By Alexa Battler

A U of T Scarborough biology course is having students express themselves creatively by turning what they’ve learned about evolution into elaborate works of art.

The course, BIOB51: Evolutionary Biology, has been taught by Mark Fitzpatrick for years, but this was the first time student submissions to the final assignment were displayed at a public art gallery.  

“I call it my ‘yes’ assignment,” says Fitzpatrick, an associate professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Biological Sciences. “I want the assignment to be something that they want to do, not what I need them to do.”

Sensitive and difficult subjects come up often in biology (like forced copulation, or where religion meets science), and Fitzpatrick wanted his students to have a way to explore hard topics head-on. He developed the assignment with a former student and current teaching assistant, Zaheer Kazi Coutinho, who still helps update its rubric and guidelines. Their assignment is rooted in universal design for learning (UDL), a teaching approach that, as Fitzpatrick puts it, “proactively designs learning environments to be flexible and inclusive, so all students can access, engage with, and demonstrate their learning.”

Students have submitted songs, podcasts, Minecraft builds, board games, and even Pokémon-style cards. The first time he ran this assignment, Fitzpatrick recalls discovering that one of his students, Kailey Hopkins, had an extremely successful YouTube channel, featuring stop-motion animations with American Girl dolls. 

“The creativity part, really, is in the translation of the science into something else,” he says. “In order to be able to do that effectively, you need to really understand the science.”

Sensitive and difficult subjects come up often in biology, and Fitzpatrick wanted his students to have a way to explore hard topics head-on.

Though he had created a well-loved assignment, Fitzpatrick always felt there was a missed opportunity when the semester ended and the projects disappeared. After conversations with colleagues in the Arts and Science Co-op and Work Integrated Learning Department, he began thinking they could change that. 

The department connected with Station Gallery in Whitby, and the gallery’s team was on board to exhibit whatever these STEM students came up with. Fitzpatrick adds that the gallery staff didn’t simply hang a few student projects on a wall; they threw a proper exhibition, called Deep Time—Creative Minds, and students were registered and given contracts as artists.

“It’s not going to just end in an academic vacuum. It gave life to this work for the students,” Fitzpatrick says.

Fitzpatrick and his teaching assistants reviewed more than 500 submissions before narrowing the exhibition to about 50 works. One was by second-year Biology student Caily Esmaeili, and she says the prospect of getting into the gallery changed the energy of the class. While students were welcome to use any creative medium, Fitzpatrick says visual art submissions increased, and the quality of the work rose.

Another project to land in the gallery was by Mansoor Hussaini, a second-year student studying Human Biology and Mental Health Studies. Hussaini didn’t study evolution as a teenager in Afghanistan, and says he first became fascinated with the subject after watching videos online. His painting illustrates the cosmic calendar, a concept popularized by Carl Sagan, which compresses the 13.8-billion-year history of the universe into a single calendar year. In that frame, humans appear only in the final moments of December 31. 

“People question a lot about evolution,” Hussaini says. “It’s very hard to understand the concept of time.”

He had the idea for this painting years ago, though he’d never held a paintbrush. By chance, he met a professional artist at the Health and Wellness Centre, who offered to guide Hussaini through teaching himself how to paint, supplemented by online tutorials. 

“I didn’t realize I was an artist,” he says. But through the project, he adds, science and art started to feel less separate. “When you see the cosmos, when you see the universe, it’s artistic, it’s creative.”

Esmaeili used the assignment to merge evolutionary biology with fashion, ecology, and politics. She created a dress of contrasting halves: one full of life, the other death, to reflect both course concepts and a connection to Iran, where her family is from. The destroyed side of the dress represents the ecological effects of war and human intervention, while the living side shows nature as abundant, bright, and interconnected.

“I decided, when that project was given, ‘Let me make it a political piece in a way, to tie back to me and what I’m going through, and depict that in art.’”

For Esmaeili, one of the most meaningful parts of the exhibition was bringing her parents to the gallery to see her work, and watching how excited they got. Esmaeili recalls telling Fitzpatrick: “You gave people an opportunity they would maybe never have—especially since we’re not art students.”

Originally published May 8, 2026, on University of Toronto Scarborough News.