Microbiology Course Research Articles

Assessing Students' Creative Thinking With The Implementation of Design Thinking Based Project

The focus of this study is to apply design-thinking learning to measure students' creative thinking skills in microbiology courses at universities. The type of pre-experimental research with one group pretest - posttest design. Respondents were 27 student in four semester in the biology education study program, Hamzanwadi University FMIPA. Data collection techniques using Worksheets based project with indicators for design project: problem, solution, objective, and procedure. Data analysis techniques are descriptive quantitative by calculating the gain test of creative thinking skills, the percentage of creative thinking ability categories, and the percentage of fermentation product categories. The creative thinking gain score on the components: posing problems 1.09., proposing solutions 0.88., stating objectives 1.07., and compiling work methods 1.65 with a high category. The percentage of product categories made is general 29.2%, and modification 0.8%, no new fermentation products are produce. Through design thinking, educators can adjust their teaching methods to meet the various learning styles of students, making materials more accessible and relative. By combining real-world problems and practical activities into learning, students are encouraged to think creatively when solving challenges related to microbiology, resulting in creativity in making fermentation products. Design thinking based project learning can measure students' creative thinking skills in microbiology courses, even though at the ideate stage they repeatedly prepare project designs during the learning process and at the prototype stage there is a failure in making fermented products

The development of supplemental multimedia learning modules and their impact on student learning in food biotechnology courses.

The rapid growth of online education has created opportunities to integrate multimedia learning tools into complex scientific disciplines like food biotechnology. This study aimed to develop and evaluate supplementary online course modules on gene expression analysis, protein engineering tools, and fermentation genomics for undergraduate food biotechnology education. Based on cognitive load theory and multimedia learning principles, the modules incorporated focused visual media and interactive knowledge checks. The study involved 85 students in an introductory food microbiology course and 25 students in an upper-level food biochemistry elective at a large public university. Module implementation included tracking student usage through learning management system analytics, collecting qualitative feedback, and assessing learning outcomes via exam performance. Results showed that 73%-76% of students voluntarily accessed the modules, with average engagement times of 5-8 min per module. Student feedback highlighted the modules' effectiveness in clarifying textbook content through replayable examples and real-world scenarios. Comparison of exam scores revealed a 6%-10% improvement in performance on module-related items compared to overall exam averages. Qualitative feedback indicated that students found the visual representations and interactive elements helpful for clarifying complex concepts. This study demonstrates the potential of well-designed multimedia modules to support student learning in food biotechnology education, providing a model for expanding such resources in food science curricula.

Development of learning objectives to support undergraduate virology curriculum guidelines.

It has become increasingly important for microbiology educators to help students learn critical concepts of the discipline. This is particularly true in virology, where current challenges include increasing rates of vaccine hesitancy, misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, and controversy surrounding research on pathogens with pandemic potential. Having students learn virology can attract more people to the field and increase the number of people who can engage in meaningful discourse about issues relating to the discipline. However, the limited number of virologists who teach undergraduates, combined with the fact that many institutions lack stand-alone virology courses, results in virology often being taught as a limited number of lectures within an undergraduate microbiology course (if it is covered at all), which may or may not be taught by an individual trained as a virologist. To provide a framework to teach virology to undergraduate students, a team of virology educators, with support from the American Society for Virology (ASV), developed curriculum guidelines for use in a stand-alone undergraduate virology course or a virology section within another course (D. B. Kushner et al., J Virol 96:e01305-22, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01305-22). These guidelines are available at the ASV website (https://asv.org/curriculum-guidelines/). To assist educators in implementing these guidelines, we created examples of measurable learning objectives. This perspective provides details about the virology curriculum guidelines and learning objectives and accompanies the perspective by Boury et al. in this issue of the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (25:e00126-24, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00126-24) about the recent revision of the microbiology curriculum guidelines overseen by the American Society for Microbiology.

Usage of Spaced Repetition Flashcards to Improve Educational Outcomes in Microbiology.

Introduction: Spaced repetition flashcards and other instructor-made resources are beneficial tools for students in content-dense introductory courses, particularly in the sciences. This study seeks to evaluate whether instructor-made, spaced repetition flashcards affect students' performance on the exams and their self-concept as it pertains to a newly introduced discipline (microbiology). Methods: Students enrolled in a bachelor's level introductory microbiology course utilized a spaced repetition flashcard software to scaffold their review of course material productively. Exam scores and student perceptual data from institutionally validated surveys were then compared using parametric T-testing. Results: While overall performance on the exams was unchanged (p = 0.2657), there were significant changes in student perception. Most notably, students' confidence in their ability to succeed improved (p = 0.0066), along with their belief that the course made them think like a microbiologist (p = 0.0011). They also felt that this was an effective instructional approach (p = 0.0076). Conclusion: These results suggest that students can better engage with and feel confident in understanding the material presented, even if their exam scores did not drastically improve. Further studies should evaluate how resources like the one trialed here can be implemented to improve students' self-concept and learning.

Enhancing Microbiology Laboratory Course

Incorporating students’ own skin bacteria samples into microbiology courses presents a practical and engaging approach. This project-based learning strategy addresses the limitations of traditional microbiology experiments, fostering independent inquiry and deeper understanding of microbial concepts. By analyzing their own microbiota, students gain valuable insights while developing essential scientific skills. The implementation of this project offers cost-effective and engaging motivational strategies for microbiology education, with the potential to enhance microbiology education globally.

Enhancing student engagement with introductory microbiology and immunology topics using a novel board game.

In introductory microbiology courses for non-biology majors, it can be difficult to ensure that students gain a functional understanding of the interplay between the host immune system and an invading infectious agent. Immune Battle is a board game that allows students to explore pathogen evolution and the immune system's response to incursions in a captivating way, leveraging battleship and worker placement styles of gameplay. Students play in teams as either a pathogenic microbe attempting to reproduce and transmit itself to new hosts or as the immune system trying to defend the host from infection. Immune Battle seeks to mimic real-world interactions between immune cells and microbes using board game mechanics. For example, students will quickly find that adaptive immune system actions are better at fighting off microbial incursions than innate immune actions but require more time to activate. In this way, Immune Battle reinforces student's understanding of the immune system and pathogenic virulence in an exciting and interactive way that keeps them thinking about host defenses long after the end of the class period or exam. This board game is well suited for advanced high school courses and introductory college-level courses that have only limited time to cover the immune system and microbiology. Documents containing the necessary components of the board game (not including a six-sided die) are included in the supplemental materials, so educators can print out their own copies and use this board game in their classes with no cost to themselves or their students.

Visual Learning Equity Initiative Enhances Preclinical Dermatologic Image Representation: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Despite growing diversity in the United States population, studies show that medical education lacks representation of conditions in darker skin tones. Given that medical conditions present differently in different skin tones, limited exposure to images of darker tones in medical training may contribute to incorrect or delayed diagnoses, perpetuating health inequities. This study examines the preclinical curriculum at the Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUSOM) to report on its image representation with respect to skin tone and to assess the impact of a student-driven initiative in achieving visual learning equity (VLE). Of 1050 preclinical images, 58.2% depicted conditions in light/white skin tones, 31.3% in medium/brown, and 10.5% in dark/black. The microbiology and pathology courses had the highest percentages of dark/black and medium/brown images. Infectious disease images made up 36.3% of all images with 54.6% light/white, 31.5% medium/brown, and 13.9% dark/black. Overall, the first images representing conditions were 63.5% light/white, 30.0% medium/brown, and 6.6% dark/black. When dark/black images were presented first, 64.3% were of infectious diseases, compared to 35.1% for medium/brown and only 28.4% for white/light first images that were infectious diseases. A significant increase in images of conditions in darker skin tones was observed in the IRD course 2022 compared to the IRD course 2020 (P<.001). Our study highlights an underrepresentation of darker skin tones compared to lighter skin tones in the GUSOM preclinical curriculum. A student-led initiative significantly increased the representation of darker skin tones in dermatologic images, demonstrating the potential impact of such efforts in achieving VLE in medical education.J Drugs Dermatol. 2024;23(7):519-524.  doi:10.36849/JDD.7992.

Lower Extremity Amputation in Fracture-Related Infection.

To analyze demographics, comorbidities, fracture characteristics, presenting characteristics, microbiology, and treatment course of patients with fracture-related infections (FRIs) to determine risk factors leading to amputation. Retrospective cohort. Single Level I Trauma Center (2013-2020). Adults with lower extremity (femur and tibia) FRIs were identified through a review of an institutional database. Inclusion criteria were operatively managed fracture of the femur or tibia with an FRI and adequate documentation present in the electronic medical record. This included patients whose primary injury was managed at this institution and who were referred to this institution after the onset of FRI as long as all characteristics and risk factors assessed in the analysis were documented. Exclusion criteria were infected chronic osteomyelitis from a non-fracture-related pathology and a follow-up of less than 6 months. Risk factors (demographics, comorbidities, and surgical, injury, and perioperative characteristics) leading to amputation in patients with FRIs were evaluated. A total of 196 patients were included in this study. The average age of the study group was 44±16 years. Most patients were men (63%) and White (71%). The overall amputation rate was 9.2%. There were significantly higher rates of chronic kidney disease (CKD; P = 0.039), open fractures (P = 0.034), transfusion required during open reduction internal fixation (P = 0.033), Gram-negative infections (P = 0.048), and FRI-related operations (P = 0.001) in the amputation cohort. On multivariate, patients with CKD were 28.8 times more likely to undergo amputation (aOR = 28.8 [2.27 to 366, P = 0.010). A subanalysis of 79 patients with either a methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus or methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infection showed that patients with MRSA were significantly more likely to undergo amputation compared with patients with methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (P = 0.031). MRSA was present in all cases of amputation in the Staphylococcal subanalysis. Findings from this study highlight CKD as a risk factor of amputation in the tibia and femur with fracture-related infection. In addition, MRSA was present in all cases of Staphylococcal amputation. Identifying patients and infection patterns that carry a higher risk of amputation can assist surgeons in minimizing the burden on these individuals. Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Students are using large language models and AI detectors can often detect their use

Large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence (AI) has been in development for many years. Open AI thrust them into the spotlight in late 2022 when it released ChatGPT to the public. The wide availability of LLMs resulted in various reactions, from jubilance to fear. In academia, the potential for LLM abuse in written assignments was immediately recognized, with some instructors fearing they would have to eliminate this mode of evaluation. In this study, we seek to answer two questions. First, how are students using LLM in their college work? Second, how well do AI detectors function in the detection of AI-generated text? We organized 153 students from an introductory microbiology course to write essays on the regulation of the tryptophan operon. We then asked AI the same question and had the students try to disguise the answer. We also surveyed students about their use of LLMs. The survey found that 46.9% of students use LLM in their college work, but only 11.6% use it more than once a week. Students are unclear about what constitutes unethical use of LLMs. Unethical use of LLMs is a problem, with 39% of students admitting to using LLMs to answer assessments and 7% using them to write entire papers. We also tested their prose against five AI detectors. Overall, AI detectors could differentiate between human and AI-written text, identifying 88% correctly. Given the stakes, having a 12% error rate indicates we cannot rely on AI detectors alone to check LLM use, but they may still have value.

Using photovoice to engage students in a non-major microbiology course.

In the past decade, it has become increasingly difficult to engage and encourage critical thinking and deeper learning in students who participate in higher education, particularly in non-major subjects. Photovoice is a participatory action research methodology that has been used in community-based research in many different areas including social science, health science and education. In this study, photovoice was used as a pedagogical tool in a third-year BSc Bioscience non-major microbiology module at Dundalk Institute of Technology. In order to ascertain if photovoice was an effective way of engaging these students, a qualitative descriptive methodological approach, in the form of a focus group, was employed. Six of the 13 students who took the module participated in the focus group, reporting a positive experience overall of using photovoice. Further analysis of the focus group data resulted in the overarching theme of choice, with creativity and critical thinking and research skills as sub-themes to emerge. These findings suggest that photovoice is an effective way to engage students in microbiology as a non-major subject. However, as it was a small sample size, future research would need to use a larger cohort of students to provide further evidence of using photovoice as a pedagogical engagement tool for non-major subjects.

Development and of “Ke-cheng Si-zheng” Teaching Resources and Teaching Reform in Food Microbiology Course

Development and of “Ke-cheng Si-zheng” Teaching Resources and Teaching Reform in Food Microbiology Course

Metacognitive self regulation integrated with science technology society to improving problem solving ability in microbiology courses

The purpose of this study was to improve students’ problem-solving ability and metacognitive self-regulation (MSR) by applying science technology society (STS) learning model integrated with metacognitive self-regulation. The participants were 13 students from Department of Biology Education who took microbiology courses. A quasi-experimental method with one-group pre and posttest design was used in this study. Data were collected through pre and posttest with eight open ended questions to measure students’ problem-solving ability on four microbiology topics (food, pathogen, waste and water microbiology). These topics were studied sequentially in two months. The instrument used to measure MSR is a questionnaire with open-ended questions. This questionnaire was developed based on three aspects of MSR namely, planning, monitoring and evaluation. MSR questionnaire was administered to students at the end of each topic. The N-gain test was used to analyze the improvement of students' problem-solving ability on each topic. The average score of all aspects in MSR questionnaire was used to explore students’ metacognitive self-regulation. The correlation between MSR and problem-solving ability was analyzed using Pearson correlation. The results revealed that the N gain score of problem-solving ability was increased from 0.56 in the first topic to 0.7 in the next three topics. The average of MSR score also increased from 66.15 in the first topic to 87.23 in fourth topic. There was a positive correlation between students’ MSR and problem-solving ability. These results indicated that application of Science Technology Society integrated with MSR is an effective strategy in improving students’ problem-solving ability and MSR. The implementation of this research is to develop a lecture program as an effort to improve the learning process

Inventarisasi Produk Pangan Fermentasi Lokal Pada Pasar Tradisional di Pontianak Sebagi Sumber Belajar Mikrobiologi

West Kalimantan, renowned for its abundant biological natural resources, often utilizes them in local food production through fermentation, representing indigenous knowledge passed down through generations. The involvement of microbes in changing a substrate to produce certain products is related to the use of microbes in life, and is one of the themes in the Microbiology course. The aim of this research is to inventory the types of traditional foods typical of West Kalimantan, and their relation to learning Microbiology. Data collection techniques to obtain facts are carried out through observation, interviews and documentation with sources. Data analysis was carried out in a qualitative descriptive manner. The research results showed that the types of traditional food found at the research location were cincalok, wet shrimp paste, salted mustard greens, tempoyak, jasam, and mandai. Based on the research results, it was concluded that there are six traditional food products which constitute local wisdom of ethnic groups in Pontianak. The process of making these food products utilizes bacteria that are naturally present, which means it involves the concept of microbiology, which indicates that it can be used as a learning resource for microbiology courses in the form of modules.

A hypothesis-based hop microbiology laboratory module testing the plausibility of the mythical origin of the India Pale Ale.

As one of the most famous fermented drinks in the world, beer is an especially relatable topic for microbiology courses. Here, we describe a short and easily adaptable module based on the antibacterial properties of hops used in brewing. By the 15th century, beer recipes included hops (the flower of the Humulus lupulus plant) as a bittering agent and antimicrobial. By the 19th century, the highly hopped Indian Pale Ale (IPA) became popular, and a modern myth has emerged that IPAs were invented to survive long ocean voyages such as from Britain to India. With that myth in mind, we designed a hypothesis-driven microbiology lab module that tests the plausibility of this brewing myth-namely that highly hopped beers possess enough antibacterial activity to prevent spoilage, while lowly hopped beers do not. The overall design of the module is to test the antimicrobial properties of hops using petri plates containing varying concentrations of hop extract. The module includes hypothesis generation and testing related to bacterial physiology and cell envelope morphology (hops are not equally effective against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria) and to mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance (as beer spoilage bacteria have repeatedly evolved hop resistance). Pre- and post-assessment showed that students made significant gains in the learning objectives for the module, which encourages critical thinking and hypothesis testing by linking microbial physiology and antimicrobial resistance to an important and topical real-world application.

An active learning card game to teach microbial pathogenesis to undergraduate biology majors.

Interactive classroom activities are an effective way to reinforce knowledge and promote student engagement. In this paper, we introduce the Pathogenesis Card Game (PCG), an innovative card game that engages students in a battle between microbial pathogens and the host immune system. Each student is given a set of cards that consist of either common host defenses or common pathogen evasion strategies. In pairs, students play a host defense card versus a pathogenesis card. Host defense cards include neutralize (antibody production), eat (phagocytosis), and destroy (degranulation). Pathogenesis cards present evasive strategies including mimic (molecular mimicry), escape (hemolysin production), hide (polysaccharide capsule), block (antioxidant defense), cut (protease secretion), and disguise (antigenic variation). Students develop a mastery of microbial pathogenesis through active gameplay by deliberating the outcome of each unique host-pathogen interaction. Furthermore, they learn the role of cells in the immune system and how pathogens can evade these immune defenses. PCG was piloted in a 300-level introductory microbiology course for 22 undergraduate students, comprising primarily biology and nursing majors. Both quantitative and qualitative student evaluations of the activity strongly suggest that PCG is an engaging, effective, and useful way to teach microbial pathogenesis. This activity provides a 60-minute lesson plan and corresponding materials that can be used to facilitate the introduction of pathogenesis to a typical undergraduate microbiology course. PCG offers instructors a framework to teach microbial pathogenesis and gives students the opportunity to construct their own knowledge about pathogen immune evasion in an engaging and interactive way.

The effect of food microbiology course on the knowledge and practice levels of nutrition and dietetics students studying in different universities in Turkey on food safety and microbiology

In today’s society, the increase in dining out, the consumption of ready to eat food, transportation opportunities, and the changes in lifestyles have highlighted the importance of food safety and health issues. This study aimed to assess the impact of an undergraduate Food Microbiology course on the knowledge and practices of Nutrition and Dietetics students regarding food safety and microbiology. A total of 291 students of from three Turkish universities received training in food safety, safe food preparation and food microbiology, and their. knowledge levels were measured before and after the education. Results showed that students who received the training on food safety, safe food preparation, and food microbiology demonstrated a significant increase in their knowledge levels (p

Community involvement in addressing the antibiotic crisis.

Increasing student interest and success in STEM education is a top priority for many postsecondary educational institutions. One well-documented approach to both priorities is to have students participate in a Course Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE). Faculty from several technical colleges and universities in Wisconsin teamed up with the Tiny Earth organization to offer a CURE to address the search for new antibiotics. Students enrolled in undergraduate microbiology courses engaged in research and participated in community outreach. To involve the community, faculty from various institutions joined an NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, and created the Tiny Earth in Titletown symposium. Here, students presented their work via scientific posters, to community and industry members, and networked with other scientists from around the region. The Tiny Earth in Titletown symposium started in 2018, was held again in 2019, and returned in 2022 following a 2-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Record attendance in 2022 suggests that community outreach and education may be helping restore trust in science that was lost during the pandemic.

A low-cost cure for CUREs: An undergraduate microbiology course engaging students in authentic research using publicly available datasets.

Undergraduate research experiences are key to preparing STEM students for a range of careers and graduate programs, and to impacting retention in STEM. Providing undergraduate research experiences can be challenging for institutions due to the high cost associated with equipment and reagents, lab space, and research mentors. In this study, we present an upper-level microbiology seminar course that does not require these resources, as each student chooses and performs their own research project using data obtained from publicly available datasets. The faculty member provides hands-on instruction and regular feedback to mentor the cohort of students through all stages of their research projects, from honing a research question, to choosing a dataset, to data analysis and visualization. Students build science communication skills through each writing a scientific paper, and creating and presenting a scientific poster. These papers and presentations, along with results from student pre- and post-surveys, demonstrate that students built research and communication skills, while also building their confidence and interest in science careers. To access this research experience, students only need to register for this course; no application or selection is required, and no prior research experience is expected. The use of publicly available data makes this course a low-cost way to integrate authentic research projects into the college curriculum, and can be adapted to courses in any discipline. Such "low-cost CUREs" (course-based undergraduate research experiences) can be used to build capacity for undergraduate research experiences that are so crucial to preparing students for opportunities in and beyond college.

Helping students see bacteria in 3D: cellular models increase student learning about cell size and diffusion.

In the microbial world, cell size and shape impact physiology, but students struggle to visualize spatial relationships between cells and macromolecules. In prokaryotic cells, cell size is limited by reliance on diffusion for nutrient uptake and the transport of nutrients within the cell. Cells must also meet a minimum size threshold to accommodate essential cellular components such as ribosomes and DNA. Using 3D printing allows for the creation of custom models that can be influential teaching tools in the biology classroom. This lesson uses 3D cell models to teach students enrolled in an introductory microbiology course about bacterial cell size and the biological importance of surface-area-to-volume ratio. During the lesson, students interact with 3D cell models and discuss a series of questions in small groups. Student learning was assessed using quantitative and qualitative student response data collected pre- and post-lesson. Student achievement of learning objectives, and their confidence in their knowledge of these concepts, improved post-lesson, and these gains were statistically significant. Our findings suggest that interacting with 3D-printed cell models improves student understanding about bacterial cell size and diffusion.

Application of the Microbiology Concept Inventory to improve programmatic curriculum.

The Microbiology Concept Inventory is an assessment tool derived from the fundamental statements created by the American Society for Microbiology. This two-tier, multiple-choice question inventory requires students to choose the most correct answer for each question and provide a brief justification of their reasoning. Educators can utilize this tool to identify common misconceptions held by students and adjust curriculum to address and prevent the persistence of student misconceptions. Over the course of 5 years, the Microbiology Concept Inventory was annually administered to undergraduate students enrolled in entry-level, mid-level, and senior capstone microbiology courses at a mid-western rural university. Analysis was completed to compare course, year, majors and minors, gender, ethnicity, and cumulative GPA. Results of this study showed a significant difference in Microbiology Concept Inventory scores between students with high cumulative GPAs (3.5-4.0) and students with comparatively lower cumulative GPAs (2.5-2.99, 3.0-3.49). Results between the other demographic categories revealed statistically different scores in favor of white students, but no differences in scores between genders. The results suggest evidence of ethnic bias, but no gender bias as measured by the Microbiology Concept Inventory. Additionally, significant differences in scores across cohorts are indicative of improvements in the curricula due to prior targeted changes. Analysis of concept inventory results can guide curriculum changes for course instructors. Implementation of curriculum changes can enrich students' academic success.