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A Syllabus Design to Defeat the “Content Squeeze”
Summary: This syllabus description explains how to use group reports and presentations to add breadth to a traditional microbiology course focused on a discipline’s theories, methods, and techniques. A skeleton syllabus that can be redeployed in other courses concludes the description.
Hope to clean up oil spills with microbes? Need a new medicine? Want to plan a defense against biological weapons? The many roles of microbes in industry, medicine, and environmental management make George Bennett’s Biosciences 424, “Microbiology and Biotechnology,” a popular elective but a teaching challenge. With so many fascinating applications to explore, there’s always pressure to include additional topics. Bennett designs his course to include both fundamentals and the newest developments. Naturally, he wants students to develop basic microbiology knowledge and analytical skills; but recognizing that his students have so many possible career paths and individual interests, he also wants to enable them to study related applications they’ve chosen themselves.
His solution divides the course into three parts and weaves together
- rigorous reading (about 30 chapters),
- fifteen lectures to reinforce and extend students’ understanding of underlying mechanisms,
- and three 75-minute examinations.
Into this framework he incorporates three team reports on microbiology and biotechnology in industry, environment, or medicine. The teams’ reports enable each person and each team to study a topic in depth while learning the chief results of other teams’ projects through oral presentations. The result is depth plus breadth.
Through course design Bennett ensures that students use knowledge gained from reading and lectures to interpret and master the research literature. As students discuss how to integrate their individual research efforts into a clear, concise, but complete report, they learn how to review the literature on a particular topic, see connections between articles, build skills for working in a team, and improve their communication. Bennett provides books and abstracts of articles as a springboard for each team, although teams are encouraged to seek additional articles on their own (see box for a sample of topics). In-class working time plus this “jump start” make it possible to accomplish three projects within the semester. Each team’s presentation and written report add a cluster of more specialized knowledge about an area related to textbook readings and lectures, defeating the content squeeze.
In course design, as in so much else, timing is everything. The overall syllabus scheme (see box) reveals the rhythm of readings, lectures, projects, and exams. Excluding two sessions--the course introduction and the course review and evaluation—the remaining 26 course sessions are grouped into three series. Topic 1 ends with an exam on session 10, topic 2 with an exam on session 18, and topic 3 with a third hour-long exam on session 28. Woven into each topic series are three class sessions devoted to work on team reports.
How Communication Instruction is integrated into the Syllabus
Planning the literature search and team project.
In course session 5 (the first class meeting given to the first report project), students form subgroups to cover each of the subtopics. These subgroups scour the text and books plus lists of abstracts Bennett brings to class. They examine the references and organize a brief outline of the subtopic. Each subgroup then assigns specific portions of the outline to each member. At the end of session 7 (the second session devoted to the reports, week 4), a handwritten, more detailed outline of the group’s subtopic will be prepared and turned in.
Becoming authors and presenters.
About a week after the planning session for the literature search and team project, individual students turn in short written reports of about 1 1/2 pages summarizing their own findings but based on the team’s outline. The team members who have been chosen to present the report receive advance copies so they can prepare the presentation for the class. At the third meeting, team representatives give 15- to 20- minute presentations. Teams must balance considerations of brevity, conciseness, and thoroughness in planning how to leave enough time for questions and answers. Usually each student will present to the class once a semester.
Becoming reviewers and revisers.
During the second and third rounds of team reports, copies of students’ short reports are distributed at the second meeting to other students outside the subgroup for reviews due at the next class meeting. Students receive excerpts from these signed one-paragraph reviews along with the instructor’s comments at the next meeting. These comments help students improve their final drafts and get ideas for the in-class presentations. Writing the reviews prepares students to comment on other scientists’ drafts, just as they will be expected to do once they are part of a research or industry team. A schematic view of the course design is shown on the other side of this page.
Outcomes
As a result of this carefully orchestrated design, students are able to
- learn fundamentals and processes
- choose topics of personal interest
- build team skills
- practice communication processes central to microbiology and research teams
- increase their skill in pulling important information out of the literature
- explain information concisely and completely to others
- learn independently, and
- be responsible to others in their subgroups and to the class as a whole.
Bennett balances independent responsibilities with collaboration because most scientists will ultimately work in teams and collaborate with others to develop a mutual understanding of topics or problems. Since the results of new research in microbiology are reported almost daily--revising and extending what is known--students must become comfortable with constantly learning and evaluating new material and organizing and incorporating it into a framework of prior understanding. The course thus introduces students to the long-term process of scientific work that lies ahead.
Bennett participated in the week-long workshop on designing communication-enhanced courses sponsored by the Cain Project and led by Rebecca Burnett and Julie Zeleznik in summer 2000. He has been refining his courses ever since. Students are very happy with the current plan and feel they get a lot out of the projects both personally and professionally.
| Class session Series 1 | Class session Series 2 | Class session Series 3 |
| 1 - Introduction to the course | 11 – Begin topic 2 | 19 – Begin topic 3 |
| 2 – Lecture / readings | 12 – Lecture / readings | 20 – Lecture / readings |
| 3 – Lecture / readings and begin discussion of project 1 | 13 – Group meeting 1 | 21 – Group meeting 1 |
| 4 – Lecture / readings | 14 – Lecture / readings | 22 – Lecture / readings |
| 5 – Group meeting 1 | 15 – Group meeting 2 – outline | 23 – Group meeting 2 – outline |
| 6 – Lecture / readings | 16 – Meeting 3 – pres. to class | 24 – Lecture / readings |
| 7 - Group meeting 2 – outline | 17 – Lecture | 25 – Meeting 3 – pres. to class |
| 8 - Meeting 3 – pres. to class | 18 - Exam 2 | 26 – Lecture / readings |
| 9 – Lecture / readings | 27 - Course review and evaluation | |
| 10 – Exam 1 | 28 – Exam 3 |
| Environmental topics: Series 1 | Industrial topics: Series 2 | Medical topics: Series 3 |
| Bioremediation of chlorinated solvents | Production of carotene compounds and dyes | Plague |
| Environmental production and utilization of methane (anaerobic oxidation) | Bovine growth hormone and fish growth hormone | H. pylori and ulcers |
| Biopesticides and Bacillus thuringiensis | Biological warfare | Ebola and related viruses |
| Bacterial/algae/coral/sponge interactions | DNA vaccines | Bacterial meningitis |
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This work is licensed by The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0).
Last edited by The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication on Jun 10, 2008 10:54 am GMT-5.