Active Learning Exercises for Microbiology Classes Microbiology faculty who attended the 1996 Undergraduate Microbiology Conference developed active learning strategies which correlate with the microbiology core curriculum, and feature a variety of learning practices. Voyage of the Nitrogen Atom Students simulate a random series of conversions that a nitrogen atom can undergo in the environment, and analyze possible routes through the nitrogen cycle. A Carbon Cycle Detective Story Students, acting as a forensics expert, are interviewed by a journalist about a decomposing body. This series of activities is designed to introduce, clarify, and reinforce basic concepts of epidemiology. Students think about how diseases are transmitted, and then visualize transmission by using one of three simulations.
Students identify examples of current disease outbreaks and create collages or portfolios.
This activity uses application of student knowledge through analysis of case histories. This activity reviews and improves student mastery of the central dogma. Students write and perform in a play identifying key cell structures and their roles, with the ultimate climax the production of a functional protein. Understanding the Lac Operation by Role-Playing Each student group is assigned one aspect of Lac operon regulation and acts out the structure and function of the required components. The groups interact to present all the dynamic processes involved in the regulation and expression of the Lac operon.