How the pandemic is changing Biology education

The way a subject is taught changes when the teachers change. And that is what happened to the teaching of biology during the pandemic. The COVID 19 virus required immediate and intensive study, research, analysis and implementation. What we have collated below are changes observed in biology teaching approaches by teachers and researchers, and they are happy with these changes. We have gone through papers on this subject by researchers from the Quantitative Bioscience Institute (QBI), University of California, faculty from the University of Oklahoma, remote biology class guidelines by the American Society of Microbiology, and papers on NCBI.org.  

Evolution and climate change became serious areas of study 
Evolution and climate change had often gone missing from syllabus and class lectures, since many viewed it as a controversial topic. But the pandemic crisis opened everyone to the wonder and horror of a virus’s very rapid evolution. Published reports of climate change that have been previously ignored now became important as we tried to understand how we fit into the ecosystem and realise the extent of damage we are doing to the climate of the world. Biologists were also able to emphasise that we cannot ignore our link to plant, animal or microbial worlds, because their diseases might come to haunt us.  

Fact finding and fact checking gained importance  
Not just school students, even research scholars are sometimes open to copying and pasting information that ‘looks’ valid. The pandemic forced them to stop this and check the validity of the source, ask for evidence, citations, and tangible proof to any claim. Teachers were able to clearly showcase the difference between tall claims of magic cures and proper investigations into what causes COVID19 immunity.  

Online resources helped streamline classes  
Teaching easily available theory took up a lot of time in physical classrooms. But with everyone going online, teachers could tell students to read up what is available as text and reference, and then spend more time on helping students to synthesize and apply the information. Instead of giving out definitions of terms, teachers could cite examples where those terms come to life. Evidence based lessons took precedence over reading form textbooks in class, and that’s a change welcomed by students and teachers.