Bacterial monologue: an engaging writing activity for nonscience majors.

INTRODUCTION

Young adults who are at the prime of their health tend to despise or be apathetic about the presence of bacteria, partially due to the latter’s over-exaggerated connection to diseases (1) and invisibility to the naked eye. Consequently, professors who teach microbiology to nonscience major college students may face an audience with low motivation and fear of scientific terminology. As science and technology advance in microbiology, researchers have become more aware that the largely unknown bacterial community plays many beneficial roles of cardinal significance, and that previous anthropocentric investigations focusing on human health have created a nonrealistic view of the microorganisms in nature (1). For example, recent discoveries revealed that microbes drive the biogeochemical cycles in the ocean, determine Earth’s habitability, affect climate change (2), and modulate the onset of human cardiovascular diseases (4). If our students’ view of bacteria continues to dwell on the old knowledge, they will not be able to make informed decisions on critical issues from personal healthcare to public policy making.

To engage students in microbiology learning, the first step is to get them interested. Among the many strategies to boost self-motivation, story writing in particular has been reported to be highly effective for students who do not enjoy science or experience difficulty in science (5). Additionally, story writing can help instructors to design better curricula by gaining a fuller picture of students’ developing scientific literacy, as reflective writings can reveal superficial or problematic conceptual understandings that other assessment methods do not easily show (5).

An effective pedagogy to change students’ biased and deeply-rooted view is to have them “walk a mile” in the shoes of bacteria. To bacteria, humans are no more than an organic mass to be utilized for growth and reproduction. Thinking like a bacterium offers a different perspective of life, and is more true to the real science (1). Such a role-play exercise may also promote student engagement (6, 7).

Here I report on an assignment that combines the two above-mentioned strategies to foster microbiology learning. The intended audiences for these tips are professors who teach nonscience majors, and those who teach introductory microbiology. The tips may apply to both classroom and laboratory teachings. In this activity, students impersonated a bacterium and explained the taxonomy, structure, growth, and growth control of the organism using simple terms. Based on a survey, students developed an appreciation of bacteria, demonstrated a deeper understanding of terminologies, and considered this exercise a more interesting and rewarding activity than other engaging pedagogies offered throughout the semester, including games, group discussions, movies, and field trips.

PROCEDURE

The assignment

Prior to the writing activity, students were briefly introduced to topics including bacterial taxonomy, cellular structure and function, bacterial growth, and growth control measures. In the assignment, a different bacterium was randomly assigned to each student. The complete list of bacteria, including both beneficial microbes and pathogens, can be found in Table 1, and new species are added to the list each semester. Students were asked to search scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals to collect information pertaining to the suggested topics listed in Table 2, then write a first-person narrative to introduce the organism. In the assignment description, points were clearly assigned to each specific topic in Table 2 to ensure complete coverage of the learning objectives listed in column 3. Proper citations and references were required wherever appropriate. The Wikipedia website was allowed for initial research, but was not allowed as a source of citation. Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) was recommended for finding journal articles. Students were also given the opportunity to earn bonus points by drawing cartoons, writing poems, making models, videos, music, or any other form of creative work to reflect their understanding of the bacteria.

TABLE 1.

Suggested list of bacterial species for the bacterial monologue activity.

Alcaligenes eutrophus

Arthrobacter globiformis

Bacillus anthracis

Bacteroides succinogenes

Bifidobacterium bifidum

Campylobacter jejuni

Chlamydia trachomatis

Clostridium botulinum

Epulopiscium fishelsoni

Geobacter sulfurreducens

Helicobacter pylori

Lactococcus lactis

Listeria monocytogenes

Methylosinus trichosporium

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Pseudomonas fluorescens

Rhodococcus chlorophenolicus

Rhodospirillum rubrum

Ruminococcus albus

Salmonella enteritidis

Shewanella oneidensis

Sporosarcina pasteurii

Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus epidermidis

Streptococcus mutans

Synechococcus elongates

Thiomargarita namibiensis

Treponema pallidum

Vibrio cholerae

Vibrio fischeri

Yersinia pestis

TABLE 2.

Suggested topics to be included in the bacterial monologue writing assignment.

Topics	Hints to Students	Learning Objectives
Meaning of My Name	What do the root words in your name mean in Latin or Greek?	Understand the composition of binomial names and interpret the scientific names of bacteria
My Other Names	Has your name changed in history?What do non-scientists call you?	Understand the self-correcting nature of scientific knowledge; differentiate scientific names and common names
My Birth	When were you discovered?Who was your foster parent?	Appreciate the history of scientific discoveries; Understand why the discoverer is often called “Father of” something
My Home	Where are you commonly found?What is your growth environment like?	Recognize and explain the required factors for bacterial growth and survival
My Self Portrait	What do you look like under a microscope?What is your body shape? Do you have a joint twin? Are you tall or short, thin or fat?	Illustrate the microscopic appearance and behavior of the bacterium; understand the terms that describe bacterial shapes; recognize that microscopy images are often falsely colored
How Do I Travel	Are you a good swimmer?How do you swim? If you cannot swim, how do you move around?	Identify the structures of bacteria that allow motility; discriminate self motility from bacterial transmission routes
My City	Bacterial cities are called colonies.What does your city look like?	Differentiate macromorphology from micromorphology; interpret the key terms that describe colony morphologies
My Talent & Fame	What distinguishes you from other microbes? What makes you famous or notorious?	Recognize and appreciate the distinguishing features and various roles of bacteria to humans and to the ecosystem
My Addiction	Are you addicted to certain types of food?Do you smoke?	Recognize and appreciate bacterial utilization of certain chemicals for growth/survival; understand that bacterial survival may require gases other than oxygen; differentiate gas intake from gas production
My Enemy	What are you most afraid of?How does it harm you?	Recognize the chemicals and physical measures that can be used for bacterial growth control; understand the mechanism of the control measures

Practicalities

Students were given two weeks to complete the assignment, and it was recommended that they seek help from the university library. Since it is a writing assignment, no safety issue was involved. In addition to learning about a specific bacterium, students developed better conceptual understanding of key topics in microbiology, and practiced core skills of scientific inquiry, such as information literacy, critical thinking, and societal connection.

Examples of drawings and a poem can be found in Figure 1. More examples of monologues, drawings, poems, music and models can be found at the following url: http://stjohns.campusguides.com/bacterial_monologue.

FIGURE 1.

A sample poem on Streptococcus mutans (a) and two sample drawings from students representing Lactococcus lactis (b) and Bifido-bacterium bifidum (c).

CONCLUSION

Through writing about one bacterium, students enhanced their conceptual understanding of key topics in microbiology, corrected their biased views of the roles of bacteria, and, more importantly, improved their attitudes toward science and science learning. Writing enabled students to take ownership and play an active role in the learning process. When students impersonated bacteria in the writings, it was as if they were telling their personal stories, one of the favorite activities of the increasingly self-centered net generation (3). In a semester-end survey, students stated that the reflective writing added new clarity to their thinking about microbes and to evaluating scientific discoveries. They also expressed their enjoyment in exercising their imagination and creativity while learning something new.