Renu Srivastava, assistant teaching professor in genetics, development and cell biology, is the recipient of the term faculty 2025 Early Achievement in Teaching Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. She teaches a wide range of courses, instructing and inspiring hundreds of students each semester. Her passion and dedication to teaching and learning are exceptional.
Srivastava’s teaching portfolio ranges from introductory biology and fundamental molecular and cell biology courses to advanced developmental biology laboratories. These range from large introductory lectures with 120-300 students, to smaller classes focused on specialized topics. In every course, she works to maximize student learning. She uses a combination of active learning, peer teaching and a range of instructive and supportive materials, all backed by her unwavering personal commitment to student success. Srivastava also carefully monitors her students’ progress using a range of assessments that allow her to continuously adapt the speed and depth at which topics are covered. Many of her students praise her ability to explain complex biological processes in ways that make them accessible to students at all levels.
A colleague stated, “I was very impressed with the way she set expectations, made the course content accessible for students during her lecture, and engaged with students throughout the class time in ways that helped deepen their understanding… The end result was that the students were engaged for the full hour and a half and they interacted much more deeply with course content than in more traditional lecture formats.”
A current undergraduate student stated, “I have never felt more attended to in a classroom and more emboldened leaving it… She builds confident Iowa State graduates from nervous first-year students, and she builds future scientists.”
Srivastava has also served for six semesters as co-faculty-in-charge of the introductory biology laboratory where she oversees 350-700 students and provides intensive training in teaching to 10-20 graduate teaching assistants each semester. She takes her role as mentor to the TAs very seriously, demonstrating and discussing best teaching practices, as well as providing individual assessment and coaching when needed. She is deeply invested in helping the TAs become better instructors not only to improve their students’ learning, but also to contribute to the professional development of the graduate students for their own future prospects.
Srivastava has a strong research background in cell and developmental biology and has applied that to teach and enhance the Developmental Biology Laboratory. This course-based undergraduate research experience impacts 50 to 75 students each semester. She teaches and guides undergraduates through independent research projects involving zebrafish development, high-resolution fluorescence microscopy and cutting edge CRISPR-based gene editing techniques. It is a high-impact experience where students obtain skills in how to explore literature, formulate hypotheses, design appropriate experiments and analyze results.
Srivastava said, “Teaching is a virtuous profession. Joseph Chesterton said, ‘The foundation of teaching is research, and the object of research is teaching, the dissemination of knowledge.’ This quote has inspired me to implement research-informed skills and teaching practices in my undergraduate classrooms.”