Chitra Ravi

Biography

"Chitra is visiting faculty and part of the Sustainability group at the University. Her primary work experience has been in the broad areas of environment and education. Her formal academic background is in the Life Sciences. Currently, she is part of a team involved in developing a portfolio of online courses in Sustainability, and co-teaches a course that explores a social-ecological systems perspective to sustainability. She is also involved in the design of a collaborative multi-institutional WIPRO Earthian funded project with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment that is aimed at exploring human connections to the natural world though an activity-based workbook on 'Forests, Biodiversity and People'. Designed for both teachers and students at the middle/senior school level, this place-based workbook creates opportunities for experiential learning around the BRT Tiger Reserve that can be extended into understanding school curricula, and exploring the form these connections take in outside-forest to urban environments. In addition, she is the co-editor of the science magazine 'I wonder' that is aimed at engaging middle school science teachers in developing a broader/deeper understanding of the natural/earth/environmental sciences, and finding motivation and examples to integrate this understanding into their teaching practice. Present: Sustainability, Nature and Science Education. Public Participatory Research in Biodiversity Mapping and Monitoring. Inquiry-based, Inclusive, and Online Learning. Past: Design and development of participatory open-access online biodiversity mapping/monitoring networks in India (Program Officer on the NKC-endorsed India Biodiversity Portal, and a Co-investigator on the DBT-funded India Bio-resource Information Network), and globally (as Rubenstein Fellow 2012-13 on the Smithsonian-funded Encyclopedia of Life)."

Research Interest

Teaching-learning processes, especially those involved in encouraging people from varied backgrounds and age-groups to engage with their natural environment in more experiential and personal ways.