Microbiology
Project

Updated 6 April 05

OPTION 1:

• Purpose: To develop skills necessary for the correct interpretation of media coverage of stories and events dealing with infectious disease.
• How: By Monday, March 7 find 2 articles in the popular press dealing with an infectious disease. These articles may come from print or electronic newspapers, magazines or from television. Hand in copies of the articles you have selected, in the case of television coverage provide a video tape (VHS) of the news stories (not documentary programs). The articles may be from different sources dealing with the same story or from the same source where one is the followup story to the other. These materials must be identified and a brief proposal prepared and submitted by Friday, March 16. The project will be written in two parts:
• PART 1: On no less than 4 double space printed pages:
  • Describe the life-history of the infectious agent featured in the stories.
  • Describe the clinical disease caused by the agent.
  • Describe current methods used to diagnose this disease in the field or hospital.
  • Describe methods of treating this disease, these may be conventional or non- conventional treatments (ie. homeopathy, naturopathy - but they must be specific treatments for the disease in question.)
  • Describe the current status of this disease in endemic areas.
  • You may use information gathered from the text, Internet, or other sources to complete Part I.
  • Reference and list sources of information.
• PART 2: Given what you have learned in class and in researching this project, write a "biologically enhanced" version, between 300 and 400 words, of the story you have selected as you would like to see it in the popular media.
• Submitt the completed project to include copies of the articles, Part 1, and Part 2. Be prepared to give a 5-7 minute summary of your learnings in class on April 8.

OPTION 2:

Students who elect this option will work in collaborative groups of 3 or 4 to research and design the content of a web page focusing on a significant infectious disease. See previous projects as a models for this option. If more than one group is interested in the same topic, each group could develop a subsection of a larger project.

Assignments for groups

• By March 7 form a group, agree on an assignment, and identify roles (may be rotated) for group members (coordinator, secretary, etc). Identify a weekly meeting time for the group. The secretary will take brief notes and e-mail them to the instructor.
• By March 16 outline topic, gather information (2-4 text articles and 3-5 web links), and send an e-mail message to the instructor that includes an updated title, list of e-mail addresses and roles of members, topic outline, and reference list.
• By April 6 complete your web page text, illustrations, and links. Make an appointment to go over the page with the instructor. Make any suggested changes and be prepared to show the page to the class on April 8.

Instructions for making a webreport.

• Make a folder with a unique name (disease, etc.).
• Place your files of webpages (name.html) and photos (name.jepg or name.gif) within the folder.
• Insert photos from this folder into the webpages.
• Open the final version of of your first webpage via a browser (File/Open File) to confirm proper form.
• Send me the complete folder after you know it is working from this local folder.

Note: It may be difficult to convert a Word document directly to a correctly formatted .html file. Special punctuation and other booby traps will cause you lots of grief. It may be best to copy and paste into a webeditor and proof read very carefully.

OPTION 3:

A team of 2 -3 students may propose an experimental project for consideration. This should be discussed with the instructor by March 7. The experimental part of this project is to be completed by April 1 and a report presentation for class by April 8.

PROJECTS DUE by April 8. Projects handed in after April 13 will lose 5%/day.

See the previous completed projects via links on the Micro Page.

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Maintained by Stan Grove(stanng@goshen.edu)