Need some good microbiology kids books? Take a look at the Reading Round-Up!
Reading Round-Up: Microbiology Books for Kids!
Crafty Microbiology: Teaching Microbiology Skills Online
Crisis inspires innovation! We developed Crafty Microbiology to teach essential microbiology skills at home using safe, common, cheap craft supplies and disposable lab tools. A.M. Estes, A.S. Jozwick, and J.E. Kerr 2021 How can you teach students fundamental microbiology skills at home – safely? The COVID-19 pandemic has been quite the disruptor for educators and students alike. To stop the spread of this virus, we human hosts need to stay away from each other! SARS-CoV2 is super tricky since many infected people don’t show symptoms or have mild symptoms. So what do you do when the skills your students need to learn can’t be done face-to-face? In-person Microbiology Labs Microbiology laboratory, in particular, is tough to teach to students at home. Typically students learn how to grow and test non-disease-causing bacteria in the Microbiology teaching labs on campus. Growing bacteria requires special media “food” for the bacteria, incubators to keep the cultures at the right temperature, and lab equipment – including Bunsen burners and special tools for moving the bacteria. A fundamental skill is learning “Sterile” or “Aseptic” technique. Students learn how to grow only the non-pathogenic, Risk Group 1 microbes they are given. Sounds easy – right? Well, no.
The Great Yogurt Experiment: Part II – Mesophilic (room temperature) Heirloom yogurt
Tasting the bacterial diversity and seeing pH difference using yogurt fermentation for microbiology teaching. I love the idea that invisible microbes can change their habitat so much we macro-organisms will pay attention and even help them! After all, people have maintained yogurt cultures for generations. Take for example the Heirloom yogurts from Culture for Health that I have been playing with and am considering sending to my General Microbiology class this semester. One overarching theme in my microbiology class is always that microbial diversity provides multiple solutions to the same “problem”. Diversity Matters! In this case – different combinations of bacteria can take the same milk, break-up the milk sugars, and poop out lactic acid. The lactic acid lowers the pH of the yogurt, which protects yogurt from pathogenic bacteria (molds can still grow though given enough time). Lactic acid gives the tart, sour taste to yogurt. To teach my General Microbiology students that microbes – just by growing – can dramatically change their habitat. This semester students will culture their own yogurt to see and taste the difference! The problem is most store-bought yogurts grow best at 113 °F (45 °C). That’s pretty warm. That was tricky during my
FAQs about Microbes – and just the Facts
Climate change, MRSA, flu, vaccines – sometimes finding reliable, understandable sources of information on these important topics is difficult. Professional organizations, such as the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) or the Microbiology Society (Europe) are excellent resources for accurate information. One of my favorite ASM resources are their FAQs series. They are informative without being overwhelming and are on a nice variety of topics from pathogens (MRSA, flu, West Nile Virus) to environmental issues like oil spills and climate change. Of course, microbes are also important for our food and drinks – so there’s a FAQ about the microbes that make cheese and beer. Finally, the human microbiome and built microbiome (microbiomes of our buildings!) are also included. Take a look at some reliable FAQs about microbes and share them with folks you know.
PATHOGENESIS 2.0 and the “Sex”spansion
It’s back and sexier than ever! My family’s favorite deck building game – Pathogenesis – expands to include an “adult” version as it launches a 2nd printing on Kickstarter February 12, 2019. No longer is your custom-created microbial army limited to attacking skin, gastrointestinal (GI), or respiratory (lung) systems. Instead, Pathogenesis gets sexy with specialized sexually transmitted disease (STD) microbes attacking the Genitourinary tract (GU). In turn, the human body comes to version 2.0 with a strengthened immune system that makes it harder than ever to beat. Which tract will you colonize? Will you succeed in penetrating the body’s barriers and dismantle the active immune system? Play and see. What is Pathogenesis? Pathogenesis is a deck-building game where you are tasked with creating a pathogen to *cue scary music * attack and destroy an organ system of the human body. In Pathogenesis everyone starts with the same number of starter cards (a mix of DNA cards and microbes). Each turn you can select a new trait (that enters your draw pile for future turns), add traits from your current hand to your pathogen pile, attack, and redraw. As you successfully attack the human body, you gain DNA points that can