A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology

Environmental Molecular Microbiology (EMM) is a core course cluster for students majoring in environmental engineering. To help students learn the EMM courses, we developed a three-stage teaching approach to deliver EMM courses in a systematic manner: prerequisite course and survey studies; course c...

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Main Author: Shanquan Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Society for Microbiology 2021-03-01
Series:Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
Online Access:https://jmbesubmissions.asm.org/index.php/jmbe/article/view/1917
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spelling doaj-e6b171e8d3e3428b9c87a2235107920d2021-06-01T17:38:19ZengAmerican Society for MicrobiologyJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education1935-78771935-78852021-03-0122110.1128/jmbe.v22i1.1917A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular MicrobiologyShanquan WangEnvironmental Molecular Microbiology (EMM) is a core course cluster for students majoring in environmental engineering. To help students learn the EMM courses, we developed a three-stage teaching approach to deliver EMM courses in a systematic manner: prerequisite course and survey studies; course cluster teaching; and feedback and improvement. In the first stage, a prerequisite course "EMM - Case Studies" was established to introduce very basic concepts of molecular microbiology and textbook examples of environmental engineering applications, and survey studies were employed to identify students' major concerns when learning EMM. After finishing the prerequisite course, students showed improved interest and confidence in learning EMM. Then, we implemented and assessed EMM course cluster teaching. The final teaching assessment results showed that students taking EMM courses have a general idea of EMM fundamentals and can interpret the basic molecular mechanisms underlying environmental engineering bioprocesses. Based on students' feedback, major points of difficulty (e.g., respiratory electron transport chains) were identified for further teaching improvement. Our overall teaching experiences, together with students' feedback, showed that students' learning of EMM could be effectively supported by employing the three-stage teaching approach.https://jmbesubmissions.asm.org/index.php/jmbe/article/view/1917
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Shanquan Wang
spellingShingle Shanquan Wang
A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
author_facet Shanquan Wang
author_sort Shanquan Wang
title A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology
title_short A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology
title_full A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology
title_fullStr A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology
title_full_unstemmed A Systematic Approach to Promote Environmental Engineering Students' Learning in Environmental Molecular Microbiology
title_sort systematic approach to promote environmental engineering students' learning in environmental molecular microbiology
publisher American Society for Microbiology
series Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
issn 1935-7877
1935-7885
publishDate 2021-03-01
description Environmental Molecular Microbiology (EMM) is a core course cluster for students majoring in environmental engineering. To help students learn the EMM courses, we developed a three-stage teaching approach to deliver EMM courses in a systematic manner: prerequisite course and survey studies; course cluster teaching; and feedback and improvement. In the first stage, a prerequisite course "EMM - Case Studies" was established to introduce very basic concepts of molecular microbiology and textbook examples of environmental engineering applications, and survey studies were employed to identify students' major concerns when learning EMM. After finishing the prerequisite course, students showed improved interest and confidence in learning EMM. Then, we implemented and assessed EMM course cluster teaching. The final teaching assessment results showed that students taking EMM courses have a general idea of EMM fundamentals and can interpret the basic molecular mechanisms underlying environmental engineering bioprocesses. Based on students' feedback, major points of difficulty (e.g., respiratory electron transport chains) were identified for further teaching improvement. Our overall teaching experiences, together with students' feedback, showed that students' learning of EMM could be effectively supported by employing the three-stage teaching approach.
url https://jmbesubmissions.asm.org/index.php/jmbe/article/view/1917
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