BISC209/S10

Spring 2010

Lecture:
T/F 8:30-9:40 Irene Newton

Laboratory Instructors: Tucker Crum and Janet McDonough

Labs:L302 T 12:30-4 McDonough; W 2:15-5:45 Crum

Welcome to BISC 209

The labs for BISC 209, Microbiology, are designed to familiarize you with how research investigation in microbiology is designed, performed and communicated. Over the course of the semester, you will investigate the diversity and identity of enviromental microbes and assess their impact. Your job will be to think like microbiologists when designing and executing experiments to identify and characterize bacteria from the soil. Your instructor does not know what's in the specimen you will collect; therefore, the successful outcome of the investigation is in your hands alone. You will learn to take ownership of the project, perform the experiments properly, keep good records of your results, and to communicate effectively the results and conclusions of your work, both orally and in written reports.

These are ambitious goals for an introductory microbiology course. Since this course only has one prerequisite, we expect that some of you will have had extensive experience in cellular biology and research investigation, but that just as many of you will have had little previous investigative research experience or related course work. Our goal is to bring everyone up to a working level of expertise in the tools and techniques of microbiologists and then to build our invesgation from there.

Good luck