Most academic review, promotion, and tenure processes value scholarship, often in the form of research and publications, over teaching and service despite most faculty feeling that the majority of their workload comprises the latter. Some of the pressure that faculty feel to maintain their research productivity can be alleviated by partnering with undergraduate research assistants (RA).

Unlike student interns, who are often required to complete projects for credit and, therefore, have a greater responsibility for study design and analysis, student RAs can be asked to focus on projects designed and coordinated by the faculty and in their area of interest, which is likely to result in publications or other scholarly works.

However, the potential benefits of collaborating with undergraduate RAs are often ignored because of faculty concerns about the amount of time that mentoring requires and low student motivation and preparedness to work as an undergraduate researcher.

Some apprehensions about partnering with undergraduate RAs can be alleviated by the personal satisfaction of mentoring new researchers and understanding how to maximise the benefits of working with undergraduate RAs. Faculty and graduate students/postgraduate researchers responsible for mentoring RAs can use the strategies described below to increase the likelihood of a rewarding and productive partnership.

Learn the characteristics of a good mentor

While faculty often measure the success of a research partnership through project progress or production of a conference presentation, publication, or other scholarly work, students are more likely to reflect on how they felt during their experience as an RA. Faculty should become familiar with evidence-based learner-centred practices, such as those described in this article, and utilize them while mentoring student researchers instead of just relying on their own experiences. This is especially relevant when recruiting and retaining students from minority communities as undergraduate RAs. It can also be helpful for faculty to read about the characteristics that undergraduates consider important in a mentor.

Choose an undergraduate RA who will be an effective partner

High motivation, curiosity, creativity, and attention to detail may be better indicators of a productive RA than a high GPA or strong academic performance or completion of a course which develops knowledge or skills relevant to the research topic. You should also consider specific project requirements, such as being available at particular times of the day or being proficient in the use of specific research tools (including software) and methods. Recognize that individual student interests may not directly align with your area of research, but the partnership can still benefit you both if it results in their personal and professional development and your project's progress.

Establish expectations

Discuss specific project goals and objectives, methodology, responsibilities, and timelines, and consider outlining expectations for you both (or the team if more than one undergraduate RA is contributing to the same project) in a formal research agreement. As undergraduate RAs may be new to research, a research agreement provides detailed descriptions of what is expected of them and an opportunity to ask questions about responsibilities that they may not completely understand. Preparing the agreement and discussing it with RAs also helps the faculty thoughtfully consider what they are expecting to be completed within the allocated timeframe and their own responsibilities towards the RA. The template available in the supplementary information for this paper provides a starting document for faculty who have not drawn up such an agreement before.

Build rapport with your RAs

Informal conversations during which faculty demonstrate a genuine interest in their RAs’ lives, interests and classes by giving them their undivided attention, actively listening to what is said, asking questions, and being sympathetic and empathetic, help strengthen a student’s feelings of being recognized as a valued partner.

Provide training and scaffold opportunities

Undergraduate students are less experienced (but not less talented) than graduate students. Start new undergraduate RAs with low-stakes tasks (e.g., searching for and summarising literature, routine lab methods, data entry) and build to high-stakes activities (e.g., conducting interviews independently, analysing and interpreting data, designing novel surveys or lab methods) as their experience and confidence increase. This may take time and potentially patience, as well as repeated explanations or demonstrations.

Be an engaged research partner

Regular weekly or biweekly meetings allow faculty and RAs to track project progress, discuss findings, and address potential problems early. Discuss the work to be completed by each of you between meetings. Project progress can be held up both by students not completing required activities and by faculty failing to provide resources, instructions, or feedback. The last should be constructive and identify what has been done to the required standard as well as point out areas that need to be improved and suggest strategies to do so.

Back-up research documents

Make sure that copies of all research documents are regularly saved to a cloud platform (like Google Drive, Dropbox or similar) to which all relevant researchers have access. Hard copies of interviews, questionnaires, field and lab notes etc. can be scanned or photographed and uploaded to a file hosting service. Word processing files, datasheets, databases, visual images, code, sources used in literature reviews, presentation files etc. should also be shared. Ideally, all project resources should exist as soft copies in two locations (at least one in a file hosting service). If an RA is unexpectedly absent for a long period of time or leaves the project, progress can be maintained if you have a recent copy of everything they have been working on.

Demonstrate time management tools and strategies

Undergraduate students have fixed class schedules, a course workload that varies over time and can increase unexpectedly, family and social commitments, and may also have a job. Despite their commitment, RAs may take longer than expected to complete tasks according to the project timeline. Introduce students to some of your favourite apps and tools for managing time, avoiding distractions, and managing tasks (some examples here if you don’t use any and are curious). A physical reminder, as simple as a project outline on a whiteboard, or the more visually appealing Gantt Chart or Kanban Board, in a mutual workspace, can provide motivation and help in project management.

Despite good planning and previously steady progress, RA productivity may decline during their busiest assessment periods at the middle and end of the term or semester. It is better to acknowledge this and build it into the project schedule (remember that you may be similarly busy with grading at this time). If students still need to log a certain number of hours per week during these periods then suggest they complete more mundane tasks that don’t require critical thinking or as much attention to detail. Remember to schedule rest periods between project phases and be understanding of other demands on their time.

Provide developmental opportunities

Although faculty opinion of when RAs should be named as coauthors can vary, students who have made substantial contributions to a research study and manuscript preparation should be included as co-authors or even first authors. Mentored faculty-student research partnerships are more likely to result in publications if undergraduate researchers remain engaged for more than one year and faculty find enjoyment in and are committed to research with undergraduates. If opportunities for student authorship are limited by time during project duration or manuscript preparation, undergraduate RAs could instead present a component of the study at a conference. Faculty should be proactive in identifying suitable conferences and helping procure funding for RA attendance.

The strategies described above will help faculty be ‘good’ mentors who care about the experiences of RAs and provide due reward for their efforts. This will be of benefit to both faculty research productivity and student personal and professional development and may potentially help in recruiting future undergraduate assistants. But the personal reward for faculty should not be overlooked. Engaging with undergraduate students outside course-based work and in situations where less formal conversations can occur leads to a deeper understanding of their motivations, aspirations and concerns. This carries over into every aspect of academic life, and results in more empathetic instructors and informed advocates for student support and resources, in addition to more productive researchers.

Do you agree with the views expressed in this article? Please let us know in the comments below.

While the world celebrates the discovery of life-saving drugs and vaccines for diseases that have claimed innumerable lives, a new broad-spectrum ailment has already taken over the stage of global concerns. This ailment has symptoms that are hard to diagnose, conditions tough to stabilise, and cures that are completely temporary in nature. This global pandemic that is responsible for over 800,000 deaths every year is “Mental Distress” - a medical condition where an individual fails to realise his/her own potential, cannot cope with the stress posed by daily life and is unable to make a full-fledged contribution to his/her community.

As per the reports of the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 20% of all children and adolescents worldwide are in mental distress. In this era of spine-chilling terrorism, brutal wars and conflicts, failing economies, devastating man-made and natural disasters, and different forms of human right violations, mental health degradation and its cure is of profound interest to the global community.

Countries like India, with a flourishing population within the age-group of 12-30 years, witness some of the worst cases of mental health distress as the youth lies in the centre of most of the problems stated above. Hence, awareness and evaluation of mental health in youth rearing centres such as schools, colleges, and other educational institutions are of utmost importance.

Realizing this profound need and aiming to enable students to open up about mental health-related issues, The Wellness and Counselling Unit of Ramjas College, University of Delhi, in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) funded Star College Project, Ramjas Chapter (Department of Zoology), organised a two day mental health workshop in September 2019.

This was one of the first such workshops to be organised in an undergraduate college in recent times. It attempted to shed light on three main mental health topics – (1) Psychological Capital Efficacy, which focussed on realisation of the emotional and psychological potential vested in every individual which is essential for success, (2) Loneliness, that discussed the global pandemic of lack of efficient communication among individuals at the personal level and its widespread impacts on one’s life, and last but not the least, (3) The trilogy of mood swings, anger and stress, that discussed the interconnection between these three issues and how to mitigate them.

The workshop witnessed overwhelming participation with more than 300 participants, including not only students but also teaching and non-teaching faculty, reflecting the dire necessity of such awareness campaigns.

When asked about why they wanted to attend this workshop, some participants stated that they wanted to find strategies for dealing with the stress they have been encountering, some mentioned that they were curious to find out whether they are stressed or not, and some quietly admitted that they were hoping to find others with similar issues who will be sensitive towards them. Some students were enthusiastic about the availability of platforms where they might be able to pose questions that have been troubling them but have gone unanswered as they had no one to ask them to.

Based on the idea that every individual is like a fresh canvas, which they paint themselves, the workshop was named “The Jolly Portrait”. It aimed to counter one of the most prevalent stereotypes associated with mental health workshops (that impedes many individuals from attending them) – that they are gloomy affairs. The idea of painting a “jolly portrait” was implemented with sub-events such as “The Happiness Meter” – a fun-filled self-assessment of one’s mental health, and “The Wishing Tree” wherein participants wrote their wishes on a piece of paper with an open heart and unfurled them to the world by tying it to a tree.

Navin Kumar, Associate Professor (Psychology), Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi, presented his ideas and suggestions on living with proper psychological capital efficacy. He talked about various mental health challenges commonly faced by students such as peer pressure, fear of not doing well in life, homesickness, dysfunctional families etc., and together with the students tried to identify the key combat areas and probable strategies to ‘fight and win’ in these. He put forward the need to balance thoughts through conscious efforts, especially when faced with difficult choices (for e.g. choosing a career stream or direction, or agreeing or disagreeing with their parents’ choices).

B. N. Patra, Assistant Professor (Psychiatry) AIIMS, Delhi, enlightened the gathering on the emerging pandemic of loneliness which flourishes in spite of growing lists of friends on social media. He discussed the impacts and causes of this phenomenon and remedial measures that can be taken against it. He also stressed on the distinction between ‘being alone’ and ‘feeling lonely’ so that the participants could voice their inner fears of feeling the latter. The session brought to fore the emptiness that many in the audience felt.

Later that day, Soumya Tandon, Associate Consultant (Psychiatry), Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi, hosted an interactive session on the interconnection between mood swings, anger and stress and possible ways to tackle them. She again gave the participants an open space to present their doubts, dilemmas, fears, reasons for their stress, reasons for their anger, and any other chaos that might plague their minds.

Many of the participants opened up to interact with the speakers and emphasised the need to address such issues with greater affection and maturity. Arunima Das, a student pursuing MA (Political Science) remarked, “The conduct of the mental health event was a really appreciable step. It was a wonderful experience attending it and enlightening ourselves with the much-needed talk of the hour. The topic is either shrugged off with callousness or much worse, romanticised by many, in the meanwhile depriving it of the much-needed attention it demands. Keeping a check on our mental health is as important as looking for and treating our physical injuries. So, people should come forward with more such awareness programs and event that will be beneficial to us all.”

Manoj K. Khanna, Principal, Ramjas College, who believes that physical health and mental health are intertwined and both should be equally taken care of for better productivity, envisages the college hosting more such workshops and regular counselling sessions for students as well as the faculty. He also stressed on the need for greater communication between human beings.

As educators, we interact with a heterogeneous group of young students and witness various facets of their day-to-day struggles while trying hard to balance our own lives. So, in addition to the subject knowledge that we are imparting, we should attempt to nurture good mental state in students so that they can imbibe that knowledge in a more efficient and useful manner. The workshop provided an apt platform to facilitate this and going by the presentations, interactions, discussions and feedback, we strongly felt the importance and the need for holding more such events to help each other in moving towards building more efficient, unstressed, resilient and happier selves.

The stigma related to mental health is severe and unless mitigated, mental distress shall continue claiming lives bearing enormous potential. The need to open up about one’s problems, to nurture an effective mindset, to interact effectively and affectionately, are the qualities that the present generation and the posterity must inculcate. Support groups, open discussion sessions etc. are some of the ways for people with mental distress to engage in introspection and mitigation of this devastating ailment.

This workshop has ignited a spark to address the burning issue of mental health with sensitivity and maturity. Hoping to keep the flame lit, the event concluded with the hanging of wishes on “the Wishing Tree”- a humble attempt to understand and communicate with ourselves.

Previous articles in the Mental Health Series:

• You don’t have to be ​‘crazy’ to be doing a PhD!
  
• Wake up academia, it’s a brand new mental health patient
• Sowing the seeds of a long-term mental health study in an Indian population
• Speaking up: Ending the culture of silence

Did you enjoy this article? Please let us know in the comments below.

“Curiosity killed the cat” is a saying that limits scientific aspirations. However, with undergraduates having first-hand research experience, curiosity is set to “cure” the cat. Through Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) teaching pedagogy - students are able to work on research problems.

Pedagogical research suggests that engagement enhances learning experience. Thus, with an intent to make undergraduate experience, CUREs are incorporated in the curriculum. The study module allows the students to ask scientific questions, develop hypothesis and attain unknown outcomes.

Offering distinct learning environments, CUREs allows students to make discoveries on their own. CUREs are the mini-scientist experiences propelling students towards investigative tendencies through engagement in iterative work.

CURE can assume diverse structures, wherein the research experience could take the form of bench work, fieldwork, or computer work. A variety of structures simulate the learners’ research experience as they draw meaning from experiences, an integral component of constructivism learning.

It is what stimulated a group of researchers from the University of Minneapolis to study the impact of CURE on student attitudinal outcomes. While collaborating with principal investigators, the students undertook bench-based and computer-based coursework.

Bench-based structures comprised of experiments involving investigations of microbial physiology and experimental evolution of Pseudomonas, and environmental and developmental toxicology in Zebrafish. The three semester-long investigation also assessed students’ notions of ownership, self-reporting of personal gains, and attitudes towards the experience. Overall, CUREs facilitated positive responses from students.

Students working in bioinformatics preferred working on digital research projects compared to traditional lab work (58%). Majority of the students working with Pseudomonas appreciated the course structure (43%) and reported higher sense of ownership (38%). Students working on Zebrafish also expressed similar interests. These results indicate student preference towards engaging environments that foster the excitement of discovery.

Dr. Reginald Halaby, Professor of Biology and Cancer Scientist at Montclair State University, is of the view that research experiences in biology/science courses can enhance students' experience, satisfaction, and academic performance. Having designed online courses such as Developmental Biology and Vertebrate Embryology, Dr. Halaby notes increasing tendencies of students to take up digital and computer-based learning. However, she adds “computer-based learning cannot fully substitute bench-based learning, especially for certain biology courses. Students who take online courses blended with lab components do better because this generation is comfortable with technology and are digital learners.”

CUREs address the tapestry of learner psychologies. Students with low-ACT scores reported higher interest, sense of achievement, and course satisfaction (ACT is a standardized test in the USA for college admissions) . Barbi Honeycutt, teaching and learning consultant at FLIP It Consulting, experienced in student-centred active-learning environment, suggests that these learning experiences have a direct and positive influence on student learning outcomes, success, and interest.

The higher attitudinal outcomes of students with low-ACT scores emphasizes the issue of specific groups such as women, first-generation college students, and minorities in STEM areas. Barbi states, “These groups are succeeding at higher rates than ever before when interactive, applied, and practical learning experiences are in place. We are also seeing how these type of learning environments are influencing students' choice of majors and career.” However, Barbi recognizes that faculty requires support to implement this learning model.

In conclusion, CUREs not only help academically prudent students but also are useful to students whose abilities might suit more engaging teaching models. CUREs can cure the boredom and are prescribe students inquisitive research with a higher degree of awareness.

Tell us a bit about your academic journey.

I was born in a remote village of eastern UP. Till the age of 7, I did not attend formal schooling - my mother was my teacher. I was later educated at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (BHU).

My school teacher, Late B.K. Tiwari, introduced me to molecular biology in 1968 (the year Dr. Har Gobind Khorana got Nobel Prize). Dr. Tiwari taught Biology as a scientific field shaping around us.

I was introduced to the fascinating field of scientific research by my PhD mentor, Late Madhu Sudan Kanungo - a focused and determined researcher. His motivation drove him to be active in lab until a week before his death (at the age of 87 years).

As a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Molecular Biology at University of Zurich, I witnessed the best of contemporary science under the guidance of Charles Weissmann.

These three teachers-scientists have had a founder role in my career.

I joined my alma mater, BHU, as a lecturer and taught Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Molecular Genetics. In 2003, I shifted to the Department of Zoology, University of Delhi (DU).

In addition to teaching and research, I have headed the Cluster Innovation Centre – an innovation-oriented learning centre with an entrepreneurial dimension. I was also Dean Research- Life Sciences for a period of 4 years.

I have had a very fulfilling experience as a student, teacher, and researcher.

What is your teaching mantra?

My teaching relies heavily on analytical research bent - I have never enjoyed teaching facts.

I discuss concepts and encourage students to develop hypothesis and design experiments to assess hypothesis. I enjoy this learner-centric teaching where I engage students in discussion. My teaching heavily uses internet and other social media. I do not stop student from using their smartphones; rather I ask them to use it during our discussion to search for an answer.

Do you think networking is important in teaching? How can students benefit from networking?

Biological phenomenon depends on a minimum of two interaction systems - no science can be done in isolation. Scientific validation needs authentication and validation by a group of unbiased scientists. New ideas and new interpretations emerge during meetings, seminars and conferences.

In coming times, a teacher is important, but the time and space of teaching might not be important. Therefore, contemporary teaching will have to rely on teacher networks.

No single institution can fulfil the requirements of today’s learner. Therefore, a concept of meta-University and meta-college has to be created through networking. We has tested this concept at the Cluster Innovation Centre.

Do you know of any conferences that take place for teachers of STEM in India? Do you think having these conferences is a good idea?

Many conferences are regularly organized for Indian STEM teachers. Two organizations that are doing great job in this direction; Mathematical Science Foundation, New Delhi, and Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education (TIFR) at Mumbai. At Center for Science Education and Communication (DU), I, as the Director, had organized many workshops for teachers and students.

What has been your experience of teacher training workshops?

Not easy in India. As the Director of Center for Professional Development in Higher Education (CPDHE), DU, I had mentioned in every workshop that it was very difficult to train teachers.

The primary goal of all training programs is reduced to issuance of a ‘Certificate,’ which the teacher could use for promotion. The excitement of teachers’ conference is short-lived. Therefore, the outcome of such mentoring is hardly visible or noticed.

Social factors such as lack of jobs and poor recruitment processes are also responsible for poor outcome of such programs.

As the Dean Research -Life Science at DU, you have supported transdisciplinary innovation projects for undergraduates. Why do you think such projects are important and how has been the experience so far?

Supporting Undergraduate Innovative projects was a memorable experience during my stint as Dean. DU should have continued supporting these activities. It brought a research-based approach to UG teaching with students developing transdisciplinary problem-solving approach. Through such activities, students were equipped to understand the grand challenges of the society and were able to explore novel solutions for it.

What kind of teaching do you think is obsolete?

The biggest damage to biology education in our country is propagating subject titles - such as Zoology, Botany, Microbiology. It should replace with Natural Sciences and Biological Sciences. Further, education should focus on hands-on problem-solving approaches on socially relevant problems.

Your views on the draft education policy 2019 (https://innovate.mygov.in/new-education-policy-2019/).

It is an exhaustive document prepared by a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Kasturirangan and it deserves accolades on many aspects. The problems of school education have been well identified and the recommendations, if followed, would be helpful. This would also impact higher education.

One of the biggest challenges of higher education has been that the colleges are assigned to impart undergraduate education while universities focus on postgraduate education and research. Quality of research was also brought down when the API system was introduced for appointment and promotions in the higher education. Aimless planning to increase the number of PhD and research publications further reduces the research quality.

I was however disappointed by the recommendations for higher education. The committee has tried to incorporate a lot, and in turn, has failed to analyse the problems of higher education.

There is no clear demarcation between erstwhile polytechnic colleges and Universities. One of the very important responsibilities of higher education is to ignite the young mind, and I do not find clear direction in the recommendations. The problem of autonomy has been addressed, but no recommendation is presented - as the number of regulatory bodies have not been reduced.

In my opinion, undergraduate education should be addressed at par with postgraduate education and research.

In your years of service, what changes in teaching requirements have you observed?

Sandra: The teacher mostly adapts to a methodology in accordance with the class. I feel that one has to be innovative. The chalk and board method is indispensable - students say it makes it easier to follow a lecture, compared to the use of transparency or PowerPoint. Introducing class quizzes helps keep students engaged.

Madappa: A strict curriculum has changed to more active learning. Newer methods largely involve students to arrive at conclusions on their own. Most of the curriculum today is skill development oriented, life science curriculum too, is evolving with this theme. Technology has transformed the role of a teacher to a facilitator.

How should the current system change to incorporate research at the undergraduate level? What changes would enable focus towards research?

Sandra: Recognising teachers as guides would enable students to enrol as researchers. Students desire both - research experience and remuneration; the latter being dependent on us being recognised as guides. Under Bangalore University, getting recognised as a department (and getting designated as a guide) have been tough battles to fight. For many years, only botany and chemistry were considered as departments, identifying microbiology or biotechnology as departments has been an uphill battle. Once we are a university, things should start improving.

Focus in universities is still around teaching, and less on research. Unless attitudes change, the shift won’t be easy. During hiring, we ensure that the candidates have a research-oriented aptitude.

Madappa: I would opt for a flexible syllabus. In our current jam-packed one, the priority is on finishing the cramped syllabus. For the Bangalore University syllabus, this is not possible. However, as an autonomous system, we would have the flexibility to design syllabus and set questions.

We should also not be expected to teach everything, we expect students to know the core of their subjects by 12th standard. However, syllabus structure requires us to go back to basics again. Strong foundations should be inculcated at school, especially at 9th and 10th standards. For this, the quality of school teaching needs to be better.

Students mostly conduct basic experimentation. It would be good to have a journal at the undergraduate level, where these efforts can be published. This would motivate students and give them the requisite learning experience for research.

Do teachers attend pedagogical workshops? Do you see the impact of workshops on teaching practices or student learning?

Sandra: We have introduced Research Based Pedagogical Tools (RBPTs) in our lab practicums. The knowledge of pedagogical tools has helped improve the overall quality of education. Implementation of RBPT in the curriculum has the students interested in research. We have seen an increase in questioning and class discussions. Overall, in the last 4-5 years, the number of students with an interest in science has gone up.

Madappa: We brought RBPTs conducted by IISER Pune to our classrooms.

Hands on workshop for specific tools like bioinformatics, PCR techniques, next-generation sequencing have proved useful. Peer collaborations have also resulted from these interactions.

Organising lectures has also helped our students in understanding the useful skills of research presentation.

Do you have peer discussion groups? Do conferences help in the skill development of teachers?

Sandra: We have a research committee and a research colloquium (for teachers, post graduates and PhD students) that meets twice a month. We also have a Josephite Research Forum for undergraduates. In total, our college has 54 associations. These groups usually start with full enthusiasm and a packed house, but gradually trickle down by the 3rd meeting.

We have made efforts to go interdisciplinary with these associations. However, both students and teachers attend their domain specific forums. Only a handful of us go for everything.

Madappa: Attending scientific research conferences might help in content development. However, teachers can read academic papers on their own. There are many lecture videos available for listening to the best scientists in the world, overcoming the need for paying to attend conferences.

Conferences and workshops dealing with target-oriented teaching tools have been of help. Active teacher learning workshops for handling, say a class of 100 students are also helpful.

How is research funding in colleges? Are there resources available for teachers to conduct research?

Sandra: A few resources are available – the college grants seed fund to teachers. We call for research proposal, but do not find most of them up to mark. Many teachers lack grant writing skills. Moreover, a few, with their certain biases and preconceived notions, are resistant to new ideas. Thus, we have introduced workshops on science writing, grant writing and plagiarism awareness.

Madappa: Getting grants has become difficult off-late. In our department, 4 out of 5 faculty have minor UGC research grants, while in our college, there about 40 teachers with minor, and 8 with major research grants.

Resource requirement is dependent on the research type. Lacunae exist for funding sophisticated infrastructure. However, field research that is required to study climate, vegetation, and tree diversity, is much easier to conduct.

We asked a few questions to Sandra for details on the DBT Star College Scheme

How has the DBT Star college scheme impacted teachers?

Sandra: The DBT star college scheme has facilitated teachers to attend the programs organized by MHRD. The most popular being the RBPT workshops; they have fostered personal growth and collaborations.

The funds from the scheme have helped establish several research platforms in our institution. The procurement of a large number of small equipment has ensured that students have hands-on experience. Multi-disciplinary and productive research is encouraged.

How does DBT assess the research conducted under the program?

Sandra: In addition to annual project reports, an advisory group visits the institution and assesses the work done; this gets reported to DBT.

Projects are also monitored by the coordinators of the DBT star college scheme. The coordinator presents the work to the task force, which recommends whether the funds should be continued.

Does the college have any reward programs for conducting research? How practical is for students to engage in experimental research?

Sandra: Nothing at the moment, if you discount a mention in the College Day Report. It is important to look at the practical aspects of doing research. Some of my students travel two hours or more to reach home. They are unlikely to get time to do extensive projects.

We also have to rush to research institutes like National Centre for Biological Science or Indian Institute of Science to access facilities. Even though we get grants through the DBT Star College program, the conditions are stringent.

Please tell us a bit about your journey so far in academia. Were you always interested in teaching?

I was unwillingly exposed to science in my childhood, as both my parents were researchers. I drifted into academia; as an undergraduate, I wanted to be a politician and an administrator!

I studied Zoology at the Banaras Hindu University and had excellent teachers with tremendous patience to mentor students like me. My first foray into research was a small project with SC Lakhotia (with whom I did my PhD) studying a locus encoding non-coding RNA in Drosophila melanogaster.

My postdoctoral experience with Samir Brahmachari was also exciting. He mentored me for an interview for a lectureship position at the Department of Genetics, University of Delhi (DU). At DU, Deepak Pental convinced me to work on plant biology; we developed transgenics that we hope to see being farmed in the near future.

I owe it to my teachers for kindling in me a love for science. Mentorship has played a significant role in helping me reach this stage of my academic journey. I am glad that I was mentored and not ‘supervised’. I feel that academic mentorship is fading away.

To me, teaching is a ‘work of heart’. I discovered this love around examination time, I understood the topic better once I taught it to my friends. This is true today – I achieved clarity in genetic concepts once I started teaching students. The joy of teaching is best achieved when an alumnus remembers my classes.

Do you introduce elements of your research in teaching?

To me, education is an amalgamation of learning, teaching, and research. What I teach in the classroom finds its way into research. My first-hand experience with research supplements my teaching.

I share my mistakes that arise due to the vagaries of the system under study – it is important for students to know that mistakes are acceptable. I teach a course on ‘Regulation of Gene Expression’ and my work on plant transgene expression gets plugged into teaching.

During my PhD, in addition to conducting experiments, I learnt to fabricate apparatus, repair appliances, handle finances, and run projects on a shoestring budget. Today I realize that we received holistic training that has enabled me to impart this philosophy.

Which pedagogical tools have worked best for you in classrooms? Have you tried non-conventional approaches to teaching?

I mostly use the blackboard, supported by a few video slides (if needed). We have a small class and I vary my approach depending on the educational background of the students.

I love discussing classic papers of Mendel or Jacob and Monod to inspire students. My intent is to inspire students to read and forage on their own. An unconventional mode of teaching is compiled in the book ‘Great Scientists Speak Again’ by Richard M Eakin. To attract students, Eakin used to dress up like scientists and enact his experiments in class. A flair for drama always helps!

For practical sessions, I try to design experiments that ask students to reason out explanations based on their observations. A few times they have suggested explanations that forced me to think in a new direction.

Over the years I have stopped students from writing the typical ‘practical record book/copy’. I feel the norm of writing practical notebooks is the biggest example of plagiarism as most students copy exercises from the seniors.

What are your views on undergraduate research? What are the pros and cons of such an approach?

Are we really equipped to carry out research in most of our colleges (except in a few elite institutes)? Routine lab practicals are not conducted optimally because of student overload and decimating infrastructure. Proper library facilities, access to journals, and residential campuses are a must for implementing research in undergraduate courses.

The first step should be to improve the current design of experiments for fostering student engagement and inculcating the spirit of questioning.

Our knowledge in the field of biology has increased rapidly. Which relevant courses do you think can be added to the curriculum?

With the development of knowledge, the curriculum needs to be updated on a regular basis. However, it is equally important to focus on building basic concepts.

Courses should continue teaching organismal biology. Through the teaching of phylogenetics, evolutionary biology should be introduced. Biostatistics too needs to be comprehensively taught. In today’s age of data, it is important to make students understand its importance.

A course on writing skills is a must. ‘History of science’ that discusses the evolution of a scientific field can also be experimented with.

Do you think professional networking is important in teaching as it is in research? How can one benefit from such networking?

It is very important to share one's teaching experience with others. The first step could be that teachers attend each other’s classes and have constructive discussions on the teaching methodology. Just like research, ‘teaching skills’ need to be nurtured.

We do have a few networking platforms – an orientation program and two refresher courses. This is an opportunity for teachers across the country to network, these opportunities should be strengthened in a meaningful way.

How would you feel about sharing your teaching experiences as a mentor during teacher conferences? Do you know of any conferences for teachers of STEM in India? Do you think having these conferences is a good idea?

I would love to do it, though I am not aware of any conferences for STEM teachers.

It is important that these forums be used to discuss new topics that could be taught, approaching the same in an interesting way and nurturing experimental skills. These forums can help teachers in pedagogy innovation.

All these have to be conducted keeping in mind the ground reality of our colleges and post-graduate departments. All such conferences or discussion meetings should be meaningful, not another box to be ticked in an academic year.

“Are you attending the Indian Science Congress this year?”

“I’m not sure. I thought I’d attend a different type of conference this year. Perhaps one where I can learn about new teaching methods.”

“You mean like a ‘teacher’s conference’?”

“Yes! Where teachers and educators meet to exchange notes on effective teaching practices, new ideas in teaching, problems teachers face, get a chance to network and make contacts…..”

This conversation between two professors at a teachers' lounge in a Delhi college, overheard several years ago, stuck to my memory. It resurfaced recently during a friendly but heated debate with friends and colleagues on whether undergraduate science teachers ought to attend and organize conferences on pedagogyin addition to those focussed on research in the basic sciences.

Though both types of conferences offer networking opportunities, pedagogy-focused conferences organized specifically for teachers could generate a dynamic resource base for the undergraduate teaching community.

The central theme of such conferences would be how to impart knowledge effectively to students. Since pedagogy as a science is still at a seedling stage in India, few undergraduate teachers think of how pedagogical tools can be applied to their classrooms, much less mull over advances in teaching methods.

This situation, however, must change. It is time for teachers to realize that there may be better teaching tools out there, that their particular classroom methods may be useful to other teachers, and perhaps it is time to share amongst themselves what works and what doesn’t. A teacher’s conference would be ideal for this.

Networking needs of Educators

“What students look to teachers for, nowadays, is guidance on what opportunities they can pursue, what to study, and how to gain a firm hold on their chosen career paths,” says Mythili Rao, Dean of Languages, School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Jain University, “Today, students can get information on any subject they care to study about with the tap of a finger on a laptop button or a smartscreen app. Many students do not expect to be spoon-fed course-related material by their teachers, and very few of my students expect teachers to hand out notes anymore. It’s the mentorship provided by a teacher that students value.”

In this regard, teachers’ conferences, especially those organised by teachers, can help educators build mentorship skills by sharing experiences and expertise. Such meetings can also serve as a common ground for educators to engage in collaborative troubleshooting, discussions of educational policy, and innovations in teaching methods.

“I have attended several faculty induction programs for teachers of the Telangana Government Residential College for Women as a guest. These programs were also 1-week sessions exclusively for teachers, and from the feedback I collected, most of the teachers valued the content of these programs, as well as the chance to meet their peers from sister institutions,” says Vidya Jonnalagadda, Assistant Professor at the Bhavan’s Vivekanand College, Hyderabad.

Pedagogical conferences and workshops in India

Conferences for teachers aimed at discussing pedagogical ideas in India are rare, but they do exist. There are the biennial epiSTEME conferences, organized by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), as well as the research-based pedagogical tools workshop, which is organized by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune in collaboration with the British Council of India.

Azim Premji University has been organising international conferences on the philosophy of education in January every year since 2016 with themes such as the influence of culture on school curriculum, the philosophy and practice of teaching, theory-practice divide in education, moral and political education, and nationalism in education. A conference on inclusive pedagogy organised by the Centre for Writing and Communication, Ashoka University (Sonepat) in March this year discussed a variety of subjects including pedagogy and syllabus design, disability, multilinguality, and science education.

In addition to such pedagogy-centric conferences, there are also meetings centred on education. A one-day conference in February this year at New Delhi, the Education Innovation Conference 2019, came fairly close to what an ideal teacher’s conference should look like – talks by relevant experts and innovation showcases interspersed with networking sessions over tea, snacks, and lunch. Industry experts, policymakers, and university administrators attended the conference, with a sprinkling of entrepreneurs showcasing education-based products and ideas.

Along similar lines, the 15^th FICCI Higher Education Summit 2019, to be held at New Delhi in November this year promises to be a much larger gathering of policymakers and education experts from all over the world.

However, these conferences seem to be largely aimed at the senior management of schools and higher education institutions. Although teachers may attend sessions and talks, they are not ‘invited’ to give talks themselves.

Advantages of a “Teachers’ conference”

A teachers’ conference that could draw together people from different branches of the education sector could become a valuable platform for educators to engage in capacity building. Debates and dialogues in this milieu on subjects like course content, pros and cons of semester versus yearly sessions, inclusion of project modules etc. could aid both teachers and university administrators in designing or modifying educational programs.

“Bringing teachers, college administrators, university policymakers, and industry specialists together can help everyone take a holistic approach to the teaching-learning process. It provides a platform for teachers to voice their concerns and opinions, and could help policymakers adjust education road maps,” says Anupma Harshal, a teacher and independent scientist working on the Indo-US foldscope project in Mumbai. “Research-based pedagogy can provide innovative training methods for undergraduate educators, and conferences on this topic would be very welcome for teachers, yes, but they might be useful for administrators and policymakers also,” she adds.

Yet given a teacher’s busy schedule, and usually less-than-plump pockets, would the time and money spent in attending such teachers’ conferences be a worthwhile investment?

“Of course it will be! If you don’t invest time, money, and effort in keeping yourself current, how can you hope to succeed as a teacher?” exclaims Rao. “Teaching, like any other profession, requires constant work to keep skills sharp and current. Teachers and educators must accept that attending conferences is a form of capacity-building that is crucial for their careers,” she adds.

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As a teacher/researcher, how many times have you cringed on hearing a piece of well-meant, but terrible advice?

Here’s an example: “Don’t eat Kurkure, it’s made of plastic!”

For the record, this rumour was started because of a video clip that showed a piece of Kurkure ‘burning and melting’, which apparently meant that the popular snack contained plastic.

Fact: Most snacks that contain high levels of carbohydrates and oil will ‘burn and melt’ just like Kurkure.

A downright dangerous challenge: “It’s dengue season…for all those who want to avoid dengue, or cure dengue in a day, drink papaya leaf juice.”

Fact: papaya leaf extracts do not prevent or even cure dengue (in a day?). Dengue fever causes a decrease in platelets in your body. Papaya leaf extracts boost your body’s ability to make platelets, and help mitigate the effects of dengue – if you get bitten by a dengue-carrying mosquito, even though you have drunk papaya leaf juice, you can still get dengue.

When well-meaning friends or relatives, who are usually sharp enough to spot fake notes in a wad of money, believe in and pass on such messages, what do you do? Taking my responsibility as a former scientist and current science communicator very seriously, I decided to try and explain that this ‘information’ was not true.

The most common response to my carefully collated research material (and rational thinking) was, “Yes, yes, but all of this is done by someone else! How do you know they’re telling the truth?”. This is in truth, a fair question. The only way to counter it is to test these so-called facts by carrying out and interpreting the results of experiments by yourself.

This is exactly what an Associate Professor, Evan Lampert, and a graduate student, Holly Munro, at the University of North Georgia made undergraduate students do. The students designed their own hypotheses and set up experiments to test the veracity of a well-known and widespread modern myth in the USA – that fast food does not decay.

In a study that they published in The American Biology Teacher, Lampert and Munro made students inoculate hamburgers and other fast food items with the fungus Rhizopus stolonifer (black bread mould) as a part of an introductory biology class. R. stolonifer is usually harmless, easily obtainable, and easy to culture. Students used a 3 mm plug of R. stolonifer cultured on potato-dextrose agar to inoculate 60 mm disks of different foods such as burger patties, chicken nuggets, bread, burger buns, biscuits, and other baked products. Petri plates with the inoculated foods were sealed and incubated at 25 ˚C for four days, following which, the diameters of the fungal growths on the food were measured. During the incubation period, students were given worksheets where they had to list out the ingredients, including antimicrobials and preservatives, in the foods they were testing. Using this information, they were asked to formulate a hypothesis on whether a particular food item would support fungal growth or not, and explain their reasons for the hypothesis. Since most undergraduate students usually have difficulties in differentiating between a question, hypothesis, and prediction, the exercise was useful in helping them understand these concepts.

Through the experiments, the class observed that plain bread products, which contain the antifungal agent calcium propionate, seldom allowed fungal growth. Similarly, fungal growth was low in foods covered with condiments such as ketchup and mustard, which also contain high levels of preservatives. However, animal products like burger patties and chicken nuggets, and moist foods with sauces and glazes supported plentiful fungal growth. Overall, the experiments helped students understand that fungal growth depended on the moisture and preservative content of the food.

The entire exercise not only helped the class evaluate the reliability of online information, it also served as an introductory lesson on fungi. Using well-known foods boosted interest in the laboratory experiments, and promoted discussions of nutritional practices. The authors report that after the experiment, many students expressed interest in changing their eating habits for a healthier future.

Lampert and Munro end their publication with thoughts on unlimited opportunities to examine online claims in lab courses. “We recommend that high school and college instructors seek out their own online stories and develop ways to test them or seek original information in peer-reviewed scientific literature. Such activities can be effective and engaging learning experiences,” they add.

“Popular myths can be busted through simple hypotheses-driven experiments in colleges and schools. Students can be asked to identify and list prevailing online information - for example, certain rice brands made of wax or Maggi noodles being coated in wax,” says Urmi Bajpai, an associate professor from the Acharya Narendra Dev college, New Delhi. “In testing such claims, students learn to prove/disprove a ‘known fact’ instead of doing cookbook-style experiments. They learn to question the credibility of unverified facts and understand the concepts of enquiry-based learning, along with learning experimental skills,” she adds.

Please tell us a bit about your journey into academics. Do you enjoy teaching? What course do you enjoy teaching the most?

For my Masters in Zoology, I wanted to specialise in genetics and toxicology. However, a final year project took me to the Western Ghats, I was thrilled to see animals in their natural habitat and decided upon ecology for my career. After completing my Masters in ecology I moved to the Indian Institute of Science for a PhD on acoustics and animal behaviour. I joined IISER Mohali as a faculty six years ago.

I enjoy teaching. In addition to advanced courses for Masters and PhD students I teach an undergraduate course on ecology and animal behaviour. I also take lab for a course on evolution and genetics. It is particularly challenging to teach undergraduates as many of them have not taken biology in high school. Yet, towards the end of the course, I found that they enjoyed ecology - this I considered a personal victory. Teaching advanced courses is much easier as it involves a specialised audience trained in biology.

How did you balance teaching and establishing a lab?

Oh it was very challenging! It was an overwhelming time as I started teaching immediately after joining, at the same time when I was setting up my lab, applying for grants and getting lab equipment. I also got married and had a child during the time.

I was teaching theory, was involved in lab practicals and was assisting other teachers. Having said that, I was fortunate to have peers who guided me in handling large classes. Additionally, Professor Sathyamurthy, the founding director, was very inclusive and generously helped with the smooth setting up of the lab.

I faced many difficulties due to the nature of my field work which majorly involved observing wild animals. The institutional rules did not allow scholars to be away for more than 120 days a year – making it difficult to stay in the field for more than 4 months. Such difficulties in maintaining a long-term project drove me towards working on backyard animals – made possible because of India’s biodiversity! I also fought hard against the 120-day rule by engaging the institution with ecology experts, and now it is revoked.

An ecology lab usually does not require the infrastructure and funding that a molecular study lab does. We have special requirements though - a soundproof room for acoustic studies. The sound proof room has been principally sanctioned. However, we still do not have it due to procedural delays and space issues.

Did you ever wish for a faculty training module? How can scientists be trained to teach?

I did not undergo a formal faculty training program at IISER Mohali. The enormous load did not stress me as I enjoy teaching.

PhD and postdoctoral students should be formally involved in teaching duties, this might help in swift transition to teaching (informally, students usually contribute as teaching assistants). A candidate having a good research and teaching experience is better suited for a faculty position.

A buffer time could be provided to a new faculty: perhaps a year to settle in with no immediate teaching load. This can help get the lab running.

Institutions can have multiple instructors for a course which can facilitate guidance. For example, a new faculty teaching a course along with a senior professor. For this, faculty recruitment should incorporate all major fields of specialisation adequately so that the teaching load can be well-distributed.

Do you think that a network of peers and mentors could help teachers of higher education?

It would be fantastic if one has a network for sharing teaching experiences.

The network could help us with teaching skills, handling student diversity and pedagogical tools. Such mentors can belong to any scientific field. Subject experts also can help us with the teaching of specific concepts.

A mentor can guide you on making assignments and creating an engaging and informative course structure. Education conferences and virtual platforms can help us achieve this.

IISER programs lay emphasis on undergraduate research, how has this impacted students’ scientific aptitude?

I feel the university system lacks a discussion on science, other than that it is not less glorious than others. IISER students are taught by scientists, research being their major job role. This I feel is the critical difference. IISER students hang around in labs, witness research hands-on and conduct experiments.

An undergraduate joined my lab as a summer intern and continued his Masters. His work (along with a PhD student) has been recently accepted for publication in Biology Letters - one of many success stories of IISERs research-driven education policy.

Such an environment inspires undergraduates towards research, probably why many of our students take up academia as a career path. I think if universities can invite scientists to teach certain modules of their courses, an excitement for research can be developed.

Do you introduce elements of research in teaching? Any interesting courses you want to introduce in the curriculum?

I feel that we are moving away from core biology, probably because expensive science seems glamorous. We now graduate with specialised degrees. However, we often find that students are not broadly trained to understand basic biology.

Though it is necessary to teach the latest techniques, it is more important to teach their use to solve research problems leading to the development of a scientific attitude.

I teach field methods in ecology that includes methods like camera-trapping, mist-netting and collecting behaviour data from free-ranging animals. This is an advanced elective. However, even in the second-year lab course, we have sessions in which we ask students to formulate their questions, come up with a hypothesis, collect semester-long data and also use biostatistics to analyse data. This is an early exposure to a scientific way of working.

I believe that for holistic understanding, students should be taught biology at different levels – ranging from organismal to molecular. I would like new courses to be fundamental, having a core structure, post which a student can specialise.

You can share your views on co-teaching as comments below

There are animated parties in the forest with a motley bunch of attendees, their colours and calls hidden among the trees. Pay a little more attention and you can see birds of various hues and sizes in a palpable buzz of activity. Mixed species bird flocks have been reported all around the world, and form the basis of a new card game called “Flocks!” developed by an unlikely duo.

"In the beginning it is overwhelming because you see one bird, then you see another and then you realize there could be so many…there is not just one or two species but very often, several of them,” says Priti Bangal who studies mixed species bird flocks as a PhD student at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

"There is some systemic kind of play inherent in mixed species bird flocks," says Prasad Sandbhor, a freelance game designer based in Bangalore. He got interested in issues related to nature and society through extra-curricular activities while growing up, and now designs games professionally.

The game rules do not move away from scientific observations. The creators did not bring in anything alien for the sake of a story. For example, gregarious species are important in the formation of mixed species flocks and hence their role as flock starters in the game.

Another important rule states that a species added once, singly or in a group, cannot be added to a mixed species flock again. The idea comes from the fact that a family group of a gregarious species present in a mixed species flock is not joined by another family of the same species. It is the same in case of solitary species, which are often territorial in nature. "I try to justify the ecology side of things and he [Prasad] tries to justify the gameplay side of things. We always try and find the balance in between," Priti says.

"When we started, we thought anybody could play this game and our play testing has been with a wide age group,” Prasad says. From the feedback they have received, it seems to be especially effective among high school kids. It is a good introduction to birds and mixed species flocks, and players seem to remember the roles of birds – warblers as flock starters, drongos as protectors and the interactions between other species. “It is a good way to introduce people to the different elements in the flock...but it is not a lesson plan," Priti says.

The popularity of other science-based games in the market such as Birds of a Feather, Wingspan, Evolution and Phylo, gives them confidence that there are takers for Flocks!.

"It has the potential to be a game on its own and we would like to bring it out in the world for people to play,” Prasad says. They would like to keep it self-sustainable and are looking for companies or ecological organisations who may be interested in collaborating. They also want to collaborate with schools to test the game with a larger audience and use it as a means of scientific outreach.

The journey so far has inspired them to keep working on designing games and playful material like stories and comic books among other formats. They want to work on material that connects players to nature, making them curious to look around and observe natural phenomena, says Prasad. For Priti, discussing mixed species flocks with people outside an ecology background has allowed her to think about questions that may otherwise be taken for granted. “It helps me become clearer in articulation about the system,” she adds. “It definitely has been a fun and enriching experience.”

If you are interested in the game, please get in touch with Priti and Prasad at - pritibangal@iisc.ac.in, sandbhorprasad@gmail.com.

A supermoon, a lunar eclipse and a starry night capture the imaginations of young minds. Most school curricula cover the Earth-Sun-Moon system (including the phases of the moon and eclipses). However, is science teaching able to integrate real phenomena with curriculum?

Can middle school children participate in the following discussions:

“Does the moon rise on the new moon day? If yes, why can’t we see it?”

“Why doesn’t eclipse occur every full moon day?”

We at HBCSE Mumbai (Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education) have attempted to facilitate the understanding of the physical phenomena by designing an activity based learning unit called ‘Observing our Moon’ under Vigyan Pratibha project.

In this module, teachers conduct a role-play activity where three students, each becomes the Earth, Sun and the Moon. For the student playing ‘Earth’, her nose becomes a person on the surface of the Earth. The ‘Moon’ is then made to revolve around the earth while light falls on it from the Sun. Students can then imagine how the different phases of the Moon would be as a result of the different angles the Earth, Sun and Moon make with each other.

When we conducted this learning unit with 8^th class students, there were several ‘aha!’ moments, with students realising: the new moon does rise, just that it cannot be seen on ‘new moon day’ as the lit side of the moon is facing away from us.

Vigyan Pratibha

Vigyan Pratibha - a central government initiative, is working towards creating a unique learning environment. We aim to combine several pedagogical tools based on constructivism and collaborative learning approaches. Currently we are working with students and teachers of classes 8th-10th of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and Atomic Energy Central Schools all over the country.

HBCSE has been academically responsible for conducting resource generation camps bringing together scientists, teachers and educators to develop activity modules, which we call ‘learning units’. These units are in line with the NCERT curriculum and they make students gain a critical understanding of a particular concept.

The learning units require minimal resources and can be worked upon using easily available material, e.g. marbles, fibers, mirrors, milk, curd, wheat flour, raisins. Mathematical learning units require simple materials like graph paper, grid paper, and crayons.

Most of the learning units require students to discuss and debate with each other. This requires the teachers to encourage students to speak up in an otherwise quiet and apparently attentive class.

A few units are designed to explore the immediate environment of the students, and hence called “local context” units. These are developed for observing birds in the vicinity, knowing the local varieties of rice and mapping the school campus. An interesting feature of local context learning units is that every school presents a different outcome based on its geographical location. Students are better able to connect with their surroundings that adds to their curiosity and joy of learning.

A few learning units

Know your Rice

It is designed for learning about the local varieties of rice in the vicinity of schools. At the same time, students would be engaged in recording the oral history of the varieties of rice by interviewing their grandparents or senior citizens in their area. Students will thus come to know how different was the rice people consumed 60-70 years back and how and why it changed with time. Teachers find this unit a good option for activities during vacations, where students can connect with people at their native places and look at the different varieties of rice.

Rediscover, Describe and Draw Birds

This is another local context learning unit which teachers believe students can work on during long breaks or vacations. This activity requires students to observe and document bird behavior in their vicinity, design posters and interaction maps.

Twist in your fibers

This activity is based on distinguishing natural and synthetic fibers using a simple combustion test. Natural fibers contain a high amount of cellulose and burn slowly resulting in ash. However, synthetic fibers do not produce ash upon burning.

Students are also encouraged to observe fibers under a microscope and record their appearance. The microscopic view is certainly a visual treat to students. During our field trials for this learning unit, students reported they had never imagined cloth fibers appearing so different and beautiful in a magnified view.

An Experiment on Measuring Volumes

This unit deals with the story of the thirsty crow (from Aesop’s fables). Students make their own graduated measuring cylinder and determine the volume of marbles to understand the concepts of volume and displacement. Spoiler alert - the thirsty crow story might not be scientifically accurate!

The students’ worksheets and teachers’ handouts of all the learning units can be found under the Resources tab of Vigyan Pratibha.

On the Vigyan Pratibha website we address teacher and student queries. The website also has a discussion forum for teachers and students where they can share the outcomes of the learning units, provide feedback to us, and post queries. With Vigyan Pratibha, we envision an enthusiastic and enjoyable science and mathematics education for years to come.

The first time a student attempts writing a literature review paper, it is usually fraught with anxiety. Writing literature reviews is a part of science literacy - an important aspect of science education. Science literacy includes aspects such as conducting literature searches, reading published literature, critical thinking, the ability to write original research papers and peer-review publications.

We discuss the steps of how to write a review paper by taking the example of a study that highlights the importance of peer review in science education. The approach is developed by Jonathan Cisco, a coordinator of the University of Missouri’s Campus Writing Program who teaches literature review to college students in four steps.

Before writing a literature review, students can be asked about how would they begin writing it. In Cisco’s study, the participating students said they would start with an introduction, summarise each paper in a paragraph, and write a conclusion. After hearing out students’ ideas, an instructor can explain the associated challenges. A common challenge encountered is the lack of connections between ideas, making it not only difficult for a reader to understand but also making it difficult to write.

The next step is to explain the relationship between different sources, and the author provides summarised pictorial representations on how to do it (figure below). As the students read different papers, they start seeing similar themes and different papers discussing similar ideas.

The instructor can explain how similar ideas can be grouped into themes to start synthesising what they read. It’s like having different buckets and putting similar ideas from different papers into one bucket, other similar ideas, into another bucket and so on. The buckets each be given a subheading and the review can discussed theme-wise with ideas by different authors categorized under one subheading. Each idea is discussed by writing what various authors say, and then moving on to the next theme. Finally, the instructor can provide an example of a review that provides an idea on how the above steps are incorporated.

Handling peer review is an important part of an academic career. However, it is sometimes difficult for students or early career academics to handle and understand the process. Another classroom studyincluded peer review exercise in addition to writing a literature review, and evaluated its impact on a class of undergraduate biology majors. Medical educators, too have encouraged medical students to write for an academic blog along with coached peer-review.

In addition to attending lectures and laboratory sessions, the students had to write a review article, review, and edit their classmates’ review article. They report that students found the writing and peer-review process challenging, but worthwhile.

As the course progressed, there were weekly journal club meetings where student groups read, summarised, and provided a critique of a chosen academic paper. This task was evaluated by the teacher and the students (along with self-assessment). The task also included writing a review article - the article was assessed both by the teacher and five other students. The final grades were an average of the teacher’s grade and the average peer-review grade.

The peer review process and submission of essays was easily achieved using E-learning tools such as WebCT/Blackboard and Turnitin. These tools helped distribute the essays anonymously for peer review. Turnitin was used to check for plagiarism. The first draft of about 20% of the student essays had plagiarism ratios greater than 25%. Teachers discussed the issue with the students to make them aware of the seriousness of it, and the students were allowed to revise their essays.

Students found the lessons very useful. From being frustrated at not being able to understand how to structure a review, they were able to effectively write it. Students in also used a blog to record their reactions - they were able to vent their frustration at peer criticisms! Such exercises serve as valuable learning for future careers, when academic papers are peer-reviewed and authors would have to address the reviewer comments for publication.

Although, rarely any programs in India incorporate the peer-review process in the undergraduate curriculum, Asim Auti of the MES Abasaheb Garware College in Pune uses peer review in his classes. “It can be as simple as asking a few students to discuss a problem to provide solutions, and then opening it for discussion so that others are critically reviewing it,” he said. Although implementing such tools may be challenging as it increases the time and effort put into a course, “It’s a good tool in an arsenal of an active teacher/facilitator.”

Some undergraduate programs in India are now offering courses in scientific critical thinking, writing, and presentation skills. The undergraduate curriculum at IISER Pune has courses on literature review and technical writing.

Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) is a constituent unit of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), founded in 1974 by two TIFR scientists, V. G. Kulkarni, B. M. Udgaonkar and R. G. Lagu. It began with the aim of improving science education at the school level in the country, for which it received its initial funding from the Dorabjee Tata Trust.

Afterwards, based on the performance of the projects undertaken in the first few decades, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) provided space and funds to build a separate campus for HBCSE. In its initial years, HBCSE functioned out of a Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) school of Nana Chowk, Mumbai. In October 1992, the centre shifted to its new building at Anushaktinagar, Mumbai.

Since the last four decades, HBCSE has been conducting activities which can be categorized as Research in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME), Teacher Professional Development, Material Development, Science Popularization and Olympiads in Science & Mathematics.

The scope of these activities ranges from research in STME to improving STME based on the research findings, conducting orientation programs/workshops to interact with teachers and students, developing textbooks and other co-and extra-curricular material in science and mathematics at the school level, and selection/training of young students to participate in International Olympiad Programmes.

In its early days, HBCSE conducted projects for teachers as well as for students from BMC schools, where the medium of instruction is Marathi. These projects were aimed at strengthening the pedagogical knowledge of teachers in science and mathematics and improving teacher-pupil interactions. Some projects were also aimed at enhancing students’ engagement in science, developing co-curricular materials, and designing low-cost experiments and activities for science and mathematics education in Marathi.

Since then, HBCSE has worked in collaboration with the education department of Govt. of Maharashtra and conducted various educational projects to improve teaching-learning processes in the classroom. Some of these past projects include the BMC Project, SC/ST Project, The Language Project, Non-Formal Education Project, Solapur Project, Ashram School Project (Residential schools runs for tribal children), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, etc.

All of these projects provided HBCSE with field-based experience and helped it develop tools and educational material for STME. After the devastating earthquake in Latur district in 1993, HBCSE took the responsibility of assembling a low-cost experimental kit and distributing it to 40 schools in earthquake-affected areas of Latur.

Currently, for the majority of projects, HBCSE uses English, Hindi and Marathi as a medium of interaction in science education. In this article, I shall describe a few past and ongoing projects and resources developed at HBSCE in the Marathi language.

Shanka Samadhan

While interacting with school children, educators from HBCSE realized that if encouraged, children ask many interesting questions. Thus, an activity named ‘Shanka Samadhan’ was initiated in Dec 1974 in which children would send questions on a postcard to HBCSE and educators from HBCSE would respond personally to the child.

This initiative received an enthusiastic response from the children and these questions-answer pairs were published under a feature ‘Shanka Samadhan’ in Kishore, a magazine published by Balbharati, Pune. Shanka Samadhan appeared for nearly 25 years in Kishore.

Diagnosing Learning in Primary Science (DLIPS)

Every child observes nature and is curious about it from a very young age. Diagnosing Learning in Primary Science (DLIPS), a project undertaken by HBCSE during 1993-96, sought to understand children’s spontaneous conceptions about nature. Students from grade 5 and 6 from two tribal schools (ashramshalas) and one urban school were involved in this project.

From the interactions with the students, researchers from HBCSE observed that there was a clear mismatch between students’ understanding and concepts mentioned in textbooks. For example, many children found it difficult to distinguish between living and non-living things. According to them, the sun, the moon, clouds, and water were ‘living’. The students identified seeds as ‘non-living’, but were aware that they would become ‘living’ when sown into the soil.

Tribal children possess a rich knowledge of flowering and fruiting trees, medicinal herbs, use of plants in food and construction, wild animals, etc. Compared to what’s in their textbooks, everyday observation and use of plants have a greater influence on these students. The students also drew beautiful and realistic pictures of animals with remarkable attention to fine details. When asked to draw a context map of living and non-living things from a forest, one child drew an amazingly detailed map.

The DLIPS project report is available online in Marathi and English for teachers/educators on HBCSE website. The report suggests activities for teaching and provides pointers for discussion on everyday observations from nature.

Publications

HBCSE has published a large number of curricular and popular science books for propagating STME among school children as well as for general readers. These include Halke - Phulke Vidnyan (Small Science),Stri-Purush Bhed ani Vidnyan (Gender and Science), Ganitachya Gujgoshti, Aapli Suryamala (Our solar system) and Kutuhal (How and Why) series among many others.

Small Science Curriculum

One of HBCSE's best-known publications is the curricular book series, Small Science for primary school level, which was developed after years of research, analysis and field trials and introduced as a science curriculum for grades 1-5. These innovative books aim to develop observation, language (oral and written), design, creativity and quantitative skills of children. The series includes a textbook, a workbook and a teachers’ handbook.

Small Science books were originally written in English and then translated into languages like Marathi, Hindi and Urdu. In these books, researchers have used child-friendly language and illustrations that can attract children’s attention. Several teachers have adopted this curriculum in their schools and have provided strongly positive feedback. Small Science books in all four languages are available on HBCSE website and can be downloaded freely. The hard copies of all HBCSE publications are also available for sale.

Participatory Action Research

Currently, HBCSE is running a longitudinal project called School Science Research and Development - Participatory Action Research (SSRD-PAR) for students of a nearby Marathi-medium school. ‘Participatory Action Research’ implies that the improvement of a community is the primary goal rather than furthering the research interests of academics. In this project, HBCSE members are working in collaboration with science teachers. This project started in 2015 with a division of grade 3. Since then, HBCSE has been designing lesson plans, low-cost experiments and worksheets for children who are currently in grade 6.

A part of this project is a summer camp where 15-20 students of the participating school (currently, grade 6) visit HBCSE for a period of one month and engage in activities involving creativity, outdoor engagement and design which may not be a part of their regular curriculum.

In the summer camp, children enjoy composing poems, stories, making stop-motion animation videos, making their own compost, and more. The summer camp also provides HBCSE members with an opportunity to try a particular lesson plan with fewer children before it is implemented in a bigger classroom of about 70 children. The lesson plans, worksheets are designed in collaboration with the science teachers.

The project has seen an upsurge in children’s participation and classroom interaction, especially when environmental aspects are discussed. The children and parents from other classes, which are not involved in the project, have shown a keen interest in using lesson plans, worksheets and activities developed in this project.

These lesson plans, activities and worksheets are currently being compiled to design a teachers’ handbook in environmental science for grades 3-5 on the basis of Maharashtra State board syllabus (Parisar Abhyas). This booklet covers a wide range of themes, for e.g. food, water, our surroundings, family and values, human body, etc. HBCSE members feel that they can enhance the interaction among children and teachers using this constructivist approach in environmental science education across the state.

Kumar Vishwakosh

Recently, HBCSE and Maharashtra Rajya Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal worked in collaboration to design and produce a junior encyclopedia called Kumar Vishwakosh (volume 3) of Jeevasrushti Ani Paryavaran (Biology and Environment). This volume of Kumar Vishwakosh is freely available online. This encyclopedia explores concepts normally taught in grades 9 -12.

A team of HBCSE members and several teachers from Maharashtra have worked on this project since 2007. There will be about 1,100 entries in this encyclopedia and it will be published in four volumes. The descriptions in the encyclopedia are presented in simple and lucid language. All entries are accompanied by vivid colourful pictures and photographs. As an approach towards inclusive education, this encyclopedia is also printed in Braille and is available in audio format.

At HBCSE, while sometimes the material has been produced in Marathi and then translated into English, at other times, it has been the other way around. The number of books sold as well as the viewership of the website suggests that these efforts have a large reach. Thus, HBCSE takes a synergistic approach towards material development and language to improve STME and enable its spread far and wide.

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As a student, my school textbooks were the highest authorities of all knowledge. If it wasn’t in the textbook, it probably didn’t exist.

Despite the abundance of electronic media content, the vast majority of students today still rely on textbooks. This is why the language contained in textbooks is so important; not the identity or grammatical form of language, but its demography – how many times key words are repeated, how they are parsed through the paragraphs, and how they are linked to other key words.

A study by Swedish researchers on key word usage pattern has shown that there are significant differences in how a common topic – protein synthesis – is addressed in biology and chemistry textbooks. The study, which assessed three chemistry and four biology upper secondary/high school text books, suggests that students could benefit from learning about protein synthesis in both contexts to gain better understanding.

The study concludes that while chemistry texts focus more on a mechanistic approach, biology texts focus on a conceptual approach. Chemistry texts focus on all components of the process equally to describe how the phenomenon is organized spatially and temporally. Biology texts, however, place more importance on the relationships between the core concepts of ‘DNA’, ‘gene’, and ‘protein’ to provide a broader understanding and more conceptual approach to the topic of protein synthesis.

In their study, Wahlberg and Gericke describe the terms ‘DNA’, ‘gene’, and ‘protein’ to be associated with core concepts, as they are the main components for understanding protein synthesis at the high school level. The terms ‘amino acid’, ‘exon’, ‘intron’, ‘mRNA’, ‘tRNA’, and ‘peptide’ are considered peripheral terms, as they are introduced as additional details for understanding protein synthesis.

When investigating relationships between terms (presence of any two terms in a single sentence), the study found that biology textbooks prioritize relationships concerning certain core terms, namely ‘DNA-protein’, ‘DNA-gene’, and ‘gene-protein’ – more than others. Chemistry texts, however, seem to give equal weight to almost all relationships.

Research suggests that if a learner encounters a term multiple times through a text, the higher frequency of reactivation can deepen the student’s learning of that term, and that frequency of occurrence of a term can serve as an indicator of importance. In particular, the usage of a term in regularly spaced intervals, rather than being confined to specific sections is vital for students to be able to recall previously read material and link those concepts to current reading assignments. Finally, the relationships between terms, that is, the co-occurrence of terms in sentences, is crucial for creating thematic patterns in the text to provide an all-round understanding of the scientific phenomenon being studied.

“Students are likely to benefit by the thoughtful use of different textbooks and domain-specific language in teaching. Also, teachers need to be aware of the contextual differences of protein synthesis descriptions in chemistry and biology textbooks,” says Sara Wahlberg, one of the authors of the study. “Presenting protein synthesis in a wider context could contribute to a student’s understanding of the connection between protein synthesis and life. Thereby, the overarching conceptual perspective may be linked to the mechanistic,” she adds.

The study, however, does not gauge the differences in how diagrams are used in chemistry and biology texts for conveying information to students. “Diagrams are a very important part of our textbooks. Many concepts in a subject like transcription are easier to assimilate from a diagram than from the text. Students find them interesting and claim that they are ‘easy to remember’,” says Anupama Harshal, who was a researcher in the biological sciences, and an undergraduate teacher at the Kishinchand Chellaram college in Mumbai, India. “Although the study has not investigated the attributes of diagrams or schemes, which are part of the standard format of education in the Indian system, I found the study interesting and well-designed,” she adds.

Wahlberg admits that this caveat in her study is an important one. “At this moment, I have plans to further investigate the written language with focus on domain-specific concepts of protein synthesis descriptions,” she says. “However, as visualizations can have an impact on a student’s understanding of topics in molecular life science, this topic is important to acknowledge and investigate in the future,” she adds.

In the summer of 2017, after many months of brooding and deliberation, I applied for an undergrad course in biology. I knew I wanted to do research for a living, but I didn’t know where to begin. The first few classes were a bit reassuring, but that sense of relief was soon ousted by anxiety. BSc is good, but what next? What do you get a masters in? When to do research and how is it like? In which discipline? And even if I find it, what to do if I don’t end up enjoying it?

While my professors helped me with many of those queries, there was no plain sailing with someone as confused as me. I liked many aspects of biology, but I didn’t know which one to put a ring on. I had started to find computational biology interesting, but how would I know if it was really my calling? A couple of lectures on bioinformatics were certainly not enough. The only recourse I could think of was a master’s degree in it, but I was really apprehensive about committing to an entire degree to experience what a field is like. After a bit of wandering on the internet, I came across an online course on Bioinformatics. This free course was offered by the University of California. Enrolling in this semester-long course turned out to be the best learning experience I ever had. Animations, quizzes, live-projects and comfort of taking my classes whenever I wanted, made me fall in love with the subject. Soon MOOCs (massive open online courses) became a source of parallel education that allowed me to understand the nuances of biology in a way traditional colleges could not.

For the uninitiated, MOOCs are free online courses that make their video lectures and course materials open to anyone who wants to use them. There is no barrier or prerequisite, just a sound internet connection, and you can learn anything. To begin with, there are two major platforms that host online courses, Coursera and edX. It's easy, just look through their large catalogue of courses and enrol in whichever ones you find interesting. Watch the relevant videos and discuss them with your classmates from across the globe. You can even skip lessons or abandon the course to your liking. There is no pressure or penalty. There are many other platforms like Future Learn, Khan Academy,iBiology, and subject-specific platforms like the EMBL’s portal. An India specific platform, NPTEL hosts biannual courses from premier institutes like IITs, IISC, IISERs. Most of these platforms sustain themselves by charging a fee for a certificate. NPTEL also allows you to transfer credits to your offline college course. Similarly, SWAYAM is another Indian platform funded by the government of India that offers a multitude of courses. While most of the science-based courses are hosted on NPTEL, there are many other interesting courses on soft skills and communication.

Over the last two years, I have found myself taking online courses in myriad different fields like neuroscience, animal behaviour, nanotechnology, experiment design, research writing, epidemiology and epigenetics. I have completed some and deserted others. Within the comfort of my home, MOOCs helped me get the flair of different aspects of science and has given me more insight into the direction I want to head to after my undergrad. It is not just biology, MOOCs allow you to explore other interesting career prospects like science outreach and intellectual property laws. How about a course in patenting? Or science communication? Don’t worry if you end up dropping out of a course. As this article in Science magazine suggests, low retention rate has been a familiar attribute of MOOCs. Frankly, this is how learning should be, driven by intrigue and interest and not by some unreasonable threat of poor grades or expulsion. Science is moving at an incredible pace, and it is imperative to keep up with it. Twitter immensely helped me in this pursuit. While Twitter can be a dumpster fire when it comes to political discourse, it is a tea party when it comes to science. There are hundreds of researchers who tweet about their experiments, critique each other's papers, recommend books, debate ideas, advertise vacancies, share insights, feedbacks and help disseminate science through palatable tweets. Between poorly reported news articles and jargon loaded scientific papers, twitter offers everyone a sound platform to colloquially discuss science.

My twitter timeline is a treasure trove of interesting threads. For example, there are ‘tweetorials’ that explains why corn is everywhere, or how grasses are better than trees for climate change, who were the first humans to come to India, image duplication fraud in scientific papers, role of genetics in education, how cows fart from their mouth, why there is no gene for language or the problem with India’s DNA profiling bill. Along with these byte size threads, many from the #STEM and #PhDChat community regularly crowdsource, curate, and share resources for students and early career researchers to refer from. Data visualization, population genetics, bioinformatics, statistics, scientific coding, prediction research are some examples. I have personally benefited immensely from Graham Coop’s open-source notes on population genetics for undergraduates.

Twitter has also made science more relatable to me. I no longer think of scientists as stern, infallible geniuses but as corporeal humans driven by curiosity. Journals, science journalists and researchers often tweet about important papers and preprints and have helped me keep in the loop with subjects I find interesting. Along with students, Twitter can also help seasoned scientists further their research career. Now, more than ever, we need more and more people to join the scientific discourse.

Along with Twitter, there are other spaces that help me keep up with science. The Print, The Wire, Down to Earth, The Hindu, IndiaBioscience are a few science news portals that I have really enjoyed reading. IndSciComm’s incredible podcast series where they interview Indian researchers and talk about their journey in science has also helped me a lot.

The Internet has been the most versatile mentor I ever had will be so for a very long time. It has helped me supplement my otherwise stale college syllabus with intriguing insights from the curious world of research. It has helped me, shaped me and made me more confident in my pursuit of science, and I am sure it will keep doing so for many generations of students to come.

The author can be contacted @ronakb_ on twitter.