MBI 161: Elementary Medical Microbiology
Dr. Brodt-Eppley focused on an assignment in her MBI 161 course that required students to apply information from their course to a real-life problem. Specifically, students used information from the course to create a poster that effectively encouraged people to wash their hands after using the restroom. Students' final posters were posted in bathrooms on the Middletown campus of Miami.

Dr. Brodt-Eppley reported that the project was a very worthwhile endeavor, for her as an instructor and for her students.  It allowed students to think about their chosen pathogen in-depth and to evaluate the potential for disease.  Students were able to think critically and explore the situation of simply washing their

hands as a valuable means to limit the spread of one disease-causing pathogen.  Many students selected pathogens with which they had some personal connection (i.e. a family member had a Staph infection, they worked in a nursing home where C. difficile was a problem, etc.).

Dr. Brodt-Eppley plans to repeat the assignment next semester, with some changes. She has refined and developed the grading rubric to make it more detailed.  She may also change the final project product to be something other than a poster (e.g., paper fliers that could be mounted in restroom stalls, "table tents" that could sit on the tables in the concession area of the MUM Community Center).

Original Assignment and Rubric

Revised Assignment and Rubric