Research now rarely happens in silos, and cell biology is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary with physics, math, and larger-scale biology. However, cell biology at the undergraduate level is often taught without interdisciplinary elements. Carolyn Weber, Assistant Professor at Idaho State University, has ideas and preliminary evidence for bringing interdisciplinarity into cell biology education, which she wrote about in an essay published in CBE—Life Sciences Education. She recommends bringing in topics like food production, which can help students learn about the elemental needs of cells and also understand it in a context that has societal relevance. Using surveys to measure learning gain, Weber found that these multiscalar topics help students understand cells in a larger context.
