Teaching

The display banner, an Allosaurus on public display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, represents a biological form no longer in existence. My teaching is driven by using inquiry to understand the relationship between form and predicted function. In courses, I blend the phylogenetic comparative method with game theory, biomechanics and other tools to interrogate the diversity of animals and animal behaviour. This course, Functional and Comparative Zoology, will be 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 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 I strongly believe that students should learn scholarship skills, and to think critically about published and unpublished research.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, grantsmanship and peer review (depending on the course).