Class
Article
College
College of Science
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
In the lab I plan to develop, students will collect soil from a location of their choice and try to isolate and identify bacteria from the samples. Working with bacteria from soil instead of from an individual's body (which is the approach currently being used in the course) will remove the threat of spreading a communicable disease and will allow students to work in groups. This will cut down the cost, but more importantly it will strengthen the students' teamwork skills - a major objective of the class. Students will then be responsible for keeping their cultures growing for several weeks as they run a series of tests (e.g., Gram staining, metabolic tests such as catalase, starch hydrolysis, and hemolysis tests) that will help them identify their unknown by using the dichotomous keys in Bergey's Manual. This lab will serve as not only a teaching experience as they run their own tests, but it allows there to be no biohazards as they will not pull from their own bodies. The idea is that students will learn these concepts more by doing. One especially exciting aspect of this project is that the lab will fill holes in the current lab curriculum. For example, there is currently no lab to support the unit on environmental microbiology that is done in lecture. Additionally, I would like to develop an extension for the lab in which students will test their isolated bacteria for anti-fungal activity. This will be an important addition to the unit on anti-microbial drugs and drug discovery. As a current tutor and possible future teacher, I am thrilled at the prospect of contributing to the lab curriculum at Utah State.
Start Date
4-8-2020 2:00 PM
End Date
4-8-2020 3:00 PM
Soil Microbe Identification: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Microbiology Labs
In the lab I plan to develop, students will collect soil from a location of their choice and try to isolate and identify bacteria from the samples. Working with bacteria from soil instead of from an individual's body (which is the approach currently being used in the course) will remove the threat of spreading a communicable disease and will allow students to work in groups. This will cut down the cost, but more importantly it will strengthen the students' teamwork skills - a major objective of the class. Students will then be responsible for keeping their cultures growing for several weeks as they run a series of tests (e.g., Gram staining, metabolic tests such as catalase, starch hydrolysis, and hemolysis tests) that will help them identify their unknown by using the dichotomous keys in Bergey's Manual. This lab will serve as not only a teaching experience as they run their own tests, but it allows there to be no biohazards as they will not pull from their own bodies. The idea is that students will learn these concepts more by doing. One especially exciting aspect of this project is that the lab will fill holes in the current lab curriculum. For example, there is currently no lab to support the unit on environmental microbiology that is done in lecture. Additionally, I would like to develop an extension for the lab in which students will test their isolated bacteria for anti-fungal activity. This will be an important addition to the unit on anti-microbial drugs and drug discovery. As a current tutor and possible future teacher, I am thrilled at the prospect of contributing to the lab curriculum at Utah State.