Description of Assignment:
This is excerpted from a syllabus and so is addressed to
students. Your Favorite Microbe (YFM)As mentioned in the course
syllabus, you and a partner will adopt a singlemicrobe for
this block, eventually presenting what you have learned in
a powerpoint talk at the end of the course.
In lecture, we will cover Neisseria gonorrhea, Chlamydia
trachomatis, human immunodeficiency virus, influenza virus,
hepatitis B virus, human papilloma virus, herpes simplex I,
herpes simplex II and Plasmodium, so you may not choose
one of these microbes as the topic of your presentation. You
may choose any other microbe (virus, bacterium, archeon, or
eukaryote). You will probably find it easiest to get information
about YFM if it causes disease, particularly human disease.
Interesting microbes not associated with human disease but
nevertheless documented in accessible literature can be found
in chapters 22, 23 and 24 in your textbook. Links to internet
resources that will help you can be found on our course web
You will give a formal 15-minute presentation on YFM. You
should imagine that you are giving this talk as part of an
important job interview. Distracting sounds and animation
are not appropriate. Dress for success. Include the standard
information microbiologists expect, such as its Gram stain,
motility, habitat, nutritional requirements, etc. (You will
become very familiar with these standard facts as you browse
the literature.) The bulk of your presentation, however, should
discuss YFM's unique attributes. You could, for example, try
to convince us that YFM ought to win a popularity contest,
or maybe that the world would be a better place without it.
Throughout, you should try to integrate information we covered
in the course. For example, we will spend several class periods
on the genes and genomes of bacteria. Is there anything unique
about YFM's genome? Be creative! Be adventurous!
To find references for this work, use Tutt Library. Make
an appointment with a reference librarian for help. Go to
Tutt Library online and click Article/Information Databases.
Then click "Databases by subject" and next Biology.
You now have a variety of options. To find articles written
for a more general audience, click on "General Science
Abstracts". Here, you will find great resources published
in journals such as Scientific American. Another excellent
resource is the Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. Articles
in ELS are reviews written by experts but aimed at a novice
audience. You can get to the ELS by going to Biology Databases
(as above) but then clicking on "Encyclopedia of Life
Sciences". To find an original research article written
for the research community, click on "Medline".
This database allows you to restrict your search to journals
for which we have institutional subscriptions, or articles
with free text available electronically. This way you will
only find articles that you can get immediately. Just check
the "Limit availability to subscriptions held by Tutt
library" before entering your search strings. It is always
best to try to use the most-respected journals possible. For
microbiologists in theU.S., these journals include: The Journal
of Bacteriology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Infection
and Immunity, Molecular Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology,
Science, Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of
the Sciences. We have immediate access to most articles from
these journals; Science is available in print while the others
are all available online through Tutt Library. There are several
new online-only journals with free access that also publish
high-quality work. These include PloS (the Public Library
of Science, http://www.plos.org/index.html)
and BioMed Central Microbiology (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmicrobiol/).
Links to these journals are available through Tutt Library.
The Annual Reviews series may also be useful to you, and again
I encourage you to click the box restricting your search to
articles for which we have instant access.If any article is
available to you as an HTML file instead of a PDF, you may
use figures from the HTML file in your powerpoint presentation,
as long as you reference them. To capture a figure from an
HTML file on an IBM, you right-click on the link to the figure
and choose "save as". Alternatively, you can usually
click on a figure and then select it, simply choosing "copy"
and then "pasting" it into MS Powerpoint.
I assume similar processes work on a Macintosh, but I don't
know the keystrokes. If you want me to show you how to do
this, make an appointment with me DURING WEEK 2, and I will
show you. If this is the first time you have used the library
for this kind of searching, please ask a reference librarian
to help you. It will go much faster and you will end up happy
instead of exhausted and frustrated.
You should reference at least three sources outside our textbook,
and one of these sources should be either an original research
paper or a review written by scientists for other scientists.
Reviews of this type can be found in the "annual review"
series above. The American Society for Microbiology also publishes
a series of professional journals that include monthly minireviews
of this type, and I will put a link to these references on
ERes. If you are not sure whether a source is a review written
for scientists, ask me. Articles in the Nature Encyclopedia
of Life Sciences would also count, as long as they are rated
A link on our course web page connects you to the Journal
of Bacteriology's requirements for proper citations. You should
use the J. of Bacteriology format for all of your citations.
Use this format in the Progress Report (described below) and
use one of the final Powerpoint Slides to show us the references
in your talk.
Rehearse your presentation and make sure it is 15 minutes
long. You will have 5 minutes to take questions from your
classmates. I expect everyone to ask at least two questions
of their classmates.
Choosing a partner
The entire YFM project is done in pairs. Tell me your partner
by e-mail by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 26 February. Outlook will
automatically assign the correct date and time to your submission:
send the e-mail before 5:00 p.m.!! No points will be awarded
for late submissions. My e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.org.
Choosing a topic
One of you should e-mail me the name of YFM, dated/timed before
5:00 p.m. on Monday, 5 March. No points will be awarded for
Progress report/reference list
One of you should e-mail me a list of your references as well
as a summary of your progress using those references. What
important information is in the resource? Why are you using
this source? The summary should include the full citation
for every reference as well as the critical pieces of information
from that reference. Simple lists of references will be awarded
only 2 of the 5 points. This report must be e-mailed to me
before 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 8 March. No points will be awarded
for late submissions.
Outlines should give me the title for every slide, which should
of course be the main point of that slide. For slides that
are pictures/figures, the outline should give me the title
of the figure and tell me the main point of that figure. These
are due as e-mails or as MS-word document attachmentsto an
email, dated/timed no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 9 March.
Asking two questions of other classmates
Every pair will entertain questions about YFM for up to 5
minutes following their presentation. You must ask at least
two good questions of other pairs. Good questions (insightful,
thoughtful questions that indicate you were paying attention
to the talk) will be awarded 5 points. Poor questions (example:
asking a question that was answered in the course of the talk
itself) will be awarded fewer than 5 points.
The presentation itself
You should split up the talking responsibilities so that each
of you does about half.Good presentations should use slides
with single pictures/figures and not too many slides of text.
You don't want your audience to read a complicated text slide
instead of paying attention to your talk. The smallest font
allowable on any slide is 20 point, so choose your words carefully.
If you need to have notes when you speak, as I sometimes do
during lecture, add them to your Powerpoint using the "notes"
function, and then print a copy of the notes for yourself.
I am happy to show youhow to do this, if you stop by my office
any time before week 3 of the course. Your last slide
should be the references. You may use smaller font on this
slide if that is necessary to display all of the references.
The format for references is described on the references link
from our course web page and is also described in our lab
I will announce how to load your talks onto the computer
in class. The paraprof will help you.
Print a copy of your presentation by using "print"
and clicking on "handouts" and "6/page".
Bring it to the talk, as I will use it when grading. STAPLE
IT TOGETHER. I WILL NOT HAVE A STAPLER IN CLASS OR IN MY OFFICE.
Buy a stapler of your own. There is no time like the present
Please come talk to me if any part of this assignment is
confusing or vague. I'm happy to help.
Good luck! I look forward to seeing your presentations.