Microbial communities are the life support system of our biosphere. Microorganisms date back to the origin of life on Earth and they will likely exist well beyond any future extinction events. They can be found in every environment on Earth that is occupied by macroscopic organisms and are the unique life forms in `extreme? environments (e.g. deep sea vents, earth interior). This is an introductory course that will explore how microbes play key roles in and support the complex ecosystems we find in our biosphere. Through the lectures and lab tutorials, Microbes on natural ecosystems will provide you with background knowledge on fundamentals of microbiology, origin and diversity of microbial world, common methods to study microbes in their environment, how microorganisms control the chemistry of Earth, how microorganisms affect and will be affected by global climate change and how conservation biologists and microbial scientists can work together to preserve our biosphere. By the end of this course, you will appreciate and understand the importance of microbial processes to maintain a healthy global ecosystem. This course will be also open to graduate students who wish to improve and/or overview their knowledge on microbiology and microbial ecology.
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Year Taken: AY20/21, Sem 1
Grade: A+Here comes the specialised modules for Ecology kids! Taught by Prof Adriana Lopes and I absolutely had an wonderful experience. Dr Adriana is one of the coolest marine microbial ecologist you’ll ever come across, with her wealth of experience (including the Arctics brrrr), no wonder her course is available to both undergrads and postgrads.
In this course, you will learn fundamental (ahem) microbial knowledge and how you can apply it on ecological and biological issues in a global context. I found the lectures on Gaia hypothesis and symbiotic earth (as studied by Lynn Margulis) really interesting as it really challenges the conventional notion of evolution and competition, arguing that earth is a consortium of organisms regulating their own environment
Biggest takeaway: Microbes rule the world! This class is also taken with PhD students, though they have a different set of grading scheme.
Checkpoint Quizzes (a Whooping 70%) | A
Every other week there will be a quiz to test your understanding of the concepts learnt (including labs). It is opened book and a mix of MCQ and open ended questions. So, be prepared to get creative in your answers as the questions cannot be googled given how rapid microbiology is advancing in this day and age.
Final Presentation (20%) | A+
In the first half of the semester, you will be grouped and asked to select a topic (from a list) to present on. The topics ranges from broad categories like: Viruses, Microbes and Climate Change, Infectious disease etc. For my team, we decided to go with the topic of Conservation Biology and Microbiology. For added motivation, the winning team will even win a foldable microscope, proudly sponsored by Prof Adriana! You can guess who won 😉
10% goes to class participation.
This review was reposted with the kind permission of Roy. Originally published at https://djtangent.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/eess-y2s1-2020/
June 11, 2021
