In education, research and innovation today, we often hear the terms “interdisciplinary” and “multidisciplinary”. Many of us may use these terms without understanding what exactly they mean. In this article, we will explore the meaning of these terms, and also try to understand the significance and need for a newer term called “trans-disciplinary”.

As described by Choic and Pak, “Interdisciplinarity analyses, synthesizes, and harmonizes links between disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole.”

Multidisciplinarity is defined as viewing the same object from the viewpoint of different disciplines.

To further understand these concepts let us take the example of a common substance we are all aware of, and understand the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches towards studying it. The substance we shall talk about is water.

How would we understand water from different perspectives?

If you were to ask a person from the discipline of chemistry how they view water, their explanation would probably be on the lines of water containing 2 molecules of Hydrogen and 1 molecule of Oxygen; or that the pH of water is neutral.

If the same question was posed to a physicist, they would probably explain the theory of refraction associated with water, the concept of resonance, surface tension etc.

If the same question was posed to a biologist, the first thing that would probably be explained is how 70% of the human body is made up of water, and how it is an essential part of survival itself.

If the same question was posed to a musician, they would probably explain the sounds associated with water, such as the soothing gurgle of a stream or the loud angry gushing sounds of a waterfall that could be converted to appreciable tones.

If the same question was posed to an artist, they would describe the form they see, of it having ripples, being fluid in nature, transparent etc.

And so on and so forth.

Now in the interdisciplinary approach, the understanding of water would combine the views of different disciplines. For example, the biochemistry of water would involve how the combination of 2 molecules of hydrogen with a molecule of oxygen has a particular reaction in nature with other substances, or how it helps the survival of living beings by its reactions. A biophysical explanation would probably be how the blood in the body applies a particular pressure due to its nature of being fluid etc.

On the other hand, a multidisciplinary approach to water could be, for instance, in the context of a town planning its management of water resources. A combination of disciplines such as geography, architecture, political and social sciences would all come together to devise an appropriate water solution for the town, with each still functioning within the purview of their specific disciplines.

Regardless of the approach, the final purpose of all these disciplines remains the same, which is at its very foundation, a method process by which to view and observe nature. For the majority, the language used to explain the two approaches is also more or less the same: logical and quantitative. However, since time immemorial man has observed nature and captured it in languages that we are no longer familiar with. In these languages, the methodologies used to view nature are completely different from what we consider standard nomenclature today. This brings us to an approach called trans-disciplinarity, which is the study of nature across different ideologies or philosophies.

One such trans-disciplinary view would be combining the view of art and music of nature with the normal view. The discipline of art or music does not fall into the framework of understanding utilized in physics, chemistry or biology. While the base framework of all these sciences would be the atomic theory, an artist would rarely utilize the atomic theory to represent nature. Similarly, a musician would not require an understanding of atomic theory to create tunes but would utilize certain principles that converge across these disciplines.

Let’s go back to our example of water: in a trans-disciplinary approach, the physics of resonance would be utilized in understanding the tonal quality of sound expressed by a musician in a symphony. With an artist, the concept of refraction from physics would converge with their understanding of representing a scenery that includes a water body. In this manner, the understanding of nature across disciplines adds value to both.

Another example of a trans-disciplinary approach would be understanding nature through the principles of Ayurveda along with those of contemporary vocabulary. Centuries ago, before the invention of microscopes, how did a person view or learn about nature? Mostly using their sense organs of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell. This led to a philosophy that understood nature in a completely different manner. The basic components or building blocks of nature were based on what could be perceived by the individual, which are called the Panchamahabhutas or 5 states/fields of nature which are essentially translated to Akash (space), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Jala (water) and Prithvi (earth). Similarly, nature was described by the characteristics that were felt, seen and experienced by people that led to the Dravya guna shastra or the methodology of describing substances in the universe. Taking the example of water, it would be described in the following manner: a tasteless substance, that is liquid in nature, causing a sense of moistening, that is cold in thermal property and with a nourishing effect on the body. These as we can immediately see are comparable to the physical, chemical and biological explanations of water.

Now let us see another view of the same substance water. When water is in the form of ice it would represent the Prithvi (earth) Mahabhuta; when the same water is melted, it would form the Jala (water) Mahabhuta; when the same water is boiled, it would transform into the Agni (fire) Mahabhuta and when the water is converted to water vapour it would become the Vayu (air) Mahabhuta. The same water would therefore have completely different characteristics and pharmacological effects on the body based on the principles of Ayurveda, while the atomic view of the water would be constant in all these forms. Hence, there are certain areas of convergence and certain areas of apparent divergence. But neither view is wrong.

Wouldn’t comparing these different ideologies of water give us a better understanding of the substance itself? Hence the trans-disciplinary approach would be a step forward in further understanding nature from truly different perspectives.

In one of the undergraduate field trips to Western Ghats, my students and I got to stop over a slow-flowing shaded stream. This stream was only a few meters wide, but long enough to make us unable to find its origin or end. This stream was so serene that we all were stunned by its natural splendor. The purpose of these trip was not just recreational, so I was teaching various types of ecological systems along with the species and their interactions in the real-life scenario. While teaching, I asked students initially to observe the area and predict what kind of organisms were likely to be found. Among the various responses, fishes and frogs were the primary and obvious ones. With this, we actually began to find those and to everybody’s surprise, frogs were more abundant than the fishes.

I could identify frogs and they were mainly Micrixalus, Nyctibatrachus, and Indirana (Fig 1). My students were seeing these frogs for the first time and hence more keenly. While locating these frogs in the stream, a pattern emerged out of their observation that Micrixalus preferred rocks that are partially submerged in the flowing water, Nyctibatrachus preferred either the water or the banks but very close to water and Indirana was more-or-less found on land slightly far from flowing water but still within the same stream.

As the discussion progressed further, one student said, “As these frogs are so abundant here, this area must be the best suitable ecosystem for these frogs.” Another one asked, “As these frogs are not found anywhere else, is this kind of stream a typical habitat of these all species?” My answer was yes to both the questions. The tropical forest of the Western Ghats is the ecosystem and the stream is the habitat for these frogs. The second student further suggested, “If stream is the habitat, then submerged rocks for Micrixalus, water or close-by banks for Nyctibatrachus, or the land within the stream for Indirana must be the independent microhabitats for them”. My answer was yes once again. Nevertheless, there seemed to be a disagreement on this.

“These may not be microhabitats; these must be independent niches. Nyctibatrachus was not found on the submerged rocks as it was occupied by Micrixalus, there must be a competition”, said a student. Before I could answer, the first student argued yet again saying “stream is a small ecosystem, how can there be microhabitat, habitat or niche within such small ecosystem? We need more data to reach a conclusion!” This discussion continued throughout the trip, but in the end, I could clear their apparent confusion among different concepts. Let’s see how.

Let’s extract four principle terms out of this elongated discussion: (i) Ecosystem, (ii) habitat, (iii) microhabitat and (iv) niche.

Ecosystem is largely defined as a community of living organisms that interact with its surrounding, i.e. living as well as non-living components/factors, together as a single system. It is generally spatially large and complex in terms of interactions and exists with a definite delineation but somewhat arbitrarily. It is defined keeping species communities central and their interactions with surrounding biotic and abiotic components that may be observable or non-observable. (see Table 1)

Table 1. A comparison of some of the key features of an ecosystem, habitat, microhabitat and niche

Habitat is defined as a place where a given species can be found. It is a place where the focal species is most likely to be found naturally. The term habitat is used more in an empirical form where real-life observations (and not the probabilistic predictions) on occurrence of a species are necessary. We keep single species in focus and build the concept around it. Nevertheless, there are numerous occasions where the same habitat is occupied by another species and both of them co-exist harmoniously.

Microhabitat is essentially a subset of a habitat. It is spatially smaller and represents a specific place in a given habitat for that species. It is often seen that multiple species that may occupy same habitat would have selective preference for different microhabitats.

Ecological niche (or just Niche) is defined as an n-dimensional hypervolume in which a species exists where the dimensions of this ‘hypervolume’ are its biotic and abiotic factors. In other words, it describes how a species or its individuals respond to and alter the actual distribution of all its biotic and abiotic resources. Niche characterizes the position of a species within an ecosystem comprising both the habitat requirements and its functional role. Niche precisely takes all the requirements into consideration for a single individual or population of that species to survive and reproduce. Niche is a complex term to define and study. It is used more in theoretical form where empirical observations of ‘all’ the requirements of a species are implausible. Niche is a highly species-centric term; it may even take each individual of the focal species into consideration. Since there are numerous factors that are required for a species to survive (and in turn to define the ‘hypervolume’), it is highly likely that one species would have extremely specific requirements that would not be shared with the another closest species; and therefore, one only one species can occupy the given niche.

Table 2. Some instances of overlaps between the different terms

When an endemic frog species is found in a stream that occurs in a MoistTropical Forest of Western Ghats, it can be rightly stated that the frog species belongs to MoistTropical Forest Ecosystem and its habitat is the stream. But if a frog is generally found in a Stream irrespective of where the stream is present (tropical forest, deciduous forest, grassland or alpine area), it will still be habitat for that species but what ecosystem does it typically belong to cannot be said (a stream cannot exist on its own independently, it is usually a subset of a larger spatial area).

It is often difficult to delineate the difference between microhabitat and niche.

In our example of Micrixalus, Nyctibatrachus and Indirana in a stream lacks the detailed quantitative observations of other biotic and abiotic factors thus, it is best to call the independent and specific physical spaces occupied by them as ‘microhabitat’ and not as ‘niche’. The stream is a habitat that occurs in Tropical forest (ecosystem) of western Ghats.

There may be occasions where the ecosystem may also represent a habitat of that species (Table 2). For example, species that occur in wetlands. Wetland is an ecosystem to which the Sarus Cranes (Figure 2) belong, but it is also its habitat. Such examples are numerous in nature and indicate that the concepts cannot be precisely defined or may not have definite rigid boundaries, which brings about the confusion in categorizing them. As long as the ecosystem is to be defined, there are now some standard classification systems available e.g. Lugo et al. 1999; Bailey 2009; and Keith et al. 2020 (IUCN’s classification). Habitat and microhabitat remain largely context dependent and interchangeable based on the focal species. Niche is now more of a theoretical framework used mainly in the ecosystem modelling as it is practically impossible to study all the requirements of a species, though there are attempts to do so in some species.

Diffusion and osmosis are physical phenomena that happen everywhere in a living organism but they enter the discussion more explicitly while dealing with water transport in plants, gaseous exchange, osmoregulation, absorption of digested food in the intestine, and nerve transmission.

Most organs in the body and organelles in the cell are mapped to some function. If there is a structure, it has a function. So, it is roots that absorb water and minerals; lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, kidneys perform osmoregulation, the intestine absorbs digested food, axons conduct nerve impulses. This thought process is predominant in biology, which gives rise to several misconceptions.

Physical processes happen whether we like it or not, whether there is an organ or not. It is one of the features of a living cell to regulate this happenstance. Accumulating something in a location and partitioning that location from the constantly perturbing physical environment is a requirement for the origin and sustenance of life. In this process, regulating diffusion is most likely one of the first steps of living. A good grounding in thermal, chemical, and electrical phenomena is essential for understanding biological processes.

For instance, when we probe students about how we take oxygen and release carbon dioxide, they often answer that the lungs do that filtering. Lungs are incapable of making any selection of this kind since no such selection ability exists at the respiratory surface. It is pure diffusion. The students also pass the role of filtering onto RBC or haemoglobin, which are waiting in the lungs to capture oxygen and release carbon dioxide. They do not see that there is an aquatic medium in between and that the process happens entirely through diffusion. The respiratory surface is wet in all organisms, both aquatic and terrestrial. Gases must first dissolve in water before they can be used by the cells. The misconceptions related to diffusion and osmosis arise when we ignore physics while teaching biology.

Additionally, we often rely on defining terms independent of a theoretical model. Misconceptions also arise from the definitions and the terms we use. The misconceptions associated with diffusion and osmosis arise not only from the definitions of the terms "diffusion" and "osmosis" but also "solution," "solvent," "solute," and popularly drawn distinctions regarding the mixtures and compounds on the one hand and physical and chemical changes on the other. Students develop mental models by learning each of these concepts independently. It is essential to situate all these concepts in a model which provides meaning to them, by invoking model-based reasoning.

Resolving misconceptions about diffusion

The definition of diffusion mentions that the process takes place from high concentration to low concentration. When we give students an example of a drop of the dye placed in one corner of a beaker filled with a solution and ask them if the dye diffuses, their answer is yes. But when we ask whether the diffusion of the dye continues after an equilibrium state reaches, most of them respond that diffusion stops when concentration is uniform across the solution. Similarly, when we present them with a beaker with a salt solution of a given concentration and ask whether there would be any diffusion, most say, "no", since there is no concentration gradient. Students do not realize that the process is due to the dynamic and particulate nature of matter but instead remain stuck to the idea of concentration gradient, since the definition puts it so. Particles diffuse even without a concentration gradient, as long as there is kinetic energy in the substance. The dynamic character of the matter does not come to a halt after reaching equilibrium.

It is only the “net” flow in a specific direction that depends on a concentration gradient. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus infection affected the available surface area for the diffusion of oxygen into the blood of the patients. The atmosphere has about 21% oxygen which is good enough under normal circumstances. By delivering a higher concentration of oxygen (60-95% depending on the severity of the patient's case) through the nose, the lungs with the decreased surface area can be made to contain the required levels of oxygen in the blood. Thus the direction of the net flow can be regulated by a change in concentration, but the underlying process does not halt after reaching equilibrium.

One best way to appreciate the dynamic character of any substance is to know that there is a phenomenon called self-diffusion. Will there be diffusion in a substance of the same kind, say only water? Since there is no other solute, the concept of concentration gradient cannot be invoked. Water molecules move among other water molecules even at very low temperatures. Self-diffusion is known even in solids, even though the movement is relatively restricted. Experimentally such a movement is measured by using radioactive tracers (József Kónya, Noémi M. Nagy, in Nuclear and Radiochemistry, 2012).

We often do not focus on the thermodynamic nature of the solution; instead, we focus on concentration alone. Mere concentration does not help in diffusion unless the particles are dynamic. Since the dynamic character of a substance can be reduced by lowering the temperature, it is even possible to counter diffusion due to concentration gradient by thermal gradient. (See thermal diffusion https://www.thermopedia.com/content/1189/)

Since the definition is defined in terms of high and low concentration, the mental model students develop is that of crowded areas and less crowded areas. So, they attribute the cause of movement to the crowded state and not to the thermodynamic nature of the phenomena. Hence when the solution becomes uniformly crowded, i.e. isotonic, students surmise that there is no movement anymore. We often also hear from students that the particles 'want to' or 'tend to' spread out to occupy vacant spaces.

Resolving misconceptions about osmosis

Definitions also force us to think in terms of either the solute or solvent. The other most common misconception is that solvent is fluid and continuous while the solute is particulate. Definitions imply that a process is a diffusion when the solute moves from higher concentration to lower, and it is osmosis when the solvent moves from higher to lower concentration (but only when a semi-permeable membrane is present)!

When a drop of dye is placed in one corner of the beaker filled with a solvent, students think of diffusion only in terms of the dye. But the solvent particles also diffuse. Since students consider the dye as the solute, since there is no membrane, students assume that the solute alone diffuses and not the solvent. But both solute and solvent are particulate and both of them diffuse.

The mention of the membrane in the case of osmosis is another reason for misunderstanding. Moreover, what is the role of a semi-permeable membrane is often not discussed in detail. Neither is a correlation made between the size of the solute molecules and the size of the pores of the membrane or the polarity of the membrane surface and the polarity of the molecules. As a result, the students think of the membrane as an agent that `decides’ what to transmit and what not to transmit through it. They think that the membrane makes some 'selection' in osmosis, which allows the solvent and not the solutes. This is one reason why some students consider osmosis as an active process since an organelle is involved, and a process that stops when the cell is dead! Attributing vital characters to biological structures is a very common problem. Most biology texts avoid mathematical and physical imagination from entering into the discussion, making room for such misconceptions.

Science education research points out that misconceptions also arise because of the way diagrams are drawn. The picture shown in popular school textbooks indicates the solvent is a continuous sheet of blue colour (Fig 1), while the solute is shown as particles.

To develop a sound understanding of the dynamic particulate nature of the phenomena, one strategy that I often adopt in my workshops with science teachers is to provide a visual experience of the phenomena through computer simulations. I recommend the following simulations:

The video of the simulation shows both solute and solvent as ‘particles’. They both diffuse, and the process never stops. You can play the simulation online from the link: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/diffusion/latest/diffusion_en.html

The video of the simulation shows how the solvent molecules diffuse both ways, while the membrane prevents the diffusion of solute from one side to the other, building osmotic pressure on the left side. This is shown by the movement of the membrane to the right. Please note the numbers on the left side of the screen that changes dynamically as the process takes place. You can play with the simulation online by varying the parameters from this link: Netlogo simulation showing osmosis and osmotic pressure.

In general, developing a thermodynamic view of life processes is essential for a biologist. Ignoring this, because it is physics and not biology, will not provide a sound foundation to biology and lead to several misconceptions.

During the first year of my BSc, I was selected to work on a project under the “Delhi University innovation projects” scheme. The idea was to equip students with research training at the hundred or so colleges that fall under Delhi University. Of the three mentors for the project, two left the college within three months. The only remaining collaborator used the funds to buy equipment for his lab and then left. In the end, all I had was memories of our team trying to extract volatiles from medicinal plants by boiling them in a flask. We scavenged chemicals and worked without proper equipment and safety gear. Nothing was standardised. The resounding naivety of our methods, unfortunately, became obvious much later.

I had spent two summers on this project. I felt I had learnt nothing, but I wanted to add this to my CV to get a leg-up on future applications. This did not prove easy with all of the grantees being absent. I approached the principal’s office to request her signature on a piece of paper attesting to my participation. After three days of camping outside of her office, I triumphed. I got what I thought would be the only thing I had to show to prove my enthusiasm for science - a certificate.

Cut to 2020-21, Twitter is bursting with online webinars and questions about the availability of certificates abound in the comments. Confused, wide-eyed and desperately lacking in mentorship, Indian undergraduates flit about from online workshops to webinars seeking a certificate for show of merit.

The discomfort of traditional education systems, unilateral evaluation criteria, and general instability in India’s colleges contributes to a dampening of community morale. Our undergraduates feel obliged to prove, even during a global pandemic, that their interest in science is genuine and active through a trail of certificates.

Why do college-goers seek certificates at all?

It is possible that students today feel that a certificate for attending a seminar or a webinar compensates for a lack of practical knowledge and skills. Stuti Budhiraja, an engineering graduate, shares that she was among the many students who joined societies for the sake of adding a line to their CV. But she was never proud of it. She goes on to say, “This is especially more common to students who did not have access to internships. So, this may be the only low-hanging fruit to talk about to a recruiter in the interview during placements.”

Small institutes and colleges worsen the problem by encouraging chasing certificates in multiple ways. Some colleges allow making-up attendance with the representation of the college in sports tournaments. If one wants to be compensated for missed attendance or retake a missed test, one must produce certificates of participation or get the professor in charge to issue a letter at the end of the year. Registration slips, tickets, and check-in passes are usually not admissible as proof; one needs it to be legitimised by the faculty or the principal of the institute where the event was held.

Extra-curriculars help to distinguish yourself from peers within the same league of marks…but only after you meet every other qualifying criterion – marks, rankings, courses, skills, etc.

Feeding on the desire for certificates, many private and governmental set-ups advertise certificates to attract audiences. If certificates are an essential tool to assess individual students for future opportunities, this encouragement makes it a vicious cycle. Many event organisers, however, find themselves uncertain about the perks of incentivisation for webinars and 1-2 day workshops. Offering certificates may boost participation, but given the lack of rigorous assessments, how would one judge learning?

Smita Jain, IndiaBioscience, expresses disappointment over a flood of emails enquiring about receiving certificates for one-off informational webinars. “It will be even more difficult to assess the level of understanding of an individual by e-certificates that everyone has access to! Organizations should think twice before distributing free certificates in order to attract an audience,” she says.

What about paid courses and virtual workshops, should they end in certification? With a lack of provision for internships in curricula, clashing academic calendars, and now a global pandemic, many students are unable to apply for summer internships. Some government and for-profit enterprises have tried to address this with virtual-only workshops. The perks of certification make a difference to the motivation of participants and organisers alike when it comes to pricing.

Jain warns of possible issues with their operation, “A business model to impart training by academic institutions, especially to generate funds, in return for a sub-standard training is not at all ethical. However, an associated fee becomes acceptable if the training provided is of high quality and helps a person gain experience and skills. It should be a conscious effort of the mentors and decision-makers at the systemic level to work in favour of the trainees who are spending their money in order to gain a skill.”

Should a certificate be the only reason to participate in extracurricular activities?

“At the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, no certificates are given for extracurricular activities. One must do it purely out of interest,” says Rajas, a recent graduate of the BS-MS programme at IISc. “For instance, I was involved with Pravega (the annual fest) for 2 years straight in different positions, but Pravega does not offer certificates to volunteers.” The neck-breaking focus on academics and the cut-throat competition leads to seclusion. Some students seek solace in films, music and dance groups, allowing for a few hours for banter and creative expression.

I asked a few professionals if certificates for extra-curricular activities made a difference in their success. They were either researchers in training or people who left STEM for other avenues.

Stuti Relan left science to pursue an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad in 2015. She was promptly placed in a top company in 2017. She confesses that certificates did not prove very helpful, but she did enjoy exploring and participating in extempore. “Extra-curriculars help to distinguish yourself from the peers within the same league of marks…but only after you meet every other qualifying criterion – marks, rankings, courses, skills, etc.” She adds, “Your skills take precedence; being a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none doesn’t quite help. Since debate was my claimed forte, 3-4 wins allowed me to make a solid case for it.”

A strong, yet simple statement of purpose and a cover letter written with honesty and clarity go a long way.

Juhi Arora is a PhD scholar at Pennsylvania State University in her fourth year. She told me she felt like she was missing out by not being active in extracurricular activities, but soon realised they were not at all important for her professional goals. “The selection committees look for candidates capable of independent critical thinking and problem-solving. One’s SoP, recommendation letters and research experience matter the most. Publications are a big boost. So, maximising internships, conference presentations and writing reviews is key to making a good impression.”

Certificate-chasing is becoming a cancerous culture, which may be up to the education sector to thwart. Since these can sometimes come at a heavy cost and tell us very little about the individual’s quality of learning, they might be incorrect proxies for merit.

To stand out, there are alternatives to seeking certificates. Upskilling through online courses with open access to educational materials could be the way to go. If it’s a job application, “A strong, yet simple statement of purpose and a cover letter written with honesty and clarity go a long way,” advises Jain. She also suggests being active on networking platforms such as LinkedIn to seek experts and ask career-related doubts.

Can the evaluation process for higher studies be made inclusive and reasonable in their consideration of candidates? The burden falls on a community of evaluators and rigid selection committees to shake off comfortable definitions of ‘an excellent candidate’ and look beyond scores and certificates. When asked about authentic sources for evaluation when being considered for a professional role, Jain adds, “Unless a prior supervisor or colleague writes a letter of recommendation, with an in-depth account of the personality (qualities and characteristics) and skills (capabilities), the document holds no value. The selection committee should demand inclusion of very clearly defined pointers in the recommendation letter (apart from what the person wishes to include in the letter) to judge candidature.”

To be inclusive, the higher education system would have to focus on capacity building, increasing access to hands-on courses to complement theory and organising internships for large swaths of the student population. Until every student has equitable access to these opportunities, a change of evaluation criteria across the system may be a saving grace.

The National Education Policy 2020 states the intent to improve higher education through the formalisation of the above remediations. It makes provision for a 4-year curriculum, wherein one year could be dedicated to research and lead to the “award of a bachelor’s degree with research” on completion of a research project.

This would help level the playing field by allowing for more students to access skill-building and receive exposure to potential career possibilities, navigating the increasingly competitive terrain for most fields and enriching their knowledge in ways only hands-on, immersive learning can. However, potential problems could arise due to a lack of clear implementation plans and mentorship practices in Indian academia.

It’s been six years since my undergraduate studies were completed. To this day, nobody has asked to see my certificate for the science project. There is no way of even knowing if it has contributed to helping me acquire any opportunities. I believe it came up during PhD interviews in India, but nobody was interested in hearing more than a brief description of what the project was trying to do. I wish they had asked me more, so I could illustrate just how desperate and tenacious I was towards building a career in science.

Social media sites, on which users create and share text, tags, images, and videos, are increasingly being used by scientists for professional purposes. The benefits of a social media presence are many – scientists can share their work with others in the research community (and potentially increase their citations), network with potential collaborators, keep up to date with research news and developments, live-tweet events (e.g., conferences), and engage with the public for science communication. Social media sites can also be used professionally in other ways; for example, in conservation science – my focus area – scientists can use social media data (e.g., user demographics, locations, post content and sentiment) during research, conservation planning, management, and marketing. Inspired by the many benefits of social media, I wanted to use it as an educational tool to enhance the learnings and skills of my undergraduate students in this discipline.

The social media site most often used by scientists is Twitter, a microblogging platform that allows users to interact in real-time with a global audience while posting self-generated knowledge and ideas, asking questions, and sharing content and links provided by others. Each post, or 'tweet', comprises 280 characters or less, hence its categorisation as a microblog. Hashtags, a keyword or term beginning with the hash or pound sign (#), are searchable and allow users to identify tweets by topic.

Only half of my students had a Twitter account, and those that did rarely tweeted. To familiarise students with Twitter as a tool for professional communication and networking and remaining informed about recent research and news, I designed an assignment in the course ‘Conservation Biology’ and then surveyed students for their feelings before, during and after the activity and their learning gains.

I created a Twitter account for the course so that students were not required to have an individual presence on the site, and that allowed me to follow their tweets more easily. Students were randomly assigned a week during the course in which they were to tweet, at a minimum, two tweets to introduce themselves and 10 tweets including original content (not just re-tweets without comment), such as topics discussed in class, their conservation experiences and interests, conservation news and events, etc. Students were also asked to identify and follow five new users (e.g., individual conservationists or organisations). The assignment was graded at the end of the semester.

Despite being unfamiliar with or less active on the platform before the assignment, no one found the assignment to be too intimidating and all became confident by the end of the activity.

Students were able to network with other conservation biologists and/or conservation organisations through conversations and responding to questions about their Tweets, and following conservation biology news and events in real-time. Students also reported excellent learning gains, building disciplinary knowledge, relating course content to real situations, and making connections between conservation biology and other disciplines. Their understanding of the challenges in conservation biology and experiences of people working in the field was also enhanced. All agreed that this type of activity helped build skills of potential value in the future.

Students made comments, such as:

“I find Twitter to be a really engaging platform and I like how people around the world interact. I think I would like to continue something similar [to] the assignment from my personal account and try to build a few connections with people and organizations. If nothing else, it’s a wonderful platform to stay updated.”

“It was great being able to tweet about issues that you were passionate about in a space where everyone is appreciative of it. This in turn made me appreciative about the kind of work they do and the effort and time that goes into it.”

Based on student feedback I have continued using the Twitter assignment for learning and assessment. The assignment format I used – tweets based on student interest – could be modified so that each student tweets about a specific topic of their own choice or one that is assigned to them based on course content. A longer assignment format for each student is also possible, as described in this course.

From a learning perspective, activities such as this assignment, that introduce student to the use of social media for networking, communication, and finding information, complement the knowledge and skills that students gain through lectures, class discussions, reading primary literature, field and laboratory experiences, data analysis and interpretation, and other learning opportunities. From a teaching perspective, faculty can also use Twitter to remind students about deadlines, identify challenging course concepts for review, as a tool for class discussions, and to increase student interactions during field experiences. An overview of the different potential uses for Twitter in education can be read here.

This may be a familiar sight for a college educator- a bunch of students (mostly male, but occasionally female too) huddled together in the canteen, all intensely staring into the small screens in their hands, frantically moving fingers, and often, inanely shouting. The educator’s response to this scene is often one of disappointment, admonishment, or sometimes neglect. You perhaps know what I am describing here. The problems with digital gaming are extensively discussed and researched. But let’s try a different perspective and explore whether these scenes are telling us something else.

Through many years of my own education, and the past few years of teaching I have rarely seen so many students so sustainably excited, patiently engaged, and actively involved in anything! Moreover, it is something they have mastered on their own, and from their immediate and global peers. Excited, engaged, self-motivated, independent – sounds like a bunch of students from an educator’s dream! Then why is this not the average situation in our classrooms? One of my former students, who is an avid gamer, put the blame squarely on my shoulders- “if our classrooms were as exciting as the games, we would automatically pay more attention and be more engaged”. I am not sure I entirely agree with his analysis, but could we try to use games to make learning more engaging and effective?

Use of games in education and its potential

The idea of “play” (as in playfulness) is usually associated with activities performed for enjoyment out of intrinsic motivation without any material reward or explicit goal. “Play” has an important role in early childhood and later development and learning. A related idea is that of “gamification”, meaning the use of game-like elements, such as point systems, badges, leaderboards, Avatars, etc., for learning, education, or training. This has been widely adopted by ed-tech ventures. Although both play and gamification are related to games and are useful ideas, this article focuses on the use of games in the context of higher education in biology.

Using games in formal education is also not a new idea. A variety of digital and non-digital games are used in school education. This is evident from websites dedicated to STEM games, centres for games and learning, online resources, and popular and research articles documenting the impact of using games for learning (more links can be found at the end of the article). While this appears more common in some countries such as the US, there appears to be great enthusiasm for this in India too (e.g. recently organized Toycathon by the GoI). Games can positively influence motivational, behavioural, and cognitive aspects of learning (see this review for examples). Specifically, playing games shares some common features with learning effectively – active engagement, focused goal-oriented action, and continuous feedback resulting in constant improvement. Moreover, pure fun and enjoyment are essential parts of games and can increase student motivation and engagement, especially in dealing with challenging or otherwise tedious concepts.

Unfortunately, compared to its potential, the use of games does not appear to have received enough attention for undergraduate education, especially in India. In a small survey of current/recent undergraduates, 85% of students (of the 81 Indian students who responded to an online survey) had never or rarely played educational games. Some of them who did had done so outside their formal educational experience. On the other hand, 70% of students said that the idea of playing educational games sounds exciting, and almost all others were willing to play if these games were “interesting”. While other studies (see here and here) and results from our survey suggest differences in male and female students with respect to their current gaming habits (33% of males, but only 5% of females who participated in the survey said they were regular gamers), both male and female students were equally enthusiastic about playing educational games. Reassuringly, all teachers who responded to the survey (a very small sample size) were willing to use games as part of their teaching.

Incorporating games in undergraduate biology courses

Games could be used for several purposes in formal education programs. They could be used as course-starters to excite students towards a topic, as tools for revision of core concepts or ideas, to enable learning of challenging concepts, to enable application of learnt concepts to realistic situations, to enable independent discovery and in-depth investigations, and even to perform research!

Admittedly, developing new games can be a time-consuming and demanding task. Thus, a realistic starting point can be to look for existing games for a particular topic. This is easiest for certain basic and core topics in biology, such as cell biology, genetics, evolution etc. (although there are many games for other topics too). Many games developed for K-12 students in the US (and available online) can be appropriate for use in introductory undergraduate courses or as tools for revision or reinforcement of core concepts for advanced courses. For instance, this genetics game (Fig. 1 Top) based on breeding dragons covers core concepts of heredity, Mendelian genetics, sex determination etc.

A second approach could be to design games based on simple and standard templates such as jigsaws or crosswords. For instance, imagine a Jigsaw puzzle made out of David Goodsell’s realistic images of a cell (Fig. 1 Bottom) or electron micrographs of cells. Such jigsaw puzzles could enable students to actively explore the structural features of cells or tissues and can be easily implemented using readymade online tools. This idea of developing games based on existing templates is also evident in many card-based games. These could involve the inventive use of usual playing cards, or the usage of custom-made cards (for example, this ecology card game based on bird species interactions).

Finally, some biology courses can include games that have successfully enabled deep engagement with complex scientific topics. For instance, FoldIt is a digital game about protein folding, which allows students to manipulate the 3D structure of proteins to discover stable configurations. Previously, this game has also been used to involve citizens in protein-folding research. Following its use as an undergraduate educational tool, the scientist-developers of this game recently also introduced a module specifically for biochemistry education. More games in this category include Eterna (designing RNAs), Eyewire (tracing neural circuits), Phylo (improving multiple sequence alignments) and others.

Educators’ and students’ experience

Megha and Madhumita Krishnan, faculty at the Transdisciplinary University (TDU) in Bangalore, effectively use simple games for specific requirements in teaching-learning. For example, after realizing that participants in an Ayurveda biology course struggled with learning the correspondence between English and Sanskrit terms, they designed a crossword-based game. To enable the application of concepts of Ayurveda dietetics, they designed another game where students had to combine 3 dishes to make diets complete with the Shadrasaas, somewhat like the popular pizza-making game- Good Pizza Great Pizza. Megha thinks that playing these games together made learning more fun for the course participants.

Leveraging the experience of the global educators’ community, I have incorporated the FoldIt game in a foundation biology course to enable students to discover and learn chemical interactions underlying protein structures. I am also encouraged by the experience of another former student. Manasa Sharma played FoldIt as a high-school and undergraduate student, and actually contributed to two research papers along with other players and researchers. She says, “the citizen science and research aspects of this game were actually more interesting than the curricular aspects”.

Looking ahead

There is much more one can do, after experiencing the benefits of using educational games. Megha is now actually looking to take on the challenge of further developing her games by collaborating with professional game developers. The professional game development community in India can be a great help here. In multi-disciplinary institutes, this could actually be a great avenue for cross-disciplinary collaborations between science, design, and digital technology departments.

Despite all these interesting possibilities, the limitations of game-based education also need attention. Games by necessity abstract out reality and thus, even for specific topics, game-based learning might need to be supplemented with other learning strategies. Another legitimate concern is the addition to already extensive screen time. On the other hand, games could help with making online learning more engaging- a challenge of the current time.

Finally, one may worry that games will take away time from “serious” learning. If this thought crosses the mind, all one needs to do is remember the feeling of joy the last time one played a game. And decide to give joyful and playful education a chance.

From choosing the right courses and institutes for higher education to exploring different career options, the youth of today face a lot of dilemmas and uncertainties before embarking on their ‘true’ career paths. Moreover, underfunding of educational institutions, a growing educated population, stagnation in the job market and the resulting rise in unemployment have made many career fields extremely competitive. This problem has been amplified with the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving students much more insecure than ever before.

Wandering in these dark alleys, what one seeks is the knowledge, expertise and wisdom that can shed some light on the paths ahead and help alleviate the stress that weighs one down. These sought-after virtues constitute the essence of ‘mentorship’ in which a mentor, who is broadly an ‘experienced and trusted’ advisor, guides the mentee (a less experienced person) whilst maintaining a friendly and supportive relationship.

Mentorship is a mutually beneficial relationship. It helps the mentees gain confidence, clarity and awareness, expand knowledge, encounter new opportunities, build professional networks, and improve mental health. On the other hand, the mentors hone their leadership and interpersonal skills, get reinforcement of their knowledge, and build networks. Mentors also get a sense of satisfaction in being able to extend a helping hand to someone in a situation that they themselves had been at one point of time.

While faculty-student mentoring is being encouraged more and more in academic institutions, the power of alumni-student mentoring is not being widely tapped though most institutions have alumni registration portals in place. "Nobody is bothered about an institution more than its alumni", said Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus of Infosys, while addressing former students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in a ‘Pan-IIT’ summit in New York, way back in 2011. He advocated the inclusion of alumni in the governing council at IITs and brought to the fore the richness of this resource for further improving the quality of these premier institutes.

Alumni-Student Mentorship Initiative (ASMI)

Recognizing the importance of utilizing alumni wealth for the growth and development of an institution and its students, and in turn honing the mentoring skills of its alumni, Ramjas College, University of Delhi established the Alumni-Student Mentorship Initiative (ASMI) in March 2021. The Initiative is convened by Dr. Charu Dogra Rawat (Assistant Professor, Ramjas College) under the guidance and support of Dr. Manoj K. Khanna (Principal, Ramjas College). Resounding their beliefs and sharing their enthusiasm, the student office bearers Gunwant Singh Atwal, Shivani Bajaj and Aman Gautam, with other members of the Zoological Society of the College, put together the first activity under ASMI. It was an icebreaker session conducted on 3 March 2021, in virtual mode. It aimed to facilitate the beginning of interaction between alumni and current students, which could develop into a sustainable and productive alumni-student mentorship relationship later.

The session comprised informal panel interviews of alumni pursuing diverse careers (and not just who remained in Zoology) to present a perspective of alternate careers to students. The panels were made based on their current fields. For example, there were panels of alumni pursuing scientific research in India or abroad, panels of alumni in government or defence services, and of those who went into social work, business administration, etc.

The alumni answered some frequently asked questions, collected from undergraduate students before the session, followed by an open Q&A session. Some notable queries included strategies for entering into their respective institutions, the quality of their institutions and the scope of the fields they were pursuing. An interesting question was about the usefulness of coaching institutes when it came to cracking entrance exams. The alumni were in unanimous agreement that coaching institutes are limited in their utility and self-study holds the most importance.

The panel of alumni researchers working abroad guided the students on various application requirements and procedures related to graduate and postgraduate admissions in foreign universities.

Questions to the panel of alumni who diversified their career and transitioned into non-science fields were mainly around the difficulties in their transitions, and if they experienced a disadvantage due to their science background. The consensus was that although a transition is not easy, being from a science background was not a disadvantage at all. Rather, the methodical approach and organizational/time management skills acquired during their graduation served as an added advantage. As many fields are increasingly becoming interdisciplinary, having scientific knowledge gave them an edge, for example, in administration, policy making or solving societal issues.

Having a mentor... would bring with it a sense of security that I am on the right path, and the knowledge that I’m taking all the right steps to ensure success in my endeavors.

At the end of the event, we conducted a survey to determine the usefulness of the program. 97-100% of the respondents found the event to be relevant and informative. “Having a mentor would mean a great deal to me for a number of reasons. The biggest for me is that it would bring with it a sense of security that I am on the right path, and the knowledge that I’m taking all the right steps to ensure success in my endeavours”, said Rachita Garg, a student in 3^rd year of Bachelors in Zoology course of the College. All the students expressed interest in attending more such events in the future and suggested it to be conducted for different fields/interests in smaller groups for more one-to-one interaction.

The participating alumni wished they also had such sessions during their graduation times; “It would have helped them to cope with the confusions and stress that they had in a better way”, said alumnus Gaurav Saini. They said that the session brought them a great sense of satisfaction for being able to reach out, and give some direction, to the worried and confused minds. They agreed to conduct more sessions in smaller groups specifically for students interested in their fields.

Road Ahead

Based on the feedback received from both student mentees and alumni mentors, more activities (interactions and workshops) are being planned under ASMI to be conducted monthly in smaller groups and relating to more specific skills and strategies. A workshop on writing SOPs and research proposals, for life science students who have cleared entrance exams for various premier research institutes of the country, is scheduled to be held in the last week of May. Alumni who are pursuing research in these institutes will be mentors. Also, an alumni-student interaction for raising awareness and discussing strategies for pursuing careers in interdisciplinary fields, such as biophysics or MBA in biotechnology, environmental courses at IITs, etc. is being planned.

In their pursuit of being productive and having a successful career, everyone faces challenges and dilemmas. Alumni-student mentorship can help address these challenges in a timely manner, making the journey a bit easier and more enjoyable, akin to having a lighthouse on a stormy night.

The world is experiencing unprecedented rates of biodiversity declines and extinctions, with implications for future ecosystem change and loss of ecosystem functions and services. Yet within this dire situation is hope that population declines can be slowed and reversed. Conservation action has contributed to success stories for taxa including sea turtles and several mammals and birds.

Conservationists can draw on expert knowledge, prior experience, and research evidence when deciding which actions to take. The latter is important, as failing to consider research evidence when making decisions can result in reduced effectiveness or selection of unsuitable conservation action. Hence, it is important for student and trainee conservationists to be trained in the use of evidence-based conservation (EBC), by way of critical analysis and understanding of the context, relevance, and application of different conservation actions. However, teaching and learning these skills can be challenging when common textbooks rarely introduce EBC as a topic, let alone describe relevant approaches and tools. (The book What Works in Conservation edited by Dr. William J. Sutherland et al. (2020) – available as a free eBook here – is one of the exceptions).

To address this gap, there are a number of online resources that educators can use to develop the core skills in EBC in their students (see Figure 1). A recent paper by Harriet Downey et al. (2021) describes open-access materials on the website Applied Ecology Resources. Lectures notes and slide decks on evidence-based conservation for researchers and decision-makers, planning and designing experiments to improve conservation practice, performing systematic reviews and meta-analyses, using and generating evidence to improve conservation translocations, and use of the Conservation Evidence database are complemented by practical exercises for students to complete.

The Conservation Evidence database allows users to search its content by taxa, habitat, threat, action, country or keyword/s to find summaries of scientific studies, including background information and context, the conservation action(s) taken and their consequences. The studies are drawn from >330 English journals, >300 non-English journals, and grey literature. The authors of the summaries are part of the Conservation Evidence project based at the University of Cambridge, UK. Helpful videos demonstrate both how to use the website and evidence in making conservation decisions, and also gives an overview of the process for producing a synopsis of conservation evidence similar to those published on the website.

Another website that educators may find helpful is the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence Database of Evidence Reviews (CEEDER), at which systematic reviews and maps of different conservation and management topics can be found in the Environmental Evidence Library. I also adapt case studies and pedagogy articles from the Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation section of Case Studies in the Environment when teaching EBC. Primary literature to use as a focus when discussing EBC studies and projects can be found in the peer-reviewed journals Conservation Evidence, Ecological Solutions and Evidence, Conservation Science and Practice, and Environmental Evidence, among others.

Teaching emerging conservationists the approaches and core skills of EBC will increase the likely success of their current and future conservation efforts, avoid wasted research resources, and develop important skills required in the conservation job market. The resources described in this article will help educators integrate EBC into their curriculum.

Congratulations on winning the INSA Teachers Award 2020! What does this award mean to you and your college?

Thank you! I am honoured to receive the prestigious INSA Teachers Award for the year 2020. There is nothing more gratifying than recognition for a job well done. I feel very proud to be able to set an example that hard work and being passionate about what you do leads to success. I express my sincere gratitude to Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi for continuous support in my journey of teaching and research.

Tell us about your professional journey. What were the challenges you faced during this journey?

I had the opportunity to study in India’s finest institutions – Miranda House, University of Delhi for an undergraduate degree in Chemistry, University of Delhi South Campus for a post-graduate program in Biochemistry and IIT Delhi for a doctoral degree in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology. My teachers have been great pillars for all the foundation and training that helped me reach this far.

I have faced several challenges on my way, but each one of them has only strengthened me and made me a better person. A lot of hard work, motivation, self-learning and patience have helped me along the way.

My teaching career at Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi started immediately after my post-graduation in 1990. I realized from day one that teaching is not a 'one-size-fits-all' experience. In my journey of teaching, the challenges have included improving teaching methodologies to cater to a diverse set of students, adapting to new changes in the curricular framework and facilitating students to the learning process, while also managing all the paperwork, meetings, semester planning, evaluation and assessments. Every batch of students and every academic year present a new challenge. The process of engaging young minds has been a continuous learning experience for me.

Next, after completion of my PhD at IIT Delhi in 2005, the biggest challenge was to set up a Bioinformatics Facility for training and research in an undergraduate college. Generating interest among the undergraduate students in bioinformatics through short-term research projects and certificate courses was the next focus. Research started gaining momentum through collaborative projects at both the national & international levels. All along, to be able to carry out quality research in an undergraduate college has been quite a challenge.

How to be a better teacher? How to balance teaching and research in the college? How to achieve a healthy equilibrium between my professional and personal life? These are some of the everyday challenges I face.

The 21^st-century classroom has its own set of demands, and educators need to be open to providing a learner-centric environment focussing on life and employability skills.

In your 30 years of teaching experience, how have the role and the challenges of educators evolved over time?

Higher education in India has witnessed many changes in the last 30 years. In the initial years of my service as a teacher, curriculum planning and execution, teaching-learning and evaluation were the major focus areas. Though there has been an almost unanimous agreement among the educators on the curricular aspects, different pedagogical styles have arisen that have been used extensively.

In light of technological advances, the educational environment has witnessed a change in the entire teaching-learning process. Learning is not just confined to the traditional classroom experience and instruction does not primarily consist of lecturing through textbooks; it’s available in bits and bytes.

At the same time, students are more matured and technically well-advanced than in previous times. With increasing batch strength, we come across students from diverse learning abilities and from different socio-economic backgrounds. It is challenging to work on the average student to instil in them the confidence to do better. Today’s youth are a bundle of energy. It is important that we channelize their energy in the right direction and make them aware of who they are and what they are capable of.

The 21^st-century classroom has its own set of demands, and educators need to be open to providing a learner-centric environment focussing on life and employability skills.

Supervision of undergraduate research is not seen as integral to academic practice but as an extra, which adds to the academic workload.

There is a lot of emphasis on incorporating research at the undergraduate level. Tell us a bit about the research projects in your lab and how your undergraduate students have benefitted from them.

Biologists have been concerned about the quality of education imparted at the foundational level. Conventionally, teaching-learning practices in biology at the undergraduate level have involved delivering content from textbooks, aided with experimental skills. Over the years, developing academic depth in the chosen discipline beyond the curriculum has become essential. Research has thus become an integral part of undergraduate programs in several universities/colleges across the country. The research component allows a broader educational experience that helps students clarify their interests, and plan their next steps after graduation.

I have mentored several undergraduate projects in the area of bioinformatics & computational biology that have helped my students pursue their higher education. Most of the projects have involved the application of bioinformatics to understand disease biology and in silico approaches for drug designing. The emphasis has always been on emerging diseases that ranged from tuberculosis, HIV, malaria to dengue infection. Recently, students have also investigated computational screening of phytochemicals derived from Indian medicinal plants to identify potential antivirals for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Another interdisciplinary project with undergraduate students was a 'Delhi University Innovation Project' that involved studying how the brain processes music. We examined the effects of music (Indian ragas) on brain anatomy and structure using neuroimaging techniques. Through this project, the students (both from science & non-science backgrounds) appreciated the therapeutic effects of music on neurological and psychological mechanisms underlying stress management.

Understanding basic concepts, reading scientific articles, learning technical language and terminology, and understanding a hypothesis-driven scientific process have helped students build on a research foundation and develop independent critical thinking and improved communication skills.

What are the challenges of doing research at the undergraduate level? How can these challenges be overcome?

Time, funding and resources have been the biggest challenges in conducting undergraduate research programmes. Supervision of undergraduate research is not seen as integral to academic practice but as an extra, which adds to the academic workload. However, schemes like the Star College Scheme by DBT have immensely benefitted many colleges (including ours) across the country with funding to promote innovation and research at the undergraduate level. Our College has also initiated an undergraduate programme – “SRI Venkateswara Internship Program for promotion of Research and Academics” (SRIVIPRA) – that offers research internship activities during summer under the mentorship of faculty from all disciplines. In this programme, multidisciplinary projects have proved to extend the classic skill set associated with different disciplines to build cooperation and collaboration between academic units.

Networking of educators will definitely help in providing a learning workspace for collective professional growth.

Besides teaching regular courses, you also conduct many workshops on bioinformatics for school and college teachers. What is the primary goal behind these workshops?

I have found that organizing workshops has not only helped many faculty members but also contributed to my own personal growth. Despite the central place held by bioinformatics in modern biology, it has been integrated very recently at the undergraduate level. The purpose of organizing these workshops is to promote the teaching of biology through bioinformatics. Most of them are focussed on imparting basic foundations in bioinformatics with hands-on training sessions on databases and online software/tools. These programs have empowered teachers to successfully adopt innovations in bioinformatics into the curriculum and have helped them design short-term undergraduate research projects. The workshops have provided a platform for faculty to interact with experts from both academia and industry.

Speaking of interactions and collaborations, can building a network of educators in the country help the educators?

Yes! Networking of educators will definitely help in providing a learning workspace for collective professional growth. Traditional faculty development includes workshops and seminars often driven by short-term goals. Learning doesn’t take place just in training programs but should be part of everyday activity. Networking with peers offers new spaces in which one may learn to grow with a diverse set of educators. Educators can help each other for knowledge exchange and share useful pedagogical methods to promote innovative solutions to teaching-learning practices. Further, recent technological advancements have allowed them a means to expand their web of connections beyond the conventional meetings or forums and to aggregate vast quantities of professional knowledge at any time and from anywhere.

Before we conclude, any advice for new educators?

Great teachers are not born; they are made over time. Nonetheless, I can certainly give new educators a few more words of practical advice based on my own experiences in UG teaching. Work hard and be passionate about teaching or research. Classroom planning, discipline and effective time management are important challenges in teaching. Adapt positively to the rapidly changing times of higher education!!

A question I often pose to my undergraduate Biochemistry and Nutrition class is about energy sources – what fuels the human body? The answer invariably is ‘glucose’ or ‘carbohydrates’. Rarely ever does a student answer ‘fats’ or ‘proteins’.

While carbohydrates serve as the chief fuel source for the body, they are definitely not the only source. The human body is capable of preferentially utilizing carbohydrates, fats, proteins, phosphocreatine and ketone bodies as energy sources under different conditions. This depends upon a variety of factors like the availability of oxygen (abundant/lacking), the presence or absence of sub-cellular structures (mitochondria) and associated enzymes, the physiological state of the body (fasting/fed), the intensity and duration of the physical activity being performed (resting/mild/moderate/heavy) and the tissue that is metabolizing the energy (muscle/ liver/ brain/ heart/ adipose). Students find it difficult to comprehend this distinction even after an in-depth study of individual energy metabolizing pathways. The integration of various energy metabolizing pathways proves to be a challenge for them.

One reason could be the greater emphasis laid on carbohydrate metabolism in classroom teaching at the high school and undergraduate levels. A substantial amount of time is spent on glycolysis and the Kreb’s cycle, the central pathways for carbohydrate breakdown, as compared to that spent on lipolysis (fat breakdown) and amino acid oxidation (protein breakdown). Compartmentalization of these topics into separate chapters in standard textbooks facilitates their in-depth study, but creates invisible barriers in the minds of students, making it difficult to comprehend the intertwined nature of the metabolic web.

Both fat and protein metabolism feed into carbohydrate metabolism at various points, ensuring their efficient utilization as alternative energy sources. Textbooks usually deal with this integration in a separate chapter towards the end of the book. While this might seem logical, it is equally important to mention the interconnections at relevant places in individual chapters. This will help students to connect the dots and understand the bigger picture. Additionally, topics of integrative nature are usually taught towards the end of the course, after the individual pathways and cycles have been explained in detail. The lack of time at this stage makes the instructor hurry through these topics, leaving students with less time to assimilate them. The onus then lies on the instructor to devote adequate time to highlight these interconnections and cite appropriate examples to provide students with the necessary context to understand and appreciate them.

To help students understand the general and special cases in energy metabolism, I use the questioning approach and, if time permits, peer learning through POGIL sheets^[1]. Gentle probing helps identify the flaws in their understanding:

• What is the chief source of energy for the human body?
• Can any other sources be used?
• If yes, under which conditions are these alternative sources utilized?
• Is energy metabolism during short and long-term fasting the same as in a well-fed state?
• Which fuel source does the body use when at rest as opposed to exercising? Do you think this would change if the intensity and duration of the exercise changes?
• When would the body burn the most fat – during light, moderate or heavy exercise?
• Which energy sources fuel Strength (Sprint/Swim/Weight Lifting) vs Endurance training? (Marathon/ Triathlon/ Tour de France)
• A crocodile expends large amounts of energy in a short period to catch its prey. A cheetah hunts down its prey after a short, intense chase. Is there any difference in the way they metabolize energy?
• Would the energy metabolism of monozygotic identical twins differ considering they have exactly identical genetic constitutions? Consider one to be a triathlete and another a truck driver. Does nature versus nurture play a role in energy metabolism?

Questions like these, while capturing the interest of students, also put their learning into context. It makes them think deeper and apply concepts ‘across textbook chapters’. From textbooks that confound them with structures and reactions, they are transported back into a familiar world. It gives them a chance to explore the immense possibilities that the integration of metabolic pathways has to offer, better clarity on the bigger picture, and proper closure to the topic under study. More importantly, it leaves them with a deeply humbling appreciation for the intricately woven web of life.

A brief explanation of the key concepts in energy metabolism is as follows:

‘Energy metabolism’ is the process of generating energy from consumed food. Through a series of biochemical reactions and interconnected pathways, nutrients are systematically broken down to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the usable form of energy. In the presence of oxygen, a complete breakdown of nutrients to carbon dioxide and water occurs in a process termed ‘aerobic respiration’ (aerobic = requiring oxygen) that occurs in membrane-bound structures within the cell called ‘Mitochondria’ (singular: Mitochondrion). This process generates large amounts of ATP. On the other hand, when the oxygen supply is deficient, the body switches to ‘anaerobic’ respiration (anaerobic = lacking oxygen) that occurs in the cell cytoplasm and generates comparatively lesser ATP. The human body thus prefers aerobic over anaerobic respiration.

Carbohydrates, fats and proteins, in that order, act as fuel sources for the body. While carbohydrates are the chief source of energy in a well-fed state, fats and the ketone bodies formed from fats act as fuels in the fasting state. Only under prolonged starvation or the continued absence of proteins in the diet, does the body resort to breaking down its own protein, a condition termed ‘wasting’ that ultimately results in death. This preferential usage is because the breakdown of carbohydrates requires much less oxygen than that of fats and proteins.

Energy metabolism is best explained in terms of exercise. In the resting state and during mild exercise, the body receives an adequate supply of oxygen. This promotes the utilization of fats as fuel [Figure 1]. During moderate exercise, oxygen availability decreases slightly, recruiting carbohydrates for energy production. Both carbohydrates and fats are aerobically broken down in equal measure. In contrast, under oxygen-limiting conditions like high-intensity exercise (sprint/ swim/ weight lifting) and strength training (activities that require large bursts of energy in a short period of time), the body switches to anaerobic respiration.

The sudden burst of activity at the start necessitates ATP to be synthesized almost instantaneously. This is achieved by utilizing a high-energy compound called phosphocreatine, whose limited reserves can sustain 20-30 seconds of intense activity [Figure 2]. In order to continue, the body switches to anaerobic respiration. Oxygen being in short supply, fats are not metabolized at this stage. Thus, contrary to popular belief, high-intensity exercise burns carbohydrates, not fat. Additionally, anaerobic respiration causes the build-up of lactic acid in the tissue causing cramps and intense pain termed ‘muscle fatigue’. The activity can no longer be sustained, thus stopping completely, or slowing down the pace. Deep, heavy breathing at this point compensates for the oxygen deficit, causing aerobic respiration to resume.

The lactic acid build-up is the reason why crocodiles and cheetahs follow up the high-intensity ambush of their prey with long periods of rest and recovery. On the other hand, endurance sports enthusiasts like marathon runners, triathletes and Tour de France contestants (who require small amounts of energy over a long period of time) function mainly on aerobic respiration, mainly burning fat. They have well-developed lungs and a strong healthy heart that ensure a steady and adequate supply of oxygen for the entire duration of the activity. Burning of fat thus spares carbohydrates for the intense speed required towards the finish of the race. This active lifestyle of a triathlete over the sedentary one of his truck driver identical twin is the reason why nurture seems to play a bigger role than nature and genetics in this case.

Another misunderstanding of a related concept is with respect to slow and fast twitch muscle fibres. The slow twitch (red) muscle fibres present in our legs are densely populated with mitochondria. The fast twitch (white) muscle fibres present in the eyes have fewer mitochondria. When asked which of these fibres play a greater role in high-intensity activities, students usually answer ‘red’ fibres since they have more mitochondria, forgetting the fact that high-intensity activity creates an oxygen deficit that prevents mitochondria from aerobically respiring. A proper understanding of energy metabolism and associated concepts will help students overcome such misconceptions.

Conventionally, teaching biology in undergraduate courses involves delivering content from textbooks. This approach is inefficient for teaching how to read a research paper. Reading a research article becomes frustrating for undergraduate students when they cannot comprehend it. Hence, ‘teaching’, here, is about taking the frustration out and enabling learning. To that end, we used a structured and timed approach and observed encouraging feedback from the students. Additionally, their test scores indicated a good understanding of the paper by them. We would like to share our experience here.

About the initiative

Our first batch of students comprised 29 first-year undergraduate students from different regions of the country who were selected under the National Initiative for Undergraduate Science (NIUS) program of HBCSE in December 2018. The next three modules were conducted online with a total of 62 regular undergraduates in July and August 2020. Participants were second- and third-year B.Sc. students from three colleges who had chosen life sciences or related sub-disciplines as major subjects.

Roadblocks

Research paper reading is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways of introducing scientific inquiry in undergraduate courses. Yet, there are roadblocks (Table 1) that hinder the inclusion of a systematic approach to reading research papers in many of the regular undergraduate courses. While some of these problems are universal, others are more prominent in our Indian colleges and universities.

Table 1.

How can we work around these limitations?

• Choosing the ‘right’ paper

Our process to work along with these limitations began with choosing the ‘right’ paper. We considered the following factors in making our choice. We looked for papers that were landmarks in their field, as they are excellent examples of how to practice science. We also wanted the paper to be relevant to some topic in students’ curriculum to make comprehension easier. We avoided recent publications with complex techniques and statistics in the introductory session – we didn’t want to burden the students with technicalities at this stage. We also avoided articles describing huge, classical discoveries, like DNA polymerase, and DNA structure/function. This was simply because the students already know about the crux of these famous discoveries and can easily guess their impact on the field, even without reading the article. Lastly, we wanted the facilitator to be comfortable with the paper. Considering all the above, the paper we chose was related to the effects of extracellular matrix on cell differentiation. The title of the article was ‘Control of mammary epithelial differentiation: basement membrane induces tissue-specific gene expression in the absence of cell-cell interaction and morphological polarity’, published in The Journal of Cell Biology by Streuli et al., in the year 1991. We used this paper in all of our modules.

• Taking the ‘before’ lecture

We started each of our modules with an introductory lecture to make students feel more confident about their ability to comprehend the paper. This ‘before’ lecture covered the background of the field, for example, cell-matrix interactions, adherence junctions, and so on. It also covered the techniques used in the paper. We also discussed what a scientific method is, what a research paper is, and why students should read it (Table 2).

Table 2.

• Dividing the paper into two parts

After the lecture, students read the first half of the paper on their own. The next day, we asked them to answer multiple-choice as well as subjective questions about the research question addressed by the article, the hypothesis, their understanding of the figures and the results in the first half of the results section, and the conclusions drawn from them. After the students answered the questions, the facilitator took them through the details of what they read and understood. The students were then asked to read the second half of the paper.

On the third day, we conducted another test based on the second half of the paper and following that, we asked the students to lead the discussion. We think that having read half of the paper just a day before with the entire class and the facilitator encourages the students to persist in reading and discussing the rest of the article on their own. A detailed schedule for all three days is outlined in table 3.

• Table 3.

• Assessing students- the open book/internet test

We assessed the students for their ability to understand the research article. Hence, the questions were analytical in nature. We allowed them to keep the article and reference books, and access the internet as they answered the test. The only restriction during the test was that they do not discuss with their peers. This was a requirement for individual assessment.

Students’ answers were graded using the following four criteria: if the answer was copy-pasted or irrelevant (graded - 0), if the answer revealed some / incomplete understanding (graded -1), if the answer indicated satisfactory understanding (graded-2), and finally, if the understanding was good to excellent (graded-3). Figure 1 shows an example of the questions asked and the learning outcomes of three online classrooms (n = 62) where these sessions were conducted.

• Taking feedback and improvising

After the three days were over, we requested feedback from the students. Most of the students of our first batch rated the experience to be very good or excellent. But, while interacting with them, we realized that we had to tell them why they are reading a paper. Also, we had to cover ‘all’ the figures in our tests and presentations. We noticed that students would not understand the methods or the future directions/impact of the findings in detail in a three-day schedule. So these topics were reserved for discussions and omitted from tests from the later three workshops.

In the online modules, more than 80% of the students rated the experience to be very good or excellent on all aspects. As science educators, we found the students’ comments encouraging and interesting. We list some selected comments below; words in bold indicate that the students were intellectually enthused.

“Excellent experience, the analyzing portion induced curiosity”

“This workshop has been great throughout. Gives a completely different aspect of research. Would love to learn more!!”

“It was a fun workshop; we were so influenced and motivated by the speakers. They provided [us] with great knowledge. [We] would like to attend more workshops and would like to do the experiment in person, as it would be [better] to also have practical knowledge. Thank you so much to all the people who made this possible. And we would like to have this one more time in future..”

“It was a very beneficial session. A number of previously known concepts have become clearer. The discussions conducted made it much better to understand a paper that I wouldn't have [understood] otherwise”

“The session was very informative. It was a great exercise for my brain”

• Parting thoughts

Reading a virology paper can be very different from reading an ecology paper. An undergraduate student studies a variety of sub-disciplines of biology. 44 out of 57 students who filled out the feedback form wanted to discuss another research paper on a topic of their interest. The choice of the research paper depends a lot on the comfort zone of the teacher/ local facilitators. And to be honest, most of us are not equipped with in-depth background knowledge of all the fields.

Can we have scientists/postdoctoral researchers/PhD scholars select the right papers from their field, and record a ‘before’ lecture for undergraduates or the facilitators? Can there be an online resource for teaching how to read research papers? Would that minimize the need for a specialized facilitator for reading discipline-wise research papers? We would like to part with this thought for all of us.

The beginning of ecological research in a new geographical area usually begins with understanding what flora and fauna are present in it. In the same way, I like to begin teaching ecology or organismal biology to my undergraduate students by introducing the term species diversity to them. Since many sub-fields of ecological research revolve around why we have so many species around us, students also show a great interest in discussing the topic at various levels.

To make the concept clearer, I conduct frequent introductory field trips, during which I teach methods of species identification, some basics of taxonomy and ethical ways of animal handling, among other things. I also show them a wide variety of species and teach them how to catalogue the species systematically. This usually involves writing the names of observed species, the number of individuals of each observed species and the habitat in which it was found.

Students, in the beginning, do not understand the rationale behind the whole exercise; especially recording the number of individuals or the habitat. While the joy of watching creatures in the natural set-up is unbeatable, such field trips are expected to go beyond leisure.

After such sessions, we discuss what we observed and look for any patterns that may emerge out of the collected data, at least qualitatively. The field trips include covering multiple habitats that are fairly distinguishable into broad categories such as open habitat, closed canopy, scrub and so on. The rearrangement of data according to this rough classification then leads to discussing the ‘most diverse habitat’ visited.

Students go through their species checklists and most of them indicate that habitat X has a greater number of species than Y, so X is more diverse. Some other students also have an opinion that habitat X has a higher population of some species than Y, so it is more diverse. A small subset further claims to see a particular “rare” species in only one habitat and hence calls it more diverse. Here, students use the terms ‘species diversity’ and ‘species richness’ interchangeably, perhaps because they do not know the actual difference between these two terms. But… is there any difference?

Having observed a higher number of species in an area does not mean it is more diverse. It rather means that it is more ‘species rich’. If one compares two habitats based on only the number of species, then such a comparison would not provide any conclusive evidence of their difference in diversity. To know if the habitat is diverse, one needs data on the relative abundance of each species. There are several quantitative measures to know if and how much a habitat is diverse, but Shannon’s index is the most popular one. It essentially calculates the uncertainty in the outcome of a sampling process or uncertainty in predicting what the next species in a given area would be. There is a well-defined mathematical expression that can be found in any ecological textbook.

Students’ answers to ‘which habitat is more diverse’, as mentioned before, are all valid but they are incomplete if treated independently. They either compare the highest number of species observed in an area, the abundance of certain (not all) species across two areas, or the mere occurrence of a rare species in a particular area. A diversity index considers ALL of these components at the same time, which species richness does not. The index is, however, only a measure of diversity, and not the diversity itself. It is just like the radius of a sphere being an index of its volume but not the volume itself! Therefore, such indices need to be treated with caution.

The confusion between species diversity and richness is more common than what I had earlier imagined, and I know this being editor and reviewer of some ecology journals. It is not a confusion only among undergrads but occurs almost equally frequently at various education levels (postgraduates, PhD and even among some scientists). Many researchers, authors, teachers, popular science writers, and educators in different sectors use these two terms interchangeably.

I have found out that this confusion occurs mainly due to the term ‘alpha diversity’, which is essentially taught, used and defined very loosely as the 'total number of species in an observed area'. Whittaker (who coined the term alpha diversity) himself has used this term in different and incomparable contexts. There is no common consensus over how and when to use this term to quantify species richness or species diversity. Some texts even equate ‘alpha diversity’ to species richness referring to it as ‘alpha richness’.

If students have this confusion, it is best to clarify the difference immediately. It is best to keep the categories simpler i.e., ‘species diversity’ when it includes data on population, otherwise call it ‘species richness’. If this distinction is not clear enough, the interpretation of data may mislead the conservationists and policymakers in deciding the priority areas for biodiversity conservation, or restoration ecologists in deciding what biodiversity to be focused on for the restoration.

I attempt to get rid of the misconception by providing them with hypothetical data that has the same number of species in two habitats but has different abundance values and ask them to judge. In such cases, if one goes just by the number of species, both are equally species-rich but not equally diverse. Teaching diversity indices in such a manner turns out to be more useful and impactful.

Many science students may be budding writers and future scientists but often do not have a suitable platform to showcase their talent at the undergraduate (and perhaps even Masters) level. Yet others may be so used to technology-driven concise language constructs (SMS and texting short terminologies) that language skills would need to be honed. With this in mind, we, the faculty of Sophia College, Mumbai, felt the need for our very own science journal. SCRIBE -- Science Chronicles in Research and Investigation Based Education -- our annual inter-disciplinary in-house science journal was born. SCRIBE was inaugurated by our Principal in a formal ceremony attended by staff and students on National Science Day, February 28, 2020. Here, we share our journey from conceiving the idea to the publication of the first issue. The journey involved many periods of ups and downs, but it was all eventually worth it as we believe that it was a stepping stone in promoting science writing amongst students.

Our Journey

The idea of starting a science journal in the College was seeded by Medha Rajadhyaksha, the then Vice-Principal (Science), in 2016, and the initial plan was to publish the first issue as part of the College’s Platinum Jubilee celebration. Although the attempt was on to coax the students out of their inertia, not much moved. The idea was revived by Yasmin Khan (current Vice Principal - Science) in 2019.

We met in the staff canteen one lazy Saturday afternoon in November 2019 and pledged to bring the journal to life. We decided that our mandate was to keep the journal ‘in-house’ and student-oriented to foster science writing in our students. We knew this adventure would have its share of uncertainties, and though it would be an uphill task to review and make it publication-ready by the semester end, we were sure about one thing – plagiarism was totally unacceptable. We began on a high note with brain-storming sessions, formulating an editorial committee with both staff and enthusiastic students, and putting up flyers consisting of instructions for authors on all possible notice boards. We convened a meeting to teach students about different types of articles and encouraged them to write. After this came the waiting period (to receive articles), and what a long period that was!

The first deadline was a complete disappointment with only a few articles in our inbox. At this point, we could still not see light at the end of the tunnel. This was not an assignment that we could dangle marks as an incentive, and over that, the exams were approaching, fast. We appealed to students again to write (some of us would even catch students in corridors and nag them to write). We then received some excellent contributions from our Masters' students from various science departments. This encouraged undergraduate students to follow suit. The second deadline was a happier time with our inbox filled with articles. But now a new challenge was awaiting us – editing.

We were fortunate to have three brilliant Masters students – Avni Rao, Binita Vedak, and Saunri Dhodi Lobo as part of the core editorial team who took on the work in all earnestness (they later received certificates for their hard work and dedication). We scrutinized all the articles for plagiarism, grammar, the accuracy of scientific content, and of course, references (which, as one can imagine for first-time writers, were all over the place). Authors were returned their articles with suggestions to revise and re-submit for publication with new deadlines. We were thrilled to see revised write-ups from all categories of articles. Finally, on February 28, 2020, we published the first issue.

It was worth all the effort. There were categories such as “research articles”, under which students reported their research data; “review articles”, through which students would put forth their understanding of topics selected by them; “trends in science”, elucidating a few recent research avenues; “Nobel prize 2019”, discussing the story of people behind the award; “from Indian labs” giving a flavour of a few prominent laboratories in India; “history of science”, to give a historical perspective to discoveries; “ecological concerns”, to address sustainable development; mini-reviews; book reviews; editorials “from the student’s desk”; crossword puzzles; biodiversity pictures, etc. The cherry on the cake was an ‘Invited Article’ by a senior eminent scientist and alumnus of our College.

Reflections

It is important to remember that not everyone is a born writer – writing is an acquired form of learning. Additionally, the process of writing inculcates in the authors the art of searching for relevant content, organizing, summarizing, and articulating thoughts and ideas with a certain flow and creativity. It also enables critical and higher-order thinking. Hence, although our newly founded journal does not yet stand on par with well-established and renowned journals, it is a step towards promoting this art of science communication. This is why our college also conducts a certificate course on ‘scientific writing’ for first-year undergraduate students.

In our opinion, the editorial team of our journal was ideal, consisting of an assortment of faculty and students. The faculty editors oversaw the editorial process and ensured quality, while the student editors not only gained experience in the editorial process but also encouraged other students to be potential authors. It must be emphasized that the interdisciplinary nature of the journal facilitated students to read and appreciate topics from all sciences. In all, we felt that the endeavour was a success from the students’ point of view, even though on the faculty’s part, it involved a lot of time and effort between the teaching schedules.

Looking back, we realize that there is room for improvement. So, for the next issue, we are striving to put into place the process of ‘peer-reviewing’. Also, every article will have a faculty author associated with the student author; a step that will foster a mentor-mentee bond, and ensure the quality of the article prior to submission.

Overall, an in-house journal is not only a platform, but also an opportunity to hone students’ writing skills at an early stage, which goes a long way in their ability to articulate ideas, making them aware of the publishing process, and indeed boosting their confidence. Along with the joy of knowledge dissemination, we hope that this journal may be a stepping stone for students to adopt a scientific temper.

As undergraduate research is being encouraged in our country, this kind of platform gives students the encouragement to steer their research work towards successful completion. While it lifts the pressure on undergraduate students to publish in renowned journals, it gives them a glimpse of what lies ahead. This may even open up new possibilities for those who had not tapped into their interests in writing. Whether they make a career in research or science journalism/editing, or even if they choose a completely different career path, they would be well-versed in the nuances involved in science writing and also publishing.