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 a comparative approach with basic physics principles such as classical mechanics, to interrogate the extant (and fossil) diversity of animal skeletons, jaws, appendages, sounds and color, among other important features. This course has had various incarnations since 2019, currently Functional and Comparative Zoology, and 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. Finally, I have taught courses on behavior, comparative phsyiology and neuroethology over my time at two IISERs. 

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 I strongly believe that students should learn scholarship skills, and think critically about published and unpublished research.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 since I first started in the IISER system have a project component, which teaches students study design and peer review (depending on the course).