoning question had 7 sub-questions that covered the topics of bacterial cell structure, antibiotics, drug resistance, evolution, viruses, genome structure and they were all connected by the basic story of the hostel food poisoning.

3) Lab courses

Rather than simply learning techniques, the students try to answer a problem using the techniques that they learn. I have done this in two ways. First, for a lab course on Genetic Engineering, we were supposed to cover plasmid DNA isolation, PCR, cloning and bacterial transformation. In order to tie these techniques into a cohesive story, I made up a scenario where I told the students that we had isolated a bacterial strain from Powai lake that glows when we shine UV light on it. This strain seems to have a gene similar to Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and if we can clone the gene, we could start a biotech company and make lots of money! Now the same experiments had a purpose.

The second strategy was used during a Microbiology lab course where the students were asked to bring in samples from anywhere and these are typically water from the department purifier, their mess food (this is a recurring theme!), Powai lake, etc. I gave my colleague who was running the lab a suggestion that I would like to collect samples with a hypothesis in mind. For example, I would be interested to know whether the water supply in Mumbai gets more polluted as one moves away from the source (Vihar, Tansi and Vaitarna lakes). The way to answer the question would be to collect samples from the train stations starting closer to the lakes and moving further away. This strategy gave the students a hypothesis-driven lab course to isolate microorganisms as well as a small field trip on the local train. In the future, I would ask students to come up with their own hypotheses. This strategy has been used brilliantly by my classmate Carol Bascom-Slack and her colleagues at Yale (check out their paper).

Most importantly, when lab courses are taught using the scientific method, failure is also a learning experience. Often the experiments did not work, especially in the Genetic Engineering lab. Rather than wanting to just get results, we did a lot of troubleshooting to figure out why the experiment did not work. This gave the students the experience of learning from failure. The lab books were written as the work proceeded, similar to a scientific project (not after the lab was over, at the last minute before submission). Finally, the objectives of the class were to learn techniques, answer the main scientific question, learn time management, learn how to plan your experiments, etc.

I have tried to illustrate the advantages of teaching science (especially the “muggu” aspects of biology) through the scientific method. Nevertheless, I am acutely aware that being at IIT Bombay allows me a lot of freedom in my teaching, which other teachers may not have. I teach B.Tech., M.Sc. and Ph.D. students; I set my own exams and grade them so that I can reinforce the concepts I am trying to get across. Teachers who read this piece might feel that I am in a privileged position while they have many challenges. I urge them to consider my challenge, which was to teach biology to IIT B.Techs - bright students who thought that the subject was utterly boring. We all have constraints, but as I am a scientist, I am always trying new strategies to do overcome them. I think this can be done by anyone.

Acknowledgement: This piece is based on a talk I gave during the 26th Biennial conference of the Asian Association for Biology Education (AABE) at Goa from September 20-23, 2016. Thank you to Dr. Narendra Deshmukh and the organizers for inviting me and giving me a chance to organize my thoughts on the strategies I have used for teaching biology.