By Adrienne Dolberry
Biology Department

George Geyser is a hero and to others he is a lucky slob. However unexpected, the cure for Alzheimer’s is a long awaited relief. George’s discovery is an example that microbes can be used therapeutically. Scientists will continue research on his discovery and possibly find a microbe that helps with other degenerative brain diseases. – Time Magazine

– ‘Alzheimer’s Amoeba’ group (E. Fotis-Aquino, E. Sexton and G. Antonio), Microbiology and Its Applications, Fall 2009

The main goals of any course are to have students learn and appreciate the topics and concepts presented by the instructor and to stimulate students to independently continue to further their knowledge about the subject long after the course is complete. In Biology, activities used to reinforce concepts have come in a variety of forms such as, but not limited to, laboratory projects, case studies, written reports and classroom discussion of new discoveries in science. From my experience as an undergraduate and graduate student in Biology, I have seen how these learning tools can lead to increased student interest in Biology because these teaching methods go beyond the straightforward presentation of facts and figures – a teaching style commonly linked to life and physical science courses.

I have recognized how valuable laboratory exercises, case studies and class discussions are for reinforcing concepts in Biology. However, I believe that these activities are not enough to effectively teach course material and spark student interest. One issue for me that has been a challenge in teaching Biology to college students: Finding new projects to make sure students are truly learning course topics and that they are not merely providing a written or oral memory dump, a direct copy of information from their text and lecture slides with little or no understanding about the material. Through my teaching experiences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Salem State College, I have been inspired by students to develop assignments in Microbiology that use creative writing, a new way for me to address topics in Microbiology through assignments that allow the students to demonstrate that they have learned the material presented. In addition to reinforcing topics in Microbiology, my goal with these assignments is to stimulate student interest, where students want to independently delve further into Microbiology concepts and become more engaged learners for the remainder of their Biology education and future careers.

As a postdoctoral teaching instructor at MIT, I developed a creative writing assignment that became known later as the Sci-Fi Microbe project during a course called The Sophisticated Survival Skills of the Simple Microorganism, in which students learned about the ways different types of bacteria changed their gene expression, colors, shapes, and other properties to survive under the harshest conditions on Earth. This course included a student who was obsessed with the novel The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. I took this student’s enthusiasm for science fiction as an opportunity to address one of my favorite open-ended questions in Microbiology: If a new bacterium were discovered, how would it look? What would be different about it compared to previously discovered bacteria, and how would these differences be connected to its environment?

The purpose of the Sci-Fi Microbe project is for students to connect the structure and function of microorganisms with their environments. To accomplish this task, students must compose a fictional story describing an unusual observation that leads the characters to discover a new microorganism and present how their new discovery will benefit humankind. As a final project, students in this class “create” a new bacterium, using information from a known bacterium as their base knowledge. Each student needs to research the activities of the known bacterium and then change one or two details about it to make it a “Sci-Fi Microbe.” For example, the Sci-Fi Microbe could have an unusual cell wall or produce a protein not found in other known bacteria. However, the changes “discovered” in the Sci-Fi Microbe have to be connected to observations that lead to its discovery and the environment where it is isolated. The information about the initial observation, discovery, and description of the Sci-Fi Microbe is presented at the end of the semester.

Since its introduction at MIT, I have been reworking the Sci-Fi Microbe project at Salem State every semester in Microbiology courses for Nursing and Biology majors. Examples of Sci-Fi Microbes ‘discovered’ in student assignments include bacteria that target and destroy only human cells infected with HIV, a cancer-killing virus originally detected in blood pressure medication and an amoeba capable of eating away at amyloid plaques and thereby curing patients of Alzheimer’s disease. The projects are not all medical related, with students also presenting on the discovery of bacteria that can change eye color or temporarily remove tattoos, producing a new product for the cosmetic industry. Throughout the Sci-fi Microbe project, I work with each student group to keep its creative story linked with the structure and function of the new microbe. The stories are a careful mix between fiction and course information about cellular structures, growth conditions and nutritional requirements for microorganisms. Therefore, students must make the link between what is occurring in the fictional story with their knowledge about the microorganism presented through course information and their independent research. Below is an example of how students link their creative writing to known information about bacterial structures in the Sci-Fi Microbe project:

Instead of the microbe having a normal peptidoglycan layer within the cell wall, he found a strange middle membrane which contained (previously unidentified) proteins. He explained that these proteins have the ability to absorb skin pigment and reflect it back, which was ultimately the new discovery. This explains how the tattoo appears to be missing.

– ‘Rethink Your Ink’ group (M. Carrick, M. Brancaleone and S. Olafajo), Microbiology and Its Applications, Fall 2009

One of the reasons I enjoy the Sci-Fi microbe project is that I can manipulate the assignment from a short journal entry to an in-depth group report as described above. In addition to the final draft, the Sci-Fi Microbe project includes a mock-Nobel Prize Panel presentation, or an oral presentation of the Sci-Fi Microbe writing project, with all of the presenting groups vying to win the “Sci-Fi Microbe Nobel Prize.” During the oral presentations, groups use props such as pill bottles, lotions and even a Time Magazine poster to show the benefits of final products produced from their discovery.

In addition to the Sci-Fi Microbe project, I have also introduced another creative writing assignment in my Microbiology courses. The “General Hospital” creative writing assignment was also inspired by a student. During my first semester at Salem State, I assigned students in a Nursing Microbiology course to write long, boring reports on infectious diseases of their choice. One student didn’t follow my guidelines and submitted his report after the due date. His report–a dramatic account about his acquiring a skin infection, which led to the late submission of his assignment–guided me through the symptoms, the microorganism that was responsible for the infection, the medication he was prescribed and its role in relieving the infection and symptoms, and his ultimate recovery. It was jaw-dropping; he addressed all of the guidelines I required for my dry writing assignment through accurate information about a pathogen in a personal story. Equally important, I enjoyed reading it!

For the General Hospital project, students write and perform skits about illnesses caused by pathogens. The skits illustrate transmission, infection, symptoms, medical treatment, and recovery. Students present their information in a creative way and skits are acted out as group final presentations. During a performance, students use a variety of materials to produce entertaining skits: They project PowerPoint slides to show the background of each scene, such as the hospital waiting room, they throw bedsheets and pillows over tables in the classroom to make a ‘patient bed,’ and they don scrubs, stethoscopes and surgical masks while carrying clip boards with patient information. In any given General Hospital presentation group, there are students who play the nurse or doctor to provide treatment, but there is also the patient, family, and friends. These characters may range from a frantic, helicopter Mom who has just been informed that her adventurous, scuba-diver daughter is dying of inhalation rabies to a Jerry Springer-style, belligerent couple discovering how infidelity has led to them to being infected with chlamydia. The General Hospital assignment appears to be more comfortable for students compared to the Sci-Fi Microbe project because the facts about infectious diseases are not manipulated, whereas the Sci-Fi Microbe project requires students to alter information about their microbe to imagine something new. The challenge the General Hospital project offers is that (1) the students must create an entertaining scenario for presenting the star pathogen and (2) they must deliver the information naturally and accurately, explaining the pathogen in lay terms. Instead of the “Sci-Fi Microbe Nobel Prize,” we have the “Oscars of General Hospital.”

GF (Girlfriend): Nurse, Can I talk to you for a minute? (Leaves to talk to nurse) So, I was wondering what exactly would be effected [sic], because the doctor was concerned about me being pregnant.

Nurse: Well he was concerned because the bacteria can spread to the fallopian tubes and to your cervix. And this could infect your baby’s eye sight and respiratory system.

–D. Holder, C. Morin and S. Gunning, Microbiology and Its Applications, Spring 2009.

In my experience, both projects require time helping students mull over creative ideas and suggestions that support students’ original ideas but help them adhere to the base knowledge from topics in Microbiology that I am trying to reinforce. I also learned that students require support through drafts of their projects and time in the classroom for building their story, working on redrafts and rehearsing presentations. My challenge is to find a method to assess the significance of the Sci-Fi Microbe and General Hospital creative writing assignments in science education. As I am introducing the assignments every semester to a new crop of students, there is one question that I must answer: Is it just a fun way for the students to learn the concepts introduced in Microbiology, or is student learning significantly increased through the students’ creative expression of material presented in the course?

I believe that by creatively expressing information from course topics, students have ownership of the learning process. Further, they have a better appreciation of concepts presented in the course, and these activities can add to the variety of ways science is taught, helping to break down the ‘fact and figures’ stereotype about science education. My hope is that the inclusion of creative writing in Microbiology will make the course information tangible for all students, leading to its retention and stimulating more student interest in the subject long after the semester is over.

This article is part of ASpect’s December 2009 issue on interdisciplinarity.

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Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Dr. Jeannette Lindholm in the English Department at Salem State College for critically reviewing this manuscript.