Honors course feature: BIOL 1037 Honors Organismal Biology

Dr. Djibo Zanzot’s Honors section of Organismal Biology, BIOL 1037, is a reminder that honors education at Auburn University does not proceed in isolation from teaching and learning across the university. Rather, the smaller sizes of Honors classes often provide settings in which faculty can experiment with teaching methods that they can then apply more broadly.

Zanzot, a senior lecturer in the biological sciences department who has been teaching Honors biology for more than a decade and was named one of the Honors College’s two Professors of the Year in 2025, cited his Honors teaching experience as a longstanding opportunity for him to experiment with approaches that then benefit all of his classes. “Teaching Honors sections provides me a pedagogical crucible to try out new projects to promote high-impact practices,” he explained. “The feedback I get from Honors students is essential to refining these projects so I can scale them up in my larger sections.”

One of Zanzot’s goals in all of his teaching is to “promote curiosity and creativity.” As he explained, “For me, a well-taught course leaves students feeling that they have made great strides in their knowledge but also realizing that there is always more to be learned.” Knowledge, especially in the natural sciences, is not static. “Our collective knowledge of the natural world is vast, but basic science is more of a question business than an answer business.” This philosophy positions students not only to learn the material at hand in a given class, but also to acquire the habits of inquiry and attentiveness that prepare them for an entire life energized by ongoing learning and critical engagement with the world.

In his teaching of BIOL 1037, Zanzot deploys a flipped classroom, in which students watch prerecorded video lectures before class and then engage in more active forms of learning during class time. He also draws upon several other fields, especially the fine arts. “I am an advocate for creativity,” he noted, “assigning artistic endeavors as a means of promoting science education. I’ve used drawing, writing, filmmaking, graphic design, sculpture and sometimes even dance to get students thinking about biology in new ways.” He also occasionally pulls students out of the actual classroom, for example holding class in the Donald E. Davis Arboretum.

Honors students have responded to these approaches with rave reviews. MinJae Ko, a sophomore biomedical sciences pre-dental major, described taking this course as “one of the best choices I have made at Auburn,” in part because his teaching influenced much more than her experience of this single course. “Dr. Zanzot’s Honors biology class stimulated my interest in biology and made me wonder ‘why’ and ‘how’ whenever I faced something new and interesting, not only in the field of biology but also in other fields of study.”

Lauren Calvert, a junior microbiology major who has taken several classes with Zanzot, also cited his innovative teaching methods, including “interactive games to help students better understand the information learned in lecture” and creative projects. In BIOL 1037, for example, “he implemented a final project where students were tasked to make a short film about an organism that might be found at the Davis Arboretum on campus, which concluded with an outdoor film festival and ‘Oscar Nominations.’” These varied approaches “genuinely made biology more interesting and easier to understand while also supporting various students’ learning styles.”

For Olivia Ray, a junior biosystems engineering major, creativity and care for students are the combined sources of Zanzot’s excellence as a teacher. It was especially meaningful to her that the semester after she had taken a class with him, in which he had recommended she read books by science journalist Ed Yong, he took the trouble to email her and tell her that Yong would be visiting Auburn’s campus to give a talk. “I thought it was really cool and special that he remembered that I had read and enjoyed those books and continued sharing opportunities to further my learning.”

Asked what he enjoyed most about Honors teaching, Zanzot noted that the smaller class sizes “enable rapport with students.” This rapport in turn fosters the very creativity and curiosity that he seeks to foster in his students, so that they grow to appreciate the world as a site of fascination for all their lives.

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