BIO 139: General Microbiology

Reflection on Instructional Change:

BIO 139 is divided into a lecture component and lab component, both of which I teach. The biggest change in the lecture structure is the assessment. Previously, most of the lecture points were from 4 exams spread throughout the semester (3 midterms and a final exam). This semester, I decided to incorporate weekly exams, allowing me to assess student comprehension of the material early, before the exams. I also replaced two of the exams with a semester-long project, divided into 5 modules. The project concepts overlap with lecture material to reinforce learning outcomes. Students are also able to apply their knowledge in different ways other than answering questions on the exam. Importantly, for many parts of the project there is no single "right answer", but rather these senior biology students are able to apply concepts they learn through lectures to novel situations.

For the laboratory component, we had to drastically shift from a hands-on learning approach to remote labs. We (the BIO 139 instructors) designed a lab program that incorporated at-home lab activities and experiments with Labster simulations. For the at-home activities, students were sent a kit with disposable lab supplies. Students used these materials to practice fundamental microbiology lab techniques and even perform an original experiment based on their own question and hypothesis.

To promoter equity in the lecture component, one of the changes I made from previous semesters is to increase the accessibility of my lecture recordings. For my powerpoint slides (which are given to students) I made sure photos had alternate captions. I also pre-recorded my lectures and uploaded them into Mediasite for captioning. This way, students would be able to see captions along with the lecture videos after I posted them to their Canvas site.

Stormboard

Stormboard - students posted comments for review on lecture topics

Example of at-home yeast growth experiment for the lab component.

alternate text of lecture slide

Lecture presentation slide with alternate text of image.

Post Side Car - Syllabus and Schedule

Pre Side Car - Syllabus and Schedule

Faculty Biography

Greetings! My name is Chris Lopez I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all a little bit about myself. I grew up in Southern California, but I moved up to NorCal to get my bachelor's degree in Animal Science at UC Davis, becoming the first in my family to receive one. From there, I switched fields to microbiology, joining the Microbiology Graduate Group at UC Davis. For my Ph.D. I worked with the pathogens Salmonella and E. coli and discovered some of the ways those bacteria colonize the intestines to cause disease. After receiving my degree, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee and continued research at Vanderbilt University. There I explored how another intestinal pathogen, Clostridioides difficile (Cdiff) interacts with the microbiota. I returned to California to teach microbiology and to continue researching how good and bad bacteria in the intestines influence human health and disease.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation NSF Hispanic Serving Institution Award 1832335. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.