Microbiology is a fascinating subject that is easy for a person with my personality and energy to teach with a high level of enthusiasm. I have been teaching microbiology since 2003 and it took me 10 years to find my style of teaching. This was not accomplished alone, I had a great teaching mentor, Dr. Diane Herson, who did not expect me to be like her and helped me find my own approach to lecturing. Next, I attended an intense teaching workshop in 2012 sponsored by the Summer Science teaching institute where we were required to read “Scientific Teaching” by Jo Handelsman, Sarah Miller, and Christine Pfund. I learned that lecturing is the least-effective way to convey scientific information in a meaningful real-world manner. I was immediately changed. I could not continue to rely on the less-effective teaching method. As a cancer researcher, I did not use the less-effective methods, so why would I use such a method in teaching our undergraduates? Last, my first two undergraduate teaching assistants (Cristina Padovani and Brad Leifheit) held me accountable to the needs of my students and helped better test their knowledge of the course content. Cristina is now in medical school and is a co-author with me on a chapter. Brad is a chemist in industry, co-authors a few chapters, and is my co-editor. You will hear from Brad soon. Now with 20 years of teaching microbiology, I wanted the opportunity to write my own textbook using all the things I have learned.
Since 1992, I have read, and peer reviewed several microbiology textbooks. I loved a few of them and I do not believe they are deficient in any way. However, because microbiology taught at several universities is a semester course, a textbook with 30 to 38 chapters is too much to cover. Also, these textbooks were costly. Therefore, I wanted to write an affordable condensed textbook, covering the core contents that will give students a solid foundation for advanced microbiology courses they will take in the future. Several of my former students have told me that they were prepared well for medical school, veterinary school, and dental school. Therefore, this textbook is for microbiology courses being taught in one semester. Also, I wanted to capture real-world experiences that are relevant to microbiology using several voices (i.e., several authors). In science, there is never one expert voice speaking on a subject, there are several. In graduate school and professional schools, courses are taught by multiple professors. In this endeavor, I wanted students to get familiar with experiencing the multiple expert voices in one book. This is my first time writing a textbook. This is my co-editors Brad and Dr. Ben Rohe first time as well. It is the first time for all chapter authors to contribute to a textbook. This means no one had a prior experience to guide them. They were guided by their own inspiration to better teach the subject. It is our hope that as you learn more about microbiology, you will find it to be exciting and valuable to your future endeavors. Now, let’s hear from two people that I am so happy to work with on this task. They are both very close friends and colleagues; and I could not imagine doing this without them, my BBs, best buddies, Brad and Ben.
I am sort of the wild card between Dr. Cooper and Dr. Rohe in that I am neither a doctor, nor do I work in the field of biology at all presently. My current job is working in an organic chemistry lab (everyone’s favorite subject). Although I may not work in biology now, I did obtain degrees in both biology and psychology from the University of Delaware (UD) in December of 2020. While I was studying at UD, I was also Dr. Cooper’s main teaching assistant for Introduction to Microbiology from 2017 to 2019. It was during this time that we realized just how strong our desire for a new style of educational resource was. Many textbooks we looked at utilizing for the class contained dozens of chapters that were written as if the students were already experts in the subject of microbiology. As Dr. Cooper mentioned, these books were way too long, cost far too much, and explained topics in such a complicated manner that we determined they would not be the best resources for an introductory class that only lasts for one semester and that most students only take as a prerequisite course. Therefore, we decided that we needed to create our own resource that could be used easily and affordably by any individual to understand the basics of microbiology. Once the opportunity to write this textbook became available, we all seized the opportunity to achieve our goal. It is my personal hope that this text will highlight a few key points: (1) Microbiology is a relevant subject for every single person as microbes always exist around and within us. (2) Most subjects can and should be taught in a conceptual way that promotes learning through understanding, not purely by rote memorization. (3) Finally, science and life in general are not purely individual endeavors; they both require cooperation and collaboration to obtain the best results. This textbook never could have been written without each and every contributor doing their part, and even if it could, everything is more fun when you’re doing it with friends.
I started my teaching career guest lecturing molecular biology in Dr. Carlton Cooper’s Microbiology course at UD over a decade ago. My teachings have broadened to include Introductory Biology, Anatomy and Physiology (so many, many versions), Race & Health, and Cancer Biology. I find myself circling back around to molecular biology as a topic within another course with a heavy focus on microbiology. As a Professor in Bioproduction at Cecil College, I teach the application of microbiology in an industrial setting. With a closer look at the chapter author list, you will see the evidence of my training and teaching. My focus in these chapters is to teach micro- and molecular biology to the “nonmajor.” As stated above by Dr. Cooper, most students in the course are taking a single semester of microbiology as a prerequisite for another field of study. I hope we have made the material tangible and relevant, if nothing else I hope to leave each student as a better consumer of science and as a more informed patient. Understanding microbiology is to understand yourself a bit better.