Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Courses in Biotechnology

Biotechnology has come up as a very promising career option in India as well as abroad in the past decade. Owing to this, a lot of students with an interest in sciences and research opt for courses in biotechnology to take it up as a profession. As the term suggests, it is a combination of biology and technology. It is a knowledge-based industry that relies on human skills to leverage existing technology, scientific methods and knowledge of biology to come up with products and solutions to everyday situations of life as well as many other fields that affect us like medicine, agriculture, environment, genetics, industrial growth etc. In biotechnology, technology is applied on biological systems, living organisms, and enzymes to perform industrial or manufacturing processes. Biotechnology plays a major role in serving mankind by contributing to industries like agriculture, animal husbandry, health care…

For students looking to pursue biotechnology courses, there are various options of colleges in India as well as abroad. There are many graduate and post-graduate courses in biotechnology that one can opt for in India. The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology under the Government of India is responsible for the regulation, formulation and implementation of biotechnology courses in India. Many government and private recognized institutes conduct such courses. With its increasing demand, new courses and institutes are being added each year. In fact, research suggests that Asia will soon become the hotbed of biotechnology thus leading to more and more students opting for studying biotechnology. Its scope and career opportunities in India are enormous.

To pursue biotechnology courses, one can do it both at under graduate and post graduate level. Undergraduate Biotechnology courses include B.Sc, B.E, B.Tech, 5-year integrated B.Tech/M.Tech) and at PG level (Msc/ M.Tech). You can also pursue specialized courses at research level. Generally, students prefer to go abroad for post graduate courses in biotechnology and also for research. However, these days, there is no dearth of good biotechnology courses in India too. For a post-graduate course, one should have graduated in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Microbiology. The PG courses that are available in this field are M.Sc. Biotechnology, M.Sc. (Agriculture) Biotechnology, M.V.Sc. (Animal) Biotechnology, M.Tech. Biotechnology, M.Sc./M.V.Sc. Veterinary Biotechnology, M.Sc. (Marine) Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology and M.Tech. in Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology. After this, there are more advanced courses such as Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral Research in Biotechnology.

Biotechnology is interdisciplinary subject and its scope and application is quite diverse. Thus, there are various fields where one could specialize in biotechnology. Thus, students from different backgrounds can specialize in the field that they find their interest in such as Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Botany, Zoology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Horticulture, Tissue Culture, Agricultural Engineering, Animal Sciences, Dairy Technology, Fisheries, Medicine, Life Sciences, Genetics etc.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

How to Create Educational Materials to Make Money Online

Looking to increase your teacher pay? Chew on this. Every year schools budget to spend thousands of dollars on textbooks for students. In addition teachers in each department go to various workshops, often times paid for with board funding, where they spend money on classroom materials, ideas for lesson plans, various media and visuals so they can better appeal to different learners in the classroom.

If you've ever done some searching on the Internet for educational materials, you'll notice that you'll find lots of stuff out there. Some of these materials are good and some are bad. Some are free, some you need a subscription for and some are a one time purchase. Have you ever thought that these people are teachers just like you and I. The only difference is they are capitalizing on their skills to increase their teacher pay. Think about it...university professors do it all the time.

I'm sure that you've had a time in your teaching career when you've thought that you could do a better job of presenting ideas than the textbook laid out, or that you could create better exercises and activities. Or have you already created activities for your students that worked great in the classroom. I bet when you used them, you didn't your teacher pay. Have you ever asked yourself why you did not make money on the top of your regular teacher pay for these additional efforts, or have you ever wanted to make money on the side of your teacher pay by creating educational materials. Educational materials are a huge money maker online. There is so much demand for educational products on just about every topic under the sun.

Perhaps you have a particular approach to classroom management, or you would like to create a book of activities, or you would like to share information about how to do something else that you have a good grasp on like : How to build birdhouses. You can make money on the side of your teacher pay by simply sharing your knowledge. Isn't this what we do as teachers everyday already?

There are a couple of things that you want to check out if you want to go down this path. I have briefly laid them out; however just a heads up, an in-depth educational material could be created for each step:

1) Get advice from someone who has created educational materials before you. Whether you subscribe to a list, or a newsletter, read a report, or call them up.

2) Pick a topic that you can offer value

3) Start writing a report, a newsletter, or an e-book

4) Design or have someone design a cover for you

5) Decide how you are going to market this book

The marketing of your educational product Is the most important part! The great thing about using the Internet as a marketing tool is that there are so many people to market to. However, you need to really sharpen up your skills or you could have a great product and make squat from your efforts. When you learn from those who already know how to market online, and you will be able to make money on the side of your teacher pay.

Do not forget to check out the link in the resource box below. I've got a great free report that details my experiences with using the Internet to leverage my teaching skills so you can learn from them.