We are celebrating, microbe friends! This month marks the 4th anniversary of Joyful Microbe!!! I’ve had such a blast creating articles, podcast episodes, and other resources on here to help you enjoy microbes in your daily lives and spread the knowledge about the microbial world with others.
For this post, I’m featuring ideas and tips about microbiology education from folks in the Joyful Microbe Community! So, read on. You all came up with some great ideas: fun ways you’ve explored or learned about the microbial world at home and ways you’ve engaged your students about microbes.
Listen to the episode
Powered by RedCircle
Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify
Microbiology Education Ideas and Tips (From The Joyful Microbe Community)
When preparing this celebratory post, I decided I wanted to highlight the amazing folks in the Joyful Microbe Community (You can join the community here!). So, I emailed the community to ask for ideas and tips about microbiology education, ways to explore or learn about microbes at home, and ways to engage students. The responses did not disappoint! Here they are.
I’m having students set up and monitor Winogradsky columns this semester with 100-level non-biology majors. The variable is the nutrients that they supplied the columns at the time of inoculation.
The thing I’m doing that is a bit out of the ordinary is that the students are taking pictures with their phones, and we will do image analysis using some Python scripts that I will write up. We are using diatomaceous earth in an effort to see the colors more easily.
We will do basic image analysis, like separate the color channels and make masks (aka image segmentation), to figure out how much of their column’s surface area has certain colors. Because of color heterogeneity within the regions of each column, we will likely need to apply blur filters to the colors so that the masked/segmented areas aren’t splotchy.
Joel, educator
Hi, I just wanted to share something interesting that I did with the Winogradsky columns that my AP Environmental Science class has built using your instructions. We used mud and water from a stream in the school “nature park” area, but I had the students cover their jars with plastic wrap to hold in the moisture rather than leave them open to the air. It had been about 2 1/2 weeks, and several of the jars had swelled the plastic up because of trapped gases. I told the students that it could be methane or CO2, and we would test it with a burning splint to see. I put it in a fume hood and kept the glass down pretty far for safety’s sake, but sure enough, when I loosened the plastic and put a burning splint to it, it flamed up with a blue flame. The students loved it, and it really brought home that bacteria produce methane in landfills and swamps. Turning the classroom lights down helps so that the flame is more visible. I did it, and some of the students were even able to film it on their phones! Also, do warn people to be careful, though – I was careful to keep my fingers and hands away from the jar — I loosened the plastic film and then lit it by using a lit splint rather than a match. The flame did burst outward a little in addition to straight up.
Kathryn, educator
I am a science teacher (ages 11-18yrs) and have recently used the instructions on your website with some younger students (in a science club activity) to find tardigrades from a moss sample and look at them under a microscope. It was hugely successful and popular with the students.
Rhiannon, educator
Since I recently graduated with a bachelor’s in microbiology, I thought I could share a student’s perspective on what made classes interesting to me! One of my favorite things that a professor did was to have each student do a short, 5-minute presentation on their favorite microbe. This was really interesting because we got to learn about microbes that we wouldn’t normally hear about and more of the cool things that microbes can do! For example, my presentation was about Caulobacter crescentus, which produces a holdfast that can support a weight of up to 680 kg per square cm! This also made it a really low-stress assignment that was easy to get full points on. This made both the class and microbiology more fun and interesting!
Kelsey, student and science enthusiast
A lot of what was fun in lab is not as easily accessible to those of us who don’t access the lab. It was fun to swab various surfaces and grow it on a plate of agar.
Maybe do an inexpensive DIY home kit. There might be better stuff out there, but these are some ideas…
DIY Microscope. Great for kids and easy to make.
Kimberly, science enthusiast
My favorite part in learning about microbes is the breadth of nature’s defense they actually are. When I was a kid back in the 70s and 80s, I remember hearing that doctors were overprescribing antibiotics and that not taking all your prescription was bad because both of these things contributed to antibiotic resistant strains. At the time, I didn’t know about the microbe biomes in your skin, digestive system, etc. When I started learning more about them, I began to build an understanding about the fact that, except for when microbes turn bad (but who doesn’t have an off week once in a while?) that these tiny little microbe ecosystems are the wellness system that modern medicine should be focusing on and that antibiotics are the equivalent of nuclear war or chemotherapy, essentially a destructive 11th-hour option.
Outside of medicine, I learned through you about microbes that are also nature’s defense for the planet. Much in the way there are different microbes specific to varying needs of different areas of the body, there are also specific microbes that clean up all the detrimental effects we have on nature, on land and at sea.
I like researching and knowing the specifics of which microbes do which jobs, then applying that to what I can do to improve the status quo of my life and work, by fostering the health of the various microbe biomes.
Vincent, science enthusiast
How about everybody’s favourite…cheese?
I found Michael Pollan’s book Cooked fabulous as a teaching tool. Lots of ideas in there. I am a retired Home Ec teacher in British Columbia, where I taught this stuff in foods classes for years.
Lynne, educator and science enthusiast
Here’s a microbiology idea that is very popular in India, growing microbes using food waste to make household cleaning agents: Make your own bio enzyme
Nivedita, science enthusiast
I may have a “microbial” idea: I recently set up a new aquarium with fishes. A tank filter takes 4-6 weeks to stabilize (grow the bacteria necessary to turn fish waste into poisonous ammonia —> poisonous nitrite —> finally nitrate).
Long time ago I helped many newbies asking for advice in fish forums because their fish died during this time. They thought they put in a filter that cleans the water instantly. They had no idea that microbes were involved that had to multiply to get the job done. Kind of like sourdough.
Sabine, science enthusiast
It’s all because of the microbial environment inside our body that keeps human life going, from immunity to vitamin B12 synthesis to digestion. Taking unnecessary antibiotics ultimately harms our own friendly environment of microbes.
Sandipani, science enthusiast
Thank you so much to everyone who shared their ideas!
What would you like to learn about this year?
I can’t wait to continue creating more resources for Joyful Microbe. But the only way I know what YOU want most is for you to share what you’d like me to make. So, send me an email! Tell me a little about yourself and what you’d like to learn about this year.
Join the Joyful Microbe Community
Join the Joyful Microbe Community and receive the newsletter where you will…
- Learn how microbes impact our daily lives
- Get hands-on microbiology activity ideas
- Be the FIRST to hear about new blog posts, podcast episodes, and resources to help you explore the wonderful microbial world
Use Winogradsky Columns In The Classroom
The Joyful Winogradsky Column Guide provides a lesson plan, help through every step of running your columns with your class, exercises for your students, and much more! Click the button below to learn more…
Links & Resources
Here are the most popular blog posts from this past year:
How To Nurture Your Skin Microbiome: Dr. Julie O’Sullivan
