Dr. Rama Devagupta

Transitioning from Scientist to Science Teacher

During my graduate school days, I often wondered how I would balance my research career with a future family. But when my husband and I decided to start a family after I earned my PhD, the pathway ahead became much clearer. Although scientific research was my first love, I decided to take a pause in my career and become a fulltime mother. During this period, I worked as a freelance writer late into the night focusing on comparative spirituality, interfaith matters, and the retelling of myths and legends. With 100+ published articles, my work was published in journals like Ascent, Constant Remembrance, Hinduism Today, Parabola, U Can Change the World, and Yoga International. During the daytime, I volunteered in my children’s classrooms extensively. I served as a parent representative on several Richland School District (RSD) committees: notable among them were the Learning Improvement Team, Instructional Materials Committee, Science Curriculum Adoption Committee, and the RSD Strategic Planning Committee. I worked with both elementary and middle school students as a Team Manager for Destination Imagination (DI) and mentored students who wished to participate in the Mid-Columbia Science Fair. 

It was always my intention to get back into scientific research. But somewhere along the way, while I was helping teachers and students in various capacities, I realized that instead of returning into the scientific field as a researcher, I could become an educator and help create future scientists. So when my children entered high school, I decided to change my career pathway. I pursued the Alternative Route for Teaching Certification for mid-career professionals and became a high school science teacher in 2010 with endorsements in chemistry and biology. I have taught AP Biology, Honors Biology, Biology, and Forensics at Southridge High School in the Kennewick School District since 2013. I have taught the dual enrollment BIO 101 and 201 College in High School courses with Central Washington University since 2016, and have also taught biology and chemistry as an adjunct instructor at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, WA for the last fourteen years. I am currently a National Board Certified Teacher, certified Heartfulness Trainer, Neural Ed Champion, and a practitioner of Nonviolent Communication who strongly believes in incorporating the latest research in brain-based learning and heart-centered teaching in the classroom. As a strong proponent of public school education, I am a part of the WEA NBCT Leadership Cohort. I also serve on the National Council for the Advancement of Educator Ethics as a representative of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and am a board member of the Washington Science Teachers Association. 

Returning to the Research Lab

Although I love teaching science and inspiring my students to pursue STEM careers, I often feel a void in my heart wondering how life would have been if I had done my PhD in theoretical chemistry. It is therefore not surprising that this void constantly pushes me to seek professional development opportunities that could not only nurture my insatiable thirst to learn and grow but also enhance my abilities in curriculum design, helping students connect with contemporary science topics and getting them interested in science. 

I learned about the Science Education Partnership (SEP) program in 2014 and how Fred Hutch Cancer Center supports teachers by connecting them with scientists and giving them the opportunity to do research and authentic science. My heart was filled with joy and I decided to become a student again. As a SEP participant, I stayed at the University of Washington dormitory for three weeks, learned new biotechnology skills, and did research at Dr. Harmit Malik's lab to understand the evolutionary arms race using fruit flies as a model organism. Later on, I worked with Dr. Amoret Bunn at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory during the summers of 2018 and 2019 as a M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust Partners in Science Teacher. Subsequently, I did a one-year fellowship and traveled to Peru to conduct global field studies as a 2022 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow and then participated in The Morpho Institute's Educator Academy in the Amazon as a 2023 Fund for Teachers Fellow to learn about biodiversity,  sustainability, and how to mitigate climate change (UN Sustainable Development Goal 13). Needless to say, these unique summer professional developments have nurtured my body, mind, and soul, and helped me stay afloat – balancing my love for teaching science with the longing to do research and to learn and grow. 

As I had zero knowledge of coding, Dr. Setty suggested that I should take the MCB 536: Tools for Computational Biology course during my first summer. MCB 536 is a one semester graduate level course taught to Fred Hutch graduate students who do not have prior experience with computational methods. The screenshots below show some of the online tools and tutorials I used while learning the basics of different coding languages, including Linux, Python, and R.

Connecting Computational Biology to the Science Classroom

As I reflect back on this summer experience, one might ask: “Rama, what is the purpose of giving up two summers of your life at this stage of your career and going back to the research lab?” My ultimate goal is to take my summer research and learning into my classroom to inspire  my colleagues and the larger educational community to seek opportunities for personalized professional development. I also hope that my students will appreciate that learning is a lifelong process and get motivated to strive for excellence. Furthermore, as a scientist by training and a science educator at heart, I do hope that my students will recognize the importance of pursuing STEM careers and help us find solutions to health care issues like cancer. This latter aspect is very important for all of us as a nation and society because recent data from the Center for Disease Control shows that 1,777,566 new cancer cases were reported in the United States in 2021 and in 2022, 608,366 people died of cancer. Additionally, according to the National Cancer Institute, 1 out of 2 men and 1 out of 3 women will get diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime. 

I plan to create a curriculum unit that leverages the Careers in Cancer Research and Patient Care web resource from Fred Hutch’s Science Education Partnership. These activities will be designed for my Biology and Honors Biology students so they can discover the versatility of STEM career pathways. Each student will explore one cancer research scientist or cancer care health professional. They will then present their featured professional with their peers either as an infographic, video recording, or PowerPoint presentation. This will give them an opportunity to shatter the stereotypes of who a scientist is and what they do. Furthermore, it is my hope that exploring cancer care career profiles will provide guidance to students from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds so they feel empowered to contribute to cancer research and clinical care. These activities will be incorporated into an “I Am a Scientist” lesson at the beginning of the school year as it will tie in very well with the Pink Week that we do at our school every October to help increase breast cancer awareness. For my Honors Biology students, I will also modify the curriculum unit, "Intro to Cancer: Leukemia and Hina's Story” created by Fred Hutch’s Science Education Partnership. In my AP Biology class, as my students learn about different types of cell communication and work on the HHMI BioInteractive’s Lizard Evolution BLAST Lab, I will explore the possibility of doing similar work with BLAST in the cell cycle and cell communication units. 

Reflecting on the First Summer as a Hutch Teacher Fellow

Now that I am back in my classroom, I often share proudly with my students how I approached my Hutch Teacher Fellowship this summer with determination. While joining the fellowship, I knew very well that I would be participating virtually from India while attending to my mother’s health without receiving additional help in learning how to code. During those eight weeks, I worked like the energizer bunny. Although I often felt like the fool in the proverb, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” I was also blessed with the explorer mindset, the recognition that “No pain equals no gain,” and the naive condition which states that“Ignorance is bliss.”

At the mundane level, learning to code has helped me appreciate what goes on behind the scenes in our everyday life when we make airline reservations and do online purchases. It is a whole new way of logical binary thinking that computers use with no room for errors like an extra space, substituting a colon with semicolon, or missing a parenthesis. At the scientific level, I have been fascinated by all the new knowledge I have acquired regarding single cell sequence RNA. Additionally, the benefit of becoming a student once again as a part of my summer teacher fellowship has helped me become more empathetic towards my freshmen students who are coming from middle school into a whole new world of greater responsibility and advanced curriculum. 

In closing, I am grateful for this technology which has made learning across the continents in real time in today’s post-COVID world, for all the graduate students in Dr. Setty’s lab who taught me how our youth is capable of teaching the older generation, for the Hutch Teacher Fellowship (HTF) teacher cohort, the generous support of Dr. Kristen Bergsman and the entire HTF team including the program sponsors, and my family who have always understood and supported my quest for knowledge unflinchingly. I am looking forward to strengthening my computational skills during my spare time this coming year and getting myself ready for next year’s research project. 

"Some days, doing 'the best we can' may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect – on any front – and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else."

– Fred Rogers (of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, PBS)