Microbiology

Microbiology Lecture Semester Project Assignment 2019-2020

The goals of this project are to produce an oral presentation and a written brochure that describe either a fungal, protozoal, or parasitic disease of your choosing from a selected list. Working in groups of 2-3 students, you will be responsible for “teaching” this disease to the class during the oral presentation session. You will choose from the selected list of organisms provided, one organism per group. If a member of your group leaves for any reason, the remaining student(s) in the group are responsible for the oral and written project, as well as peer evaluations.

Your project (oral and written) should include the following information about the organism:

Classification and characteristics – Name, taxonomy, morphology, location
Epidemiology – Life cycle, route of infection/transmission, port of entry, who can be affected, and also create a bar graph or line chart that shows the number of cases reported over the last 5-8 years in North America and one other continent and indicate the incidence, prevelance, morbidity and mortality
Pathogenesis – Clinical signs, disease progression, organs/systems effected, complications.
Diagnosis - Give exapmles of specific tests usded to identify the organism, give the definitive diagnostic test (if available)
Treatment - Give three examples of specific treatments (name of drug, general pharmacokinetics, side effects) and relate the treatment used to how it affects the life cycle, route of transmission, portal of entry/exit, etc.
Prognosis – give the percentage (%) of possible outcomes (cure, palliative, death, etc.) with and without treatment.
Public Health Issues – Control of organism; zoonotic concerns; if it is a reportable disease and when it should be reported; are reoccurrences or re-infection possible?

You may choose any format you wish for your oral presentation – poster, PowerPoint, skit, video, news report, multi-media, etc., so feel free to let those creative juices flow!! However, there are two requirements: you must have a picture of the organism to show during your oral presentation along with a photo/drawing of its life cycle. Any other pictures are optional and should only be used to enhance the teaching.

Presentations should be ~8-10 minutes long (no longer!), and students will be given 3-5 minutes following each presentation to answer questions from the audience. Maximum time per group will be 15 minutes. Note: all members of the group must participate in the oral presentation! No credit will be given for any absent or non-participating members.
Divide up the content of the presentation equally among group members so that all can speak and contribute to the oral part of the project. If any member of the group does not present for any reason, the assigned project grade will be a zero (0) no matter how much work was done, accomplished, or submitted.

The brochure will be a summary of the information you gathered for the project, and will be given out to the other members of the class on the day of the presentation. Make sure to have enough copies for the entire class and your instructor.

MS Word has an easy-to-use template for creating tri-fold brochures. The front page of the brochure should list the title (i.e. the disease or the name of the organism, photo/drawing of organism), somewhere in the brochure should list/explain the life cycle, other information as discussed above, and the back page of the brochure should contain the names of the authors, the class/section, the name of the instructor, the date, and major references used with in-text numbered citations.

The goal of the brochure is to present the information in a concise but informative manner. The brochure should contain numbered in-text citations to give credit to the sources from which you gather your information. All writing rules and grammar apply!

All references used for the oral presentation and brochure must be listed on a separate sheet of paper using an MLA-type format and a copy of this list given to your instructor on the day of your presentation. Your references should minimally include one media resource (TV, newspaper, magazine, or public-health brochure), one Internet resource, and one medical or biological text reference.

In addition to the oral presentation and brochure, you will write and turn in 3 multiple choice questions (and answers!) covering the material you presented to the class on your chosen topic. Questions over the topics presented will appear on the fourth exam covering prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathological organisms. Your questions may be used or modified by the instructor.

This group project will count for 20% of your final lecture grade. The total grade for this project will be weighted as follows: 50% oral presentation, 30% brochure, and 20% group participation. A portion of the oral presentation grade will be based on peer evaluation (10% of the 50% for this section). Your project will be graded on the following criteria: meeting the above requirements, listing appropriate references, and producing an organized, accurate and informative presentation and brochure. Reminder: If any member of the group does not participate in the presentation for any reason, the assigned project grade for that individual will be a zero (0) no matter how much work was done, accomplished, or submitted.

A grading rubric is available with the points listed.

COAT RuBRIC Summary

Communication: Written and Oral presentation using proper terminology, classification, characteristics, and life cycle related to epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.

Empirical and Quantitative: Graphs representing incidence and prevelance related to morbidity and mortality of the disease process caused by the organism.

Teamwork: Working in groups of 2 or 3 to research, write, and present information and completing a self and group evaluation.

Critical Thinking: Relating Treatment, Therapies, and Prognosis to the pathogen life cycle; Explaining prognosis outcomes based on morbidity and mortality data with and without treatment; Expanding on reportable disease notifications, and possibility of reinfection.