Teaching

My teaching is driven by using inquiry to understand the relationship between diversity of form, and the functions carried out by traits. In courses, I blend the phylogenetic comparative method with game theory, biomechanics and basic physics principles to interrogate the diversity of animal skeletons, jaws, appendages, sounds and color, among other important features. This course, Functional and Comparative Zoology, has been offered at EOBU from 2023 onwards. I am also broadly interested in the history of biological exploration and natural history collections, and have given public talks and teaching lectures on this subject as well.

Useful links:

1. MorphoSource: Open-access CT scan database that I use in my teaching: https://www.morphosource.org/

2. An article I wrote on IndiaBioScience, outlining my pedagogic approach: https://indiabioscience.org/columns/journey-of-a-yi/organismal-biology-in-the-classroom

3. Why study birds? (Lead authored by Adithi Muralidhar, HBCSE): http://www.teacherplus.org/why-study-birds/

The comparative method is a powerful tool to teach students general principles of independent and critical thinking. This is useful no matter what their chosen field. I strongly believe that students should learn scholarship skills, and think critically about published and unpublished research. Nearly all courses I have taught for six years in the IISER system have a project component, which teaches students study design and peer review (depending on the course).