MIIM30016: Techniques in Microbiology

2 x 5min Oral reports (done in pairs) worth 12.5% each.
2 x 1300 word written reports 12.5% each.
Satisfactory completion of a lab notebook (hurdle requirement).
1 x 2hr End of semester written exam 50%.

Originally I saw this subject as a chore, I never liked Practical classes that I had had before, they were always assessed, rushed, and were never relaxed and enjoyable. However this subject was nothing I previously thought, and ended up being one of my favourite subjects for the year.
There are 5 practical classes throughout the semester spread over two weeks, with the other two weeks left over for assessment in the oral presentations.

You get split up into prac groups of 8 or 10 and are paired up with your prac partner on the first day and for the rest of the semester depending on where you sit on the first day. Each group rotates through the 5 pracs in different order.
Prac topics covered were; norovirus infection of macrophages, regulation of virulence with Citrobacter rodentium, EPEC effects on the host immune response (big focus in NF-kB pathway), HIV control of envelope expression by regulatory proteins Tat and Rev, and Bioinformatics by analysing the sequence of a mutant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain.

For each prac you start off the week with a 1 hour introduction tutorial, where you are shown the rationale for the prac, and some detail about the bacterium or virus you are studying. You are provided with research articles that you should read to help you understand the molecular detail. Then you will have the first 3 hour prac for that topic, with a 1 hour tutorial session the following day, which also gets you ready for the rest of the prac the following week. Then in the second week of the block you will have a 1 hour session on either the journal club, or research ethics sessions, or sessions to help ask questions and be ready for the upcoming oral presentation or written report. Then you will have another 3 hour prac session, followed by a 1 hour debrief session the following day.

The prac demonstrators and tutors are really great, they help you understand the pracs so well and go into a lot of detail. You can ask a question at any time, and they really want to help you get it. For most things, the demonstrator shows you how to do the practical technique, then you and your partner do it. Whilst you are waiting for experiments to occur, or machines to work, you take down notes on the prac topic, and are given demonstrations for what you do next. It is done very efficiently and most of the time you will finish the practical sessions earlier than the 3 hour time slot. I wasn't sure I would enjoy having to do pracs every week, but I loved them in this subject, you actually got to do everything yourself and were given really good in-depth explanations by your demonstrators.

The note taking hurdle requirement isn't really hard, you only take notes down while you are in the prac sessions or tutorials, but you just have to make sure you stick in any handouts, or results, and show calculations you use. The idea of the prac journal is so that if another person picked it up they could follow your notes and do the prac. Additionally this prac book will be a great asset for you when you are studying for your exams, so try to keep it neat!

You will find that some prac demonstrators are better than others, or you like some more than others, but overall they all do well over enough to ensure you are well prepared for the orals and reports. However a lot of the onus is on you to ask questions and speak up if you don't get something. Because a lot of the people in your prac group are probably thinking the same thing.

The oral presentations are not marked harshly at all, everyone gets good marks, many over 80%. And the great thing is in this subject, is that you have 2 orals, so generally you will improve for your second one with the feedback from the first. In the orals you are paired up, so you might want to meet up with your partner to prepare, they look much better when you do, as opposed to doing it separately or over Facebook. For the oral, one person introduces the theory and experimental procedure for the prac, and the other explains the results and conclusions. Then for another 5 minutes you have question time where both of you are asked to answer questions, then students who are watching can ask questions. These aren't something to stress about, and the demonstrators usually give you good questions. For the next oral you and your partner alternate, and so the person who discussed results will next discuss the intro and vice versa.

The written reports are probably harder to do than the orals. You have to write the whole thing, not like in MIIM20002 where you have a template. But you are given 1300 words which is plenty to get all the relevant stuff down. You are guided through how to write these reports, and you will probably make a few mistakes on the first one, but this will really help you improve for the second one.

In the end you end up being assessed on 4 out of the 5 pracs either through an oral presentation or written report, however which ones may change, for example i didn't have to do an oral or written report on the bioinformatics prac which was lucky because i found that one pretty hard. However others will be assessed on this.

Journal clubs go through a research essay, and it is really picked apart by the lecturer for you to understand. Some of the techniques that we didn't do in our practicals were highlighted in this lecture, and you are expected to know them because they are assessed on the exam.

So when you end up preparing for the end of semester exam, you will usually be in a good position. You would have been assessed on 4 out of the 6 components, and you really do go into a lot of detail with some of the pracs, so you will know it well. There are 6 essay questions on the end of semester exam, one for each prac and a final one for the Journal club. You will already have really good summaries of each practical from your notebook, so this ends up being a great study tool. Also during each practical session you answer questions about each prac, which are really important to know thoroughly. They really set your understanding for the subject, and the ideas of these questions will come up in the exam.
The exam isn't too difficult, and you should be able to smash it out if you covered everything in your study. However for me I struggled a bit with the Bioinformatics question on the exam, which makes sense because i never really got it. So just make sure you never day dream during the semester, and try to understand all of your pracs while you are there doing it.

Much of the pathways that you cover in-depth in this subject actually come up in a lot of the other subjects of a microbiology major, so this subject gives you a bit of an advantage over others who don't do this subject.
Overall i really enjoyed this subject in the end, even though I thought it would be a struggle. It is compulsory for the Microbiology major so you might as well make the most of it. Its not as daunting as you may think, just show up for every class during the semester and really concentrate in them and ask heaps of questions and you should do well.

Only about 3 lectures for the course, and the important ones will be provided for revision.

Karena Waller

No. Some sample questions to show exam style.

4.5 Out of 5

N/A, you just need to buy the subject manual, everything else is provided to you.

1 x 1hr Lecture your tutorial per week. 1 x 1hr Debrief session per week. 1x 3hr Practical per week.

2015, S1

H1 80