Learning Outcomes
- Describe the various nonspecific innate defenses that protect the human body against infection and disease.
- Explain the process of phagocytosis and the mechanisms by which phagocytes destroy and degrade pathogens.
- Identify the signs of inflammation and fever and explain why they occur.
- Define memory, primary response, secondary response, and specificity.
- Explain the structure and function of antibodies.
- Explain the mechanism of humoral and cellular immunity.
- Compare the various kinds of artificial immunity.
Video-lectures emphasize the most important parts of the textbook material. Please review the tentative schedule for a list of the textbook chapters needed to be studied in this course. Use the power point slides, handouts, labs, and the microbiology textbook for complete coverage of the introductory microbiology.
Lecture Links
Please make sure to review all lecture links available on this page.
| CH 17 Slides | PPT |
| CH 18 Slides | PPT |
| “Vaccination” handout | |
| “Immunity” handout | |
| “How a few scientists transformed the way we think about disease” animation by Tien Nguyen (TedEd.com) | VID |
| “The Curious Case Of Typhoid Mary” animation by BBC Earth Lab (YouTube.com) | VID |
| Crash Course video on Youtube.com about innate immune response | VID |
| Crash Course on Youtube.com about adaptive immune response | VID |
Your name. Brad Shinn
The date you were taking this course. Summer 2023
A reason you have taken this class? Required
What were your most favorite activities and assignments and why? Lab/Informative videos
What were your least favorite activities and assignments and why? Reading, it’s like reading a foreign language.
How you will be able to use materials learned in BI 234? will be applicable to future courses
Your suggestions on the BI 234 online course improvements. Remove or extend time on exams/quizzes
Ryan Kildea
Summer 2022
Pre-requisite for Master of Arts in Education with Science endorsement
I loved performing the labs and watching the supplemental youtube videos.
My least favorite assignment was the assigned readings.
I will be able to use what I learned to help teach my future students the exciting world of Microbiology.
I think it would be helpful to include the powerpoint slides that you use in your video lectures so that students can just take additional notes on them instead of having to transcribe every slide.
Aleila Bergeron
Summer 2022e
Pre-Requisite for the nursing program.
I enjoyed growing out microorganisms from sites in my home. It was fun to see visually what you more often can not.
I did not enjoy most of the home lab activities. This course was online only so their was no guidance for the activity and I often felt frustrated that I didn’t even know if I was doing the lab correctly.
I think that some of the treatment plans and disease summaries will be helpful in the future.
My suggestion for future courses would be to have a discussion board for the class to ask questions, get clarification and discuss ideas.
– Isaiah Cartwright.
– Summer 2022.
– Pre-requisite for PA school.
– I found all of the labs to be enjoyable. It was nice to have a physical lab kit rather than doing some sort of online lab.
– My least favorite assignments were the exams. I feel like the questions were very generic and sometimes the exam material didn’t align with the lecture/reading/quiz material.
– I’m looking forward to applying what I’ve learned from this class about infections in future clinical scenarios.
– I think it would be helpful to create lecture videos/supplemental videos that go into more depth on topics rather than lecture videos of the professor just reading the exact words off of Powerpoint slides.
Eileen Deming, Summer II of 2022.
Completed as a pre-req for PA school
My favorite activity was the microbiology “field trip” because I was able to talk to my friend, a PhD in mircobiology, about her work and learn more about the topic that she loves.
My least favorite assignment involved looking for three separate water sources for a lab. I live in the city and it’s the middle of the summer. It’s incredibly inconvenient for me to find three separate water sources.
I will use the knowledge I gained in BI 234 to continue to enhance my clinical knowledge.
I think that the course could be improved by more carefully curating the reading and video material to fit the course objectives.
Taya Espinosa
Summer 2022
I took this class for Nursing Prerequisites.
My favorite activities were seeing the lab results because it felt cool that I was able to do it in my own home.
My least favorite activity was the lab quizzes because I felt like they didn’t align with the labs that well.
This material is going to help me throughout nursing school.
The thing I suggest is changing around the format that is currently present in Canvas. It’s a bit confusing to navigate!
Landen Chung
Summer 2022
Pre-requisite
Discussion forums were my favorite part; they required thought.
The labs were my least favorite part; I was so stressed about getting microbes that I often resorted to desperate measures.
I will be able to apply my knowledge in the field of medicine.
For labs, is there a safety net that you can offer if there is no growth?
Students have to take a snapshot of the experiment result regardless of the outcome and explain why, in their opinion, this result was negative. Please make sure to insert this snapshot into the lab worksheet where it is required for the full credit.
Kaitlyn Lowden
Summer 2022
Nursing Prerequisite.
I liked doing the labs and seeing how different bacteria grow.
My least favorite parts were also the labs because sometimes I would procrastinate and not have time to finish them because I waited too long in the week and they wouldn’t have enough time to incubate. And the exams I didn’t feel like I had enough time to complete them. I felt like I had to rush through questions.
I will be able to use the information I learned in this class in my career as a nurse by knowing more about the microorganisms that help our bodies work and harm our body.
I don’t know if it would help or not. But if we have an experiment, we are supposed to skip maybe add it in the title in bold? Or send an announcement out early? I also think it would have been more fun to do labs if we had them in person.
Jessica Saxton
Summer 2021
Pr-requisite for natural resources degree
I loved being able to do all of the experiments and growing bacteria from my own environment, especially with online schooling.
The labs were a lot of fun
the quizzes but I felt like i was able to complete them comfortable, occasionally i felt like i ran out of time but that was on me.
I think they will really help me in Natural Resources, especially knowing how microbes grow and spread.
My suggestion for upcoming classes, maybe more lab videos or explanations, or activities other then quizzes and exams
Thank you!
Taylor Richardson
Summer Term 2021
Needed science credits
Being able to do experiments from home was pretty cool.
Quizzes or tests, I never felt like there was enough time to complete them.
Learning more about the organisms we don’t see, how they work, and how they can be harmful will be helpful in my everyday life.
I would suggest increasing the time limit for tests. Maybe its just me, but there were multiple times I couldn’t finish a test before the time was up.
Name: Gloria Verduzco
Date of course: Summer term
Reason for taking class: Part of my prerequisites for the nursing program
My most favorite activities/assignments were the lab worksheets because it helped me make connections from the lab we were doing to what we were going over in the lecture videos. It also helped me understand why the experiments had certain outcomes.
My least favorite activities and assignments were the lectures because I felt that having interactions in a lecture is necessary to have full understanding of the lecture.
The way that I would be able to use materials learned in BI 234 is by applying it in everyday life. For instance, microbiology is involved when determining weather or not a restaurant is meets the sanitary standards and when there is food contamination.
My suggestions on the BI 234 online course is maybe adding live lectures and making videos where we follow you with the experiments.
Thank you for your course review Gloria,
I agree that asynchronous online courses have limitation of teacher-student interaction. Nevertheless, in the BI 234 exist several ways to make this limitation less impactful: one of them is the instant email reply, where I answer students questions as soon as they appear in my inbox. This approach is highly rated by students and helps me to understand student concerns and address them quickly. In the BI 234 remote class, which is taught at the UCC throughout the academic year, students have real-time interactions with their professors. Please communicate with your academic adviser on taking one of these courses.
Meg Jackson
Summer 2021
Prerequisite for physician assistant programs.
I liked the discussion boards the best, I got to do more research and freedom to research a variety of topics and topics that interested me.
I didn’t like doing the labs as much, I felt like there were a lot of them to complete as some had multiple parts.
I learned a lot about some new microorganisms, and I can use that knowledge to help patients out some day.
Overall, I liked the class. It was very organized and laid out clearly so I could easily see what was due that week and what was coming up.
My name is Rachelle McDonald, and I was in Microbiology during the Summer term of 2021.
I had taken this course as a pre-requisite for the nursing program.
Some assignments I enjoyed while taking this class were the lab experiments. Learning the culturing techniques and what kind of bacteria live in and around your home was fascinating.
I have to say how jammed-packed the assignments were that had to be my least favorite part of the class. I feel like I didn’t get to learn the material nearly as much as I wanted to, and if I had more time to go over the assignments without having to rush through the material, I would have enjoyed this part much more.
The material I learned in this course will help me in future classes as I am wanted to have a science-based career. Learning about diseases, viruses, bacteria, etc. gave me a clearer understanding of how they work and what to look for when looking at morphologies and cell membranes.
I understand this was an 8-week course, so assignments are closer together, and it’s hard to space those apart. Overall I enjoyed this class.
First of all thank you for making this class easier to understand! I have struggled with this class a lot and had to retake it. One thing I really enjoyed was doing the labs and watching my cultures grow over time. It is disgusting to think about how much bacteria is around us everyday and we do not even notice it.
I am taking this class summer term of 2021. I have taken this course as a prerequisite to my major. My most favorite activity in this class was the lab where we were able to identify the airborne illness. It makes you realize the bacteria that is around you. My least favorite part was the discussion posts. I will further use the material learned to identify the types of harmful bacteria that I come across. A suggestion that I have to improve the course is to make the lab assignment due each week so we can upload them to you. I feel that sometimes I get a late start to them which makes me behind in class. That way we can get feedback on it as well. Overall I don’t think there needs to be any changes to this course.
Tiffanie Robbins
Summer Term 2021
I am taking Microbiology as a prerequisite for the Nursing Program.
I really enjoyed the hands on experiments! They connect what we have learned in text with a tangible experience.
I believe that I will use microbiology knowledge in every day applications. From cleaning my kitchen to understanding why it is important to wash my hands after having been in town, knowledge of the unseen world will aid in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
I took Genetics at the same time as I took Microbiology. One thing I really liked in my Genetics class that I wish I could have utilized in Microbiology is a McGraw-Hill Connections website that provided “learn smart” activities that are set up very similarly to our tests. These activities taught me what and how to study for my tests. I found them to be very useful in committing the material to memory.
Thank you for a great term!
In my previous comment, I forgot to add the requirements. My name is Rayana Arana. I took the course Summer of 2021 for my nursing pre-requisite. I enjoyed the labs where we got to take samples from the things around my house because I saw how bad I’m cleaning or not tending to. I think my least favorite activity was the labs just because they were very time-consuming. I’ll be able to use the things I learned in my life being that I can figure out how much bacteria is in an area. My comment for the class was posted before this comment.
I felt that this class was really well-formed being that it was online. One thing that I felt would be helpful would be to put a photo of all the instruments needed in our lab kit. While it did have the lists with the names I am a visual person so I know that would have been helpful. Another thought would be to put how long the labs themselves would take on the tentative schedule we got so we have an idea. Other than that I felt it was great!
Your name. Rebekah Roark
The date you were taking this course. summer 2021
A reason you have taken this class? pre requisite for Nursing
What were your most favorite activities and assignments and why? The labs were a lot of fun i really enjoyed them
What were your least favorite activities and assignments and why? the quizzes but only because i felt like i needed more time to complete.
How you will be able to use materials learned in BI 234? I think they will really help me in nursing school especially knowing how microbes grow and spread.
Your suggestions on the BI 234 online course improvements. More time on tests and quizzes.
Nichole Birdsell
Summer 2021
Pre-Requisite for the nursing program.
I loved growing bacteria from my own environment! Super interesting and informative.
Lab quizzes. I didn’t feel like they always had to do with the lab.
I will be able to identify what bacteria is the source of infection in my patients.
It was great for an online class. I personally wish labs could still be in person, but that wasn’t an option.