Jennifer Basil Wins Tow Distinguished Teaching Award

Biology Professor Jennifer Basil 

Inevitably at the beginning of each semester, Biology professor Jennifer Basil sees the reticence in many of her students, the faces that say, "science is hard," the gazes that avert when she starts posing questions.

She's doesn’t let that stop her. One of her favorite ice breakers involves having her students play "zip, zap, zop," a game where she randomly points at a student who should say "zip," while the next says "zap," and so forth.

"By the end, everyone is all mixed up, everyone has made a mistake, and we’ve all just made ourselves look silly together," she says. "And then we’re all laughing."

Basil understands that the art of improvisation and science go well together. "Improv reinforces our ability to look at the great unknown—a blank page—and create something out of it," she says. "It also teaches us that making ‘mistakes’ are a part of the process. Every scientist has to understand that."

It's just one of the pedagogical tricks the Brooklyn College professor of 20 years has up her sleeve, and it's one of the reasons she was chosen as the 2019 recipient of The Claire Tow '52 Distinguished Teaching Award.

"I'm being rewarded for doing something that’s already rewarding," says Basil, humbly. "There are already so many wonderful educators here."

The award recognizes a senior member of the faculty for outstanding qualities as a teacher, and for being a role model to students and other faculty members. It also comes with $10,000. It was established through a generous gift from Leonard Tow ’50, a trustee of the Brooklyn College Foundation, in honor of his wife, Claire. Members of the full-time faculty with strong academic credentials who have come to embody the values espoused by the college’s mission statement and who, over time, have significantly contributed to high quality teaching at the college are eligible for nomination.

Basil, who teaches Biology 1010, an introductory class for non-science majors, says she delights in opening students’ minds to the scientific process and making them comfortable with exploring questions to which they may never find an answer.

"No good scientist will give you 100 percent certainty on many questions," she explains. "If all my students get is the scientific method and how it works, I'm happy."

Basil is no stranger to accolades for her teaching prowess. She has a whopping 4.9 out of 5 rating on the infamous ratemyprofessors.com website—"she makes you love the subject," "fair and funny," "wants her students to learn how to think"—and was named one of the best 300 professors in the country by The Princeton Review in 2012.

She's passionate about making science accessible to the masses and contributes to Science Friday, which covers entertaining and educational stories about science and technology.

Her scholarship examines the evolution of complex brains and behavior focusing on animal learning and memory. She studies mostly cephalopod molluscs, but this upcoming academic year Basil is taking a sabbatical to study the learning capacity of bees at a neurobiology lab in Toulouse, France.

"The students here are so diverse, they are not entitled, and many are just grateful to be getting a good education," she says. "But I’m the one who feels lucky."