Week : 12

Date :

May 22, 2015

Topic :

Life Without Microbes Event

Activities & Refelection:

Overall, this event was successful. Though the preparation was quite chaos, but eventually everything occurred very smoothly. This event taught me a lot. As a sponsorship committee, I learnt  how to find the sponsor which is it was not an easy task as we needed to know how to communicate and persuade peoples. I also learn how to organize an event from the beginning till the end. Furthermore, we also can expose the microbial world to the outsider especially the invited students and teachers. They were also very friendly and supporting. Without them, this event won’t happened very successfully.  

Week : 11

Date : May 11, 2015 ; May 14, 2015 ; May 15, 2015

Topic :Food Spoilage & Waste water Treatment

Activities, Notes & Reflection :

On Monday, we learnt about the microorganisms that cause the spoilage of food. Generally, there are many factor that promote the growth of microbes on food including the extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors include the temperature while intrinsic factors are moisture, pH and nutrient content. From what I understand, intrinsic is more to the condition of the food whereas extrinsic is referring to the surrounding condition of that food. During the next class, Dr Wan taught us the new topic which is waste water treatment. All of my male classmate also had been asked by Dr Wan to present in front of the class. They were so funny as usual. Next, on Thursday, Dr Wan asked us to do the crossword puzzle about about the waste water treatment. The questions were quite challenging for I didn't remember some of the term. But, it is okay because it can train us to remember what we had learnt and read. 

Overall, the topic of food spoilage is irresistible and I can practice what I had learnt from this topic in my daily life. Perhaps, before this I was not aware with the presence of microbes on food but after learning this topic I become more concern about what I might eat. (Microbes are all around us, beware !!). To add up, I realized learning is not only restricted in class, we can use that knowledge in our daily life. Always have the thought that everything that we learn is the lifelong learning including this learning about microbes. So, stay calm and enjoy your life :)

Microbes on cheese.. nyumm nyumm

Oh my strawberries !

Microbes are everywhere on and in our body ..

Week : 10

Date :
 May 7, 2015 & May 8, 2015

Topic :
Human Microbiome

Activities, Notes & Reflection :

We finished our lesson on topic human microbiome. Dr Wan shared some interesting stories to us regarding this topic. Dr Wan also shared the tips and topic that will come up in test 2. After learning this topic, I knew new things about the microbes on and in our body whether they are transient or resident microbes. I also got the new knowledge about the microbes that cause infections to human. Before this, I might knew the name of disease based on my experience or else, but now I knew the specific microbes that cause the specific disease.

On Friday, we had test 2. The objective questions were quite confusing and challenging as we need the skill to relate the topic from one to another. On the other hand, the structure questions were much easier than the objective question. I’m so sorry Dr if I can’t perform well in this test. I had tried my best to answer all the questions.

Week : 9

Date :
 April 27, 2015 

Topic :
Human Microbiome

Activities, Notes & Reflection :
We continued our lecture about the human microbiome. Dr Wan gave a lot of new information that I didn't know before about the microorganisms that reside in our body. The pathogenicity and virulency of those microbes are different from each other. Besides that, we also can differentiate between infection and disease. Infection occurs when the microbes grow on host but not necessary they can cause disease. Disease occurrs when the microbes impared the host function. I learnt a lot of new terms from this lecture. It was an interesting topic and so the lecture as it was really related with our daily life. The way Dr wan taught us was also attracted me to learn this topic as Dr Wan only focused on the lecture and no online activities during that day.

Week : 8

Date :

 April 23, 2015 : April 24, 2015

Topic :

Atmospheric Habitat & Human Microbiome

Activities :

This week was the turn of my group to present our flipped classroom about the microorganisms in atmosphere. We also had prepared the quiz regarding that topic.  During the class, we had a very quick lesson about this topic. On Friday, we learnt about the human microbiome. This flipped classroom on this topic was prepared by Rayhan and her group members. Then, we needed to answer the prepared questions. We also had submitted our thinglink on Thursday. I searched the info about the microbes found on currency notes and coins to complete this task. Below is the link of my thinglink ;

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/647793479635697666

Notes :

Atmospheric Habitat

Human Microbiome 

Reflection on This Topic :

Since it was our group’s turn to make the flipped classroom, I learnt a lot along preparing this flipped classroom. We used ‘Pawtoon’ to present our flipped classroom and we took about 4 days to create that 4 minutes video. From this task, I learnt how to create the video by using Pawtoon as before this I never use this e-learning tool. It was very attractive and it provides many choices of animation and etc.

While preparing the thinglink, I found a lot of new info that I didn’t know before. I got to know the microbes that reside on currency notes and coins. As we needed to make some research to complete this task, indirectly we discovered quite lots of new info about microbes that are live freely and ubiquitous around us. All of these activities required me to apply e-learning tools and it is really fun as it was the time I can apply those e-learning stuff.

Week : 7

Date :

April 6, 2015 ; April 9, 2015 ; April 10, 2015

Topic :

Microorganisms in Terrestrial Ecosystem

Activities :

We finished our lesson on topic Microorganism in Terrestrial Ecosystem on Monday. On Thursday, we learnt about Microorganisms in Aquatic Ecosystem. Before the class started, we made the preparation by studying the flipped classroom that is prepared by Group 3. Then, in class we had a quick lesson and discussed on part that we did not understand. During the next class, Dr Wan gave us self-assessment to know our understanding level.

Notes :

Week : 6

Date :

March 30, 2015 & April 2, 2015

Topic :

Microorganisms in Terrestrial Ecosystem

Activities :

During the first lecture, we finished our lesson on microbial interactions. We also had quizzes at the end of the lecture. On the next day, we learnt about the microorganisms in lithosphere. Dr Wan showed us the flipped classroom video done by group 4. Before the class began, we needed to sign up the voicethread and took a look for the lesson that is presented by group 4. We had a very interesting lecture on microorganisms in soil after a short brief of flipped classroom. After the lecture end, we did a group work. We needed to look for the depth, microorganisms, temperature, content and etc for different layer of soil and share those information in Blendspace.

Notes :

This is an article about the variations in microbial community composition through two soil depth profiles,

 http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/EEBprojects/FiererLab/Fiereretal.2003profile%20communities.pdf

Own Reading and Exploration :

This topic explains the microorganisms that live in different layer of soil till the core of earth. Microorganisms are most abundant found in top soil. There are different types of microorganisms reside in each layer of the soil depending on the component of the soil. 4 layers of soil are topsoil, subsoil, parent material and bedrock. The physical and chemical factors influence the existence of microorganisms in soil.

The physical and chemical characteristics of a soil are different in different parts of the soil profile. Generally, the upper layers of a soil have more organic matter and roots than the lower layers. Other differences are related to the nature of the soil constituents, to weathering processes and to past land management practices. The origin of the soil determines the particle size distribution, which in turn affects the way the soil is packed, creating spaces and surfaces that are either accessible or inaccessible to soil organisms. The proportion of clay or sand influences the structural characteristics of soil and determines its response to management practices.

Reflection on This Topic :

This topic increased my knowledge about the component of the soil. I was able to differentiate the microorganisms that live in soil. I also knew the formation of soil based on the task that Dr Wan gave us. Weathering is one of the process for the formation of parent material. Since the texture of soil is getting harder near the core, the probability to find microorganisms in bedrock is less due to less oxygen, nutrient content and etc.

Week : 2

Date : 

March 2, 2015 & March 5, 2015

Topic :

 Introduction to Principle of Ecology

Activities :

Dr Wan asked us to sit in our group and she gave us several tasks. We needed to pick one of the article or website from the first task that we found the most interesting. Then, we must relate it with the principle of microbial ecology. From this activity, I understood what is microbial ecology is about and can relate it with the article that I read. Now, I knew that the interaction of organisms among them and with the environment are important in an ecosystem. During the second class, we started our lesson on the first topic. This topic discussed the basic thing and intro about this subject. It was a fun topic though there were terms that I never heard before.

Notes :

Own reading and exploration :

Since it was the first topic, I didn't refer any additional source of reading otherwise I just used the lecture note given by Dr Wan. It was not a tough topic as this topic explained the introduction and gave us us better understanding about this subject. I found some new terms such as r strategist and K strategist. 

Reflection on this topic:

This is an important topic as it covers many ecological terms that need to understand before learning the other chapter. Each term needs to be understood in order to understand this topic. I learnt the hierarchy of ecology which is, species --> population --> community --> ecosystem --> biosphere. Besides, we learnt about the homeostasis. Homeostasis is the dynamic balance of processes, materials and organisms in the ecosystem and it is hard to achieve. We also learnt about r strategist which occurs in short period, for example the bacteria while K strategist occurs longer than r strategist. 

Week : 5

Date :

March 26, 2015

Topic :

Microbial Interactions

Actvities :

We made the discussion on Project Based Learning Project (POBL). Then we did our task on Padlet. Dr Wan asked us to find one webpage, video or scientific journal about the microbial interaction and share it to Padlet.

Notes :

This is my sharing material. The video is about the symbiosis of plant and fungi...

Own Reading and Exploration :

While searching for video, I learnt a lot about the interaction of microorganisms. I also found the rank of the most dangerous parasite in this world. Woww, it was really an amazing video. Unfortunately, this video was not all about the microorganisms but much wide which is including the kingdom of animal.

Refeclction on This Topic :

The content of this topic is actually same with the interaction of organsism which does not specify on microorganisms only. It was not a tough topic cause it is related with the topic that we have learned before this.

Week : 4

Date : 

March 16, 2015 & 19 March, 2015

Topic : 

Distribution of MIcroorganisms

Actvities : 

Dr Wan finished the lecture on Microbial Interaction. Then we, proceeded our lesson on topic  Distribution of Microorganisms. We made a quick lesson since we only had one hour to finish the lecture. We had our test one on the next class. The questions were not too difficult but it became hard as I didn’t remembered what I had read. Sorry Dr :( After test, we had the discussion and explaination on POBL.

Notes :

Own Reading and Exploration :

I google up about this topic to have better understanding. Though we have learned this topic in semester one, there were some new terms that I was not familiar with. I was able to differentiate between psychrophile, mesophile and thermophile. Piezophilic bacteria is one of the new term which means that it needs both high salinity and pressure environment.

Reflection on This Topic :  

This topic is very interesting! I learnt a lot about the distribution of microorganisms. It  is all based on the physical and chemical factors that increase the probability of the microorganisms to reside at certain area.  I can apply it in my daily life especially in storage of food. I realized that every microorganisms has their own optimum temperature to grow and not necessary the food that we store in fridge is always fresh and free from microorganisms.  Moisture also affects the growth of microorganisms . Water activity of 1.0 indicates that the microorganisms need much water to grow. Maybe, I can share this knowledge with my mom and sister..

Week: 3

Date : 

March 9, 2015 ; March 12, 2015 & March 13, 2015

Topic : 

Microbial Group & Microbial Nutrition and Metabolism

Notes :


Activities :

Dr Wan gave us task to create our own flashcard by using quizlet. We were told to make preparation for this individual task before the first lecture in this week began. From the task, we needed to create 50 terms on topic 3 (Microbial Nutrition and Metabolism). During the next class, we made 4 hours lectures and we did a lot of activities. We had the lecture on topic 2 at the beginning of the class. Then, we play a game by using Kahoot. 

Own reading and exploration :

I made a quick reading before the day of lecture. For topic 2, I made the table to classify the groups of microbes. I found microbes are classified into several groups mainly based on their distribution of growth. There are bacteria, algae, protozoa and virus. Each of the microbes has their own characteristics and ecological roles. The roles can be beneficial or harmful to human. Topic 3 explained about the microbial nutrition and metabolism. The nutritional of microbes are classified based on carbon, energy and electron source.

Reflection on this topic:

I was able to classify the microorganism based on 3 main groups. I also learnt how to memorise the carbon, energy and electron sources based on the tips that Dr Wan gave us.