Teaching Philosophy
Learning is not mere assimilation of information and concepts but requires seeing the big picture and connections between concepts. Developing mastery of a subject takes years of working with and thinking about a subject, something I have learned through my graduate training. As a teacher, my goal for my students would be to help them connect the dots between concepts learned in my classroom to those in other classes, and to their research. As a teacher, I lead my students to see learning as one continuous fabric woven by different weavers on the same loom, switching shifts.
My approach to teaching science is to integrate theory and laboratory sessions, as basic concepts are often reinforced when we learn by doing. We are also better at retaining, retrieving, and connecting information if we learn by doing it. As an audio-visual learner myself, I strongly believe in visual and auditory learning as credible and important as the traditional textual based learning. In fact, incorporating different modes of teaching would be the most inclusive and student centric. Every individual is special, and it is still possible to attract the attention of most of a class of 60 students using such an inclusive teaching model. I am passionate about teaching and training curious scientists for tomorrow and look forward to bringing my expertise to my students.
Teaching experience and interests
Delta Teaching and Learning Certificate: I am currently associated with the Delta teaching and learning program on UW-Madison campus, and on the path to earning the teaching and learning certificate. This certificate is granted upon completion of certain credits and a practical internship engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL). The Delta program is a self-selecting cohort of passionate people who want to learn to teach better across the campus, across disciplines. We use meta-learning by sharing teaching experiences and critically analyzing and implementing pedagogical techniques. Although I have earned my certificate, I continue to engage in the classes and community as both a student and as facilitator. I have been invited to teach writing by the English Department via the Delta program this upcoming semester.
Course Design: At University of Minnesota, I completed a 5-credit “Teaching in Higher Education (GRAD8101)”, a practical teaching class where a group of graduate students from different disciplines of sciences and engineering meet to learn and perfect student-centric teaching methods such as jigsaw, flipped classrooms, visual learning etc. We were grouped based on the similarities of our major and each group taught the other groups of graduate students with completely different expertise. For example, our plant science group consisted of me (plant nematologist), an agronomist, a geneticist, and a plant biologist. We taught our disciplines to a group that consisted of physicists, aerospace engineers and mathematicians. Through this class, I had the opportunity to develop a model for a course and syllabus for ‘Introductory Nematology’ and educate non-majors about basic nematology. Mine is a course designed on basic nematode biology and classification for both graduate and undergraduate levels and I intend to adapt this as a semi-annual course at The University, to complement the department’s ‘Introduction to Nematology’. This will provide an insight to nematology and plant pathology to non-major students and would serve to attract more undergraduates into nematology and plant pathology for graduate school. I am also looking forward to engaging with students through other undergraduate and graduate level ecology, nematology, and plant pathology courses as applicable.
In-person Teaching: As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, I taught both classroom and laboratory sessions for a 3-credit ‘Introductory Plant Pathology’ (PlPa 2001) course, for three years. This is an undergraduate class for both biology majors and non-majors, with a class size of over 35, that uses modern pedagogical techniques for student-centered, activity-based, active learning. During the laboratory sessions, I evaluated student assignments and provided detailed feedback, in addition to teaching. In the classroom, I have instructed and interacted with the students over 3 lectures on nematodes and nematode diseases, as well as 2 lectures on chemical and biological control of plant diseases, each year. I was supervised and mentored by Prof. Ruth Dill-Macky and Dr. Pablo Olivera over these three years of teaching this course. With Prof. Dill-Macky, I also developed a card-game for the students to revise as they play, specifically for this class. All my classes at The University will incorporate these modern pedagogical techniques in addition to conventional teaching methods to be more inclusive. As a postdoctoral scholar at University of Wisconsin, I have taught one lecture of the nematology section of the introductory plant pathology course (Pl Path 300) through a hybrid live and telecasted mode. I employed my own experiences as a case-study to introduce Soybean Cyst Nematodes (SCN) and various control options practiced for this pathogen. I introduced freshmen and sophomore students to the world of nematode diseases and specifically explained my PhD research in biocontrol of SCN, wrapping up with an introduction to my current work in SCN resistance. I also took part in both sections of the laboratory portion of the course and taught the students to identify nematodes and introduced some basic nematology concepts.
Online Teaching and Mentoring: During the pandemic year, Spring 2020, I taught the nematology section (two lectures) of PlPa 2001 with Prof. Dill-Macky online, and this was our first experience teaching a course online. I delivered both live and recorded lectures to suit the varying needs of the students who were relocating and quarantining at different places, a step towards more inclusive teaching. I also helped with transitioning the laboratory section of the nematology section online and hosted multiple sessions for students to ask questions and understand the principles behind the techniques that were delivered to them as recorded demonstrations. I also recently delivered an hour-long invited workshop/seminar to a group of high-school students and their parents in India, on the needs and opportunities for biologists in the world. I have also been active in the Skype-a-scientist program and have interacted with a couple of 5th grader classrooms in New Jersey, talking to kids about nematodes, plants, and plant pathology, and answering their curious questions. Similarly, I have also volunteered time to interview with, answer questions and give career talks in various virtual settings with audience ranging from parents of perspective students to general public and undergraduate students trying to find a major.
Co-curricular and Extra-curricular Teaching: I am committed to making my scientific research broadly accessible. To that end, I have created several sections in my website explaining my research and nematodes, in as simple language as possible (deepakhaarith.com), and regularly use that for outreach. Every December since last two years, I run a New Year Nematology Countdown on twitter, where I tweet new and interesting nematology each day during the entire month. I have also placed second in 2020 and first in 2021 in the N.A. Cobb Nematology Foundation’s annual nematology video contest. In 2021, I wrote, directed, and acted in a musical explaining my current research (https://youtu.be/fUNGhj3EZig).
Student mentoring experience
As a graduate student, both in India as a master’s student as well as a PhD student in the US, I have had the opportunity to mentor and motivate undergraduates to pursue science. I support good research experience for undergraduates as it helps attract and train more scientists. During my PhD, I have trained four undergraduates for at least a semester each, in basic nematology and greenhouse experiments. I have had the special opportunity to mentor one undergraduate over three years, igniting his passion for nematodes. He is now a member of the Society of Nematologists and presents his research at the annual meetings. Under my mentorship, he also won the best presentation award at the 2019 meeting. I was extremely proud when he joined the Plant Pathology graduate program at the University of Minnesota, to pursue his M.S. in 2019.
As a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Wisconsin, I have led our primarily plant molecular biology laboratory in standardizing nematode protocols and mentored students in the proper care and handling of nematode cultures. I have also taught and mentored several undergraduate research associates, one of whom is pursuing her doctoral studies at Cornell University in Plant Pathology. I have my own little community of mentees with whom I stay in touch and continue mentoring them and learning about them. I intend to inspire as many people as possible to explore the world of nematology and plant-microbe interactions. With my experiences, both as a mentor and a mentee, I am excited and confident that I will develop a thriving research mentoring program at University of Florida. In recognizing that teaching is a higher form of learning, I commit to continuous personal learning in how to teach better through interacting with the diversity of students in my classes.