Microbiology Project
Submission instructions located at the bottom of this page.
1. In this lab you will be working to discover the identity of unknown bacteria. On the page below labeled Virtual Unknowns you will select 5 unknowns from the 20 available on that page. You will use a flow chart (dichotomous key) to help you decide which microbe you have selected. It is mandatory that you use your flow chart to decide which tests you will use and the order the tests will be used in. You cannot randomly select which tests you choose or the order in which you choose them or you will lose points on your project. You also cannot select to do every test. In the real world this would be wasting valuable time and money. Time is of the essence for sick patients and we all know the trouble we would be in for wasting our employer’s money!
If you have questions, please let me know immediately.
2. When you are ready to begin, you will need to open the Virtual Unknowns page and theFlow Charts. You will need to have them both open at the same time to do this!
References and Information: http://www.austincc.edu/microbugz/mixed_unkown.php
3. On the Virtual Unknowns page, select a microbe, record its number and click on the microbe. Once you have selected a microbe, you will be taken to the gram morphology test page. When that screen appears, look at the number of your unknown to find the result of that particular test. The numbers beside the results on each test page coincide with the number of the unknown you chose. Make sure you record every test you complete and every result. Specifically from the gram morphology test you will need to record the the gram stain result and the morphologyof the organism. Once you have completed this, you will need to use the flow charts to determine which other tests to do. Depending on the results of the gram morphology, you will need to locate the correct flow chart to use. If you have a gram + cocci, you will need to go to the flow chart that is for cocci that are gram +. Below is a video of how to do an unknown.
You may NOT use this example in your paper as an unknown, nor can you use it as the subject of your paper. It is just an example.
4. Your flow chart will guide you to a place where you will know what your unknown is. You will know you have reached that place when only one genus and species is listed after the last test you complete. Once you do a couple of them, you should find them to be kind of fun and interesting!!
You will need to identify 5 unknown culturesby using this method.
5. Make sure you record the tests you ran, the reason you ran each test, the unknown #, and the bacterial genus and species for each one that you choose. When you are finished, you will need to put these things into your paper. If you just randomly select tests or select all tests, you will lose points. You will have to defend your decision to use each test that you do for each unknown. Make sure you pay careful attention to what you are doing. You will be graded on each unknown you solve and the steps for solving each.
Project Submission
Part 1: Unknown Identification
The first paragraph of your project paper will communicate the identity of the 5 unknowns you solved in the activity above. You will need your 5 unknowns you identified on the Virtual Unknowns page, the culture #, the genus and species of the identified unknown, the tests you ran, and the reason why you chose each test for each unknown. You can do this in a chart or in paragraph format. For example, you could write this…. Culture #1 was identified as Proteus vulgaris. It is a gram negative rod and these are the tests that identified it (and the results of those tests): gram morphology (g-rod), oxidase (negative), lactase (positive), catalase (negative), and EMB (negative). These tests were chosen as directed by my flow chart. You will need to do that for all 5 unknowns. Or you can put that information in a chart in the appendix. This will not count as part of the four pages required on Part 2.
Part 2: Research on a chosen unknown
For this part of your paper, you will choose one of the 5 unknowns from Part 1 and do a short research paper on it. You will need to include the following information:
This report should include every diagnostic test for that particular bacterium, symptoms of the illness it can cause if there are any, treatments, and whatever other information you feel is relative or important. Pictures are optional and do not count as part of the text and should be in the appendix. This paper should be written as a research paper with a works cited page and citations throughout the paper whenever they are used in APA format. If you have not ever used this, please see this site and use these guidelines:
Click this link then choose Unified Writing Guidelines and go to page 14: https://holmescc.edu/academic-divisions/english-foreign-language/
**NOTE: USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (A.I.) IS NOT ALLOWED ON THIS RESEARCH PAPER. **
Part 2 should be at least 4 pages long and should be double-spaced. 12 font and 1 inch margins should be used. The four pages does not include the References, the five unknowns, the appendix, nor Part 1.
**Special things to pay close attention to:
a. The genus and species of your bacteria should be written either Genus species or Genus species. The underline is not connected between the genus and species name. If it is not written correctly, you will lose points each time it is written incorrectly. For example, the correct way to write “Staphylococcus aureus” would be either Staphylococcus aureus or Staphylococcusaureus.
b. Grammar and spelling: Get someone else to proofread your paper prior to submission. Most people make mistakes here that cost them several letter grades. Most instructors will not grade papers with more than 2 grammatical/spelling errors and it will cost you dearly if you do not correct these prior to submission. You are welcome to submit your paper to NetTutor prior to submission so that they can help you with this!
c. Use valid sources. Wikipedia and the like are not valid sources for any type of paper. If you do not know what sources are valid, see this link: http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&pageid=icb.page346376
d. If you use your textbook as a source, you can get the citation from your ebook that is already formatted for you. Go to the page in the ebook and look at the top left. Click the three dots and you will see the option for the citation. You can copy and paste it into your References.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
***You may only submit ONE document!!***
When you are ready to submit your paper, please do the following:
1. Click on Microbiology Project
2. Click in upper right corner SUBMIT
3. At the bottom of the screen, choose BROWSE.
4. Find your file on your computer and double click your file. If it is not the right format, it will give you a message letting you know.
5. Click SUBMIT.
6. After submitting, on the upper right side, you will see a green check mark and the TURNED IN message. You will also see the date and time of submission and the file name that you submitted. If your file is not listed here, it did not submit and you will need to go through the process again.
7. You can submit your assignment as many times as you like up until the due date. Only the last submission will be graded. If you turn in more than one document, such as submitting pages separately, only the last one you submitted will be graded.
8. When you go to Grades, you will see a sheet of paper icon signifying you have submitted a file.
This is not a hard thing to do, but it will take some time. I suggest you begin on it as soon as possible and please ask if you have questions!!
