About this Research Topic
Making connections to the real world while you are teaching, and connecting the classroom experience to pressing and capacious problems and issues relevant to students is a strategy that has long been shown to increase student engagement with science. There are many ways that microbiology and teaching through microbiology can impact student engagement with science, perception of science and belief in science as a tool for social good.
The ubiquity of microbes, their connections to health and hosts, their use in emerging technologies, and their connections with our ecosystems, terrestrial or aquatic or atmospheric, all these features of microbes lead to engaging and interesting curricula and assignments. They make wonderful tools as they are easy to manipulate in the laboratory, and as model organisms help us study biological phenomena and concepts. They also allow faculty to design and engage students in authentic research experiences both inside and outside the classroom.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Review, and Mini-Review articles focusing on teaching with a real-world focus with microbiology. Possible teaching areas could include microbiology as a tool for social good, neglected tropical diseases, how microbiology links to the sustainable development goals, the microbiome, and human health, public trust of science, vaccine uptake and emerging infectious diseases. Teaching tools and strategies could include teaching through case studies, project-based learning, using Classroom-Based Undergraduate Research and student e-Portfolios.
The ubiquity of microbes, their connections to health and hosts, their use in emerging technologies, and their connections with our ecosystems, terrestrial or aquatic or atmospheric, all these features of microbes lead to engaging and interesting curricula and assignments. They make wonderful tools as they are easy to manipulate in the laboratory, and as model organisms help us study biological phenomena and concepts. They also allow faculty to design and engage students in authentic research experiences both inside and outside the classroom.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Review, and Mini-Review articles focusing on teaching with a real-world focus with microbiology. Possible teaching areas could include microbiology as a tool for social good, neglected tropical diseases, how microbiology links to the sustainable development goals, the microbiome, and human health, public trust of science, vaccine uptake and emerging infectious diseases. Teaching tools and strategies could include teaching through case studies, project-based learning, using Classroom-Based Undergraduate Research and student e-Portfolios.
Keywords: Pedagogy, Civic Engagement, Social Justice, Climate Change, Antibiotic Resistance, Real World Issues
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
