#  Improving your pedagogy and enhancing student learning through team teaching 

 





April 03, 2023

 

 

- [ News ](/news-categories/news)
 
 

 

[Stephanie Pierce](/people/stephanie-e-pierce), Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and [Mansi Srivastava](/people/mansi-srivastava), Curator of Invertebrate Zoology co-developed a course for undergraduates with a goal of reaching a larger number of students and exploring similar sets of questions from different angles. They bring their expertise together in a novel course that truly represents the aims of integrative biology: [How to Build an Animal](https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/106854). Pierce is a structural biologist and Srivastava is a developmental biologist. These two perspectives of animal biology are rarely taught in the same course, but they’ve found the lenses are complementary. The combination is intended to provide students with a robust foundation of knowledge or “springboard” that can help deepen their interest in [integrative biology](https://www.harvard.edu/programs/integrative-biology/), as well as foster deeper engagement in upper level courses. Week to week, the course is structured as a modified flipped classroom. The first of two weekly class meetings features a lecture session directed by both professors that gives the foundation needed to participate actively in the second class meeting—a hands-on lab component centered on exposure to research techniques. The week culminates in a teaching fellow (TF)-led section focused on learning to read academic literature effectively.

Read more about their collaboration in [Improving your pedagogy and enhancing student learning through team teaching](https://vpal.harvard.edu/improving-your-pedagogy-and-enhancing-student-learning-through-team-teaching?utm_source=Into%20Practice&utm_campaign=5e6dabfb6f-04.03.2023%20NEWSLETTER&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_261abb8651-5e6dabfb6f-238790793), from the Harvard Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Invertebrate Zoology ](/news/invertebrate-zoology)
- [ Vertebrate Paleontology ](/news/vertebrate-paleontology)