IndiaBioscience Educators' Newsletter – August 2024
Dear educator,
Let's start with an important announcement first: We are back with our annual flagship meeting, the 17th Young Investigators' Meeting (YIM 2025). This highly-anticipated meeting will be held in Agra, Uttar Pradesh from 3-7 March 2024, in partnership with Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (SNIoE).
On to other things, we are hosting a virtual book chat next month (in partnership with Juggernaut Books) with Anita Mani, editor of the book, ‘Women in the Wild’ on 6 September 2024 from 3-4 pm IST. Register soon!
Recently, we also announced the 5th IndiaBioscience Outreach Grants (IOG) awardees. The IOG program promotes the practice of science outreach among the early-career life scientists' community in India, and congratulations to all the winners!
If you are looking for networking opportunities or to connect with like-minded educators online, our #EducatorsMonday posts on our social media handles are a great place to find them. On the last Monday of every month, we pose a question to educators to stimulate conversations on interesting topics in biology education. Our latest post is out on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Do you know a colleague who might find our work interesting? Then invite them to subscribe to the Educators' newsletter by filling out this form. You can also stay updated by following us on X/formerly Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
We're delighted to have you as part of our educators' community and wish you a Happy Teacher's Day in advance. We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter. Scroll down to learn more about our recent updates and activities.
Save the date for the 17th Young Investigators’ Meeting (YIM 2025), Agra
We are excited to announce that the 17th Young Investigators' Meeting (YIM 2025) will be held in Agra, Uttar Pradesh from 3-7 March 2025 in partnership with Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (SNIoE).
The meeting will open soon for applications from YIs and Postdoctoral Fellows, and we look forward to your applications!
If you are an organisation, university, institute or company, and want to engage with YIM 2025, get in touch with us at hello[at]indiabioscience[dot]org to find out more. We look forward to hearing from you.
IndiaBioscience is thrilled to announce the awardees of the 5th IndiaBioscience Outreach Grants (IOG).
A huge congratulations to all the awardees! The 5 First-Time Grants & 1 Extension Grant recipients, who are Young Investigators in India, along with their collaborators, will bring science out of the lab and into the world for broad societal benefit.
We sincerely thank all applicants—your passion for science outreach is truly inspiring!
It is perhaps too well known to students, parents and educators alike that the Indian higher education system is highly competitive. While some competition may be unavoidable, the question is — are some aspects of this competitive environment unnecessary, or even toxic? In this article, biology researcher and educator Anil Kumar Challa, from the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi NCR presents a perspective on why a collaborative environment is better than a competitive one.
Anindita Bhadra is a behavioural biologist at the Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata. She also leads the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 at the institution. In this email interview with IndiaBioscience, she throws light on the steps taken to implement the policy, the changes that this has brought, and the challenges ahead.
What is the living world made up of? In a series of two articles, Vasudev Menon, an Assistant Professor of Biology and Performing Arts (Theatre) at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, Pune, contrasts the way two philosophical views answer this question. He opines that understanding these views would help students place what they study in the ‘life sciences’ in context. This article is the first part of the two-part series.
Are we living ‘beings’? Or are we living ‘becomings’—constantly changing due to life processes occurring across levels of time and space? In the second (and final) part of this article series, Vasudev Menon, an Assistant Professor of Biology and Performing Arts (Theatre) at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, explains the worldview held by a school of philosophers that is central to understand the diversity and dynamicity of our biosphere.
It is perhaps too well known to students, parents and educators alike that the Indian higher education system is highly competitive. While some competition may be unavoidable, the question is — are some aspects of this competitive environment unnecessary, or even toxic? In this article, biology researcher and educator Anil Kumar Challa, from the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi NCR presents a perspective on why a collaborative environment is better than a competitive one.
A recent study by researchers at the Central University of Punjab found abnormal platelet activity in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Using the neurotoxin — rotenone — to simulate PD conditions, researchers shed light on why PD patients have a lower risk of ischaemic strokes and heart attacks, by focusing on the role of platelets in thrombosis.
In partnership with Juggernaut Books, IndiaBioreads is hosting a virtual book chat on 06 September 2024 with Anita Mani, editor of the book, ‘Women in the Wild.’ You will also get a chance to grab a free copy in a book giveaway during the session! Join us on 6 September 2024 from 3-4 pm IST.
Have you been following our #EducatorsMonday posts? On the last Monday of every month, we post a question for educators on all of our social media handles. We invite you to post your answers, see responses by others, and enjoy the threads of conversation.
Q: As an educator, which aspects of NEP 2020 excites you, and which one worries you the most?
The Mathematics Discipline and the Centre for Writing and Pedagogy at Krea University are organising an online symposium titled "Reflections on the Teaching of Reading & Writing in STEMM" from 17 to 19 January 2025. This event will bring together international scholars and practitioners focused on teaching reading and writing in STEMM disciplines, as well as those using these practices to impart domain knowledge.
If you're interested, you can submit an abstract towards a possible presentation at the symposium here. To make these critical insights available to a wider audience, a subset of presentations at the symposium might be considered for publication in a 2026 special issue of the Contemporary Education Dialogue (SAGE).
CourseSource publishes articles that are organized around courses in both biological and physics disciplines, and aligned with learning goals established by professional societies representing those disciplines.
