Dear Educator,

As we have seen throughout the pandemic, digital education, even with its challenges and limitations, has played an important role in the continuation of education in the country. Its importance has also been recognized by the National Education Policy 2020. On 17 February, we bring you a new webinar that will explore and discuss initiatives and strategies pertaining to digital education recommended in NEP 2020. It will also delve into the roles of various stakeholders in realizing these recommendations and thus, contribute towards raising the standards of the Indian higher education system to global levels. Register here to join the webinar Digital education through the lens of NEP 2020.

In addition to being an educator, if you are also a newly independent researcher or planning to start your own lab, then we have another major event for you. The annual Young Investigators’ Meeting (YIM) brings together exceptional young and senior scientists, postdoctoral fellows, heads of institutions, and representatives from funding agencies for interactions focusing on science careers, mentoring, and networking. Visit our website for more details. Last date to apply: 25 Feb 2022. Also check out our interactive database of investigators to help you find collaborators within your region or in your field of interest.

That is not all! We, in association with Ignite Life Science Foundation and Cactus Communications, bring you and your students a new series of live conversations, called “In conversation with Ignite”. This series will explore the lives and work of scientists in an informal chat session. The series will kickstart on the National Science Day (28 February 2022) with a conversation with well-known physician-scientist and glycobiologist Ajit Varki, UCSD. Register here to join.

We love to hear from you and share your stories with the rest of the community. We invite you to write for us about your unique classroom experiences, new educational initiatives, the common misconceptions your students have (like this one), or anything else on the practice of life science education in India. Just send a gist of what you wish to write about to education@indiabioscience.org and we will get back to you. You can also share your thoughts with fellow educators using our discussion forum. If you like to communicate science in creative ways, then participate in our #FundaySunday initiative using this google form.

And now, here are some of our activities for educators in the last couple of months.

Molecular biology textbooks teach us that during gene expression, only one strand of DNA is used to synthesize RNA. Does this mean that only one of the strands of an entire DNA duplex is functional? What does the other strand do? Which one is called the 'sense' strand? Is it the same as the 'template' strand? These are some questions that often baffle undergraduate students of biology. In this article, educator Maya Murdeshwar of St. Xavier's College, Mumbai describes how she approaches these concepts in her classroom.

In education, research and innovation, we often hear the terms “interdisciplinary” and “multidisciplinary”. Many of us may use these terms without understanding what exactly they mean. In this article Madhumita Krishnan, a consultant Ayurveda paediatrician at The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU), Bengaluru unravels the meaning of these terms and explores the significance and need for a newer term called “trans-disciplinary”.

With the 2nd IndiaBioscience Outreach Grants, select scientists step out of their labs to connect with communities beyond academia. In this piece, Hansika looks at the initiatives being funded by IndiaBioscience in the current edition.

A recent study by Rajan Sankaranarayanan’s group from the CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad has found a novel mechanism of lipid metabolism. This opens up new avenues to understand the production of lipid-based bioactive molecules such as antibiotics.

What is our current scientific understanding of SARS-CoV-2? How do we trace its origins? How do new variants arise? What predictions can we make for the impact of the Omicron variant in India? How effective are the current vaccines against currently known variants? How do we see this virus and our immunity to it evolving in the long run? Vijeta Raghuram explored these and more such questions in an interactive online discussion with the eminent virologist Shahid Jameel on 12 January, 2022.

Why is it important to engage with the topic of mental health in a classroom? What might such an engagement look like? What has been the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of students, teachers, people in isolation and the elderly? What can teachers do to support their family and students, and strengthen their own mental & emotional resilience? Vijeta Raghuram discussed these and more such questions with Dr Avantika Bhatia, an assistant professor of psychology at Ashoka University and a psychotherapist for adults in an online interactive discussion on 8 December, 2021.

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