BIOL313-11S2 (C) Semester Two 2011

Advanced Microbiology

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 11 July 2011
End Date: Sunday, 13 November 2011
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 24 July 2011
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 9 October 2011

Description

Applied and environmental microbiology.

This course is designed to further the knowledge base of advancing microbiology students by covering material presented in Microbiology 1 in greater depth.

The course focuses on applied and environmental microbiology.

Students are expected to complete an original research project as part of the course requirement.

Lectures 1-12: Laurie Greenfield
Lecture topics:– microbial ecology of diverse environments ranging from oral cavities to
Antarctica; forensic soil microbiology, soil ecology, waste water and sewage treatments.

Lectures 13-22: Arvind Varsani
Lecture topics:- Virology, covering key virology concepts such as diversity, classification,
properties, replication, basic viral immunology and virus biotechnology. It will also address
key issues of viral disease in humans, animals and plants.

Lectures 23-36: Keith Baronian
Lecture topics:- Metabolic pathways for significant industrial microbial products,
characteristics of large scale bioreactor operation and the use of catabolic pathways in
microbial biosensors and microbial fuel cells.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the strategies different microorganisms use to cause disease in animals and plants
      and techniques scientists use to study these processes
  • Be able to explain how microbial genomes change and how this challenges efforts to control and
      manipulate microorganisms
  • Be able to explain the role of different microbes in different ecological habitats
  • Demonstrate an understanding of hypothetico-deductive reasoning and its application within the
      laboratory
  • Be able to communicate scientific ideas in written form.

Prerequisites

BIOL213 and BIOL231 or BCHM202. For students enrolled before 2010, BIOL213

Timetable Note

LABS: Due to the nature of the projects the lab is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 2-5 pm and Wednesday and Friday from 10-12 noon. Work can be conducted on any of these days at your convenience in term 4.

Course Administrator

Laurence Greenfield

Lecturers

Laurence Greenfield , Arvind Varsani and Kim Baronian

Lab Coordinator

Craig Galilee

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Final Exam 50%
Microbiology Project and Oral Presentation 15 Oct 2010 50%

Textbooks / Resources

No set textbook, but those from Biol 213 can be used and many microbiology books are on reserve in the Central Library.

Notes

Individual lecturers may choose to supplement their lectures by suggesting selected reading.  Copies if this reading will either be distributed to the class, made available in the research lab or on  reserve in the library.

It is compulsory to wear a lab coat in the laboratory.

Additional Course Outline Information

Academic integrity

It is essential that you are aware that plagiarism is considered a very serious offence by the Academic community, the University and the School of Biological Sciences. Plagiarism is defined as taking passages from another work or author and presenting it as if it is your own work. Plagiarism includes:
• buying any form of assessed work e.g. essays, lab reports
• re-use of previous assignments
• copying of another student’s work (with or without their consent)
• the unreferenced use of published material or material from the internet e.g. cutting and pasting of paragraphs or pages into an essay.
For most pieces of in-term assessment you will be given information concerning the use of direct and indirect quotes from previously published work. If you are in any doubt about appropriate use of published material, please speak with a member of academic staff. If you are still unsure what plagiarism is, then seek advice.

It is a School policy that courses may request you submit work electronically for subsequent analysis of originality using Turnitin. Students agree that by taking courses in BIOL, required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism.  All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.  Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Where to submit and collect work

All assignments should be placed in the designated collection box in the foyer of the 4th floor of the School of Biological Sciences (near the Secretaries' Office), unless directed otherwise by the course co-ordinator. All assignments must be accompanied by a cover sheet signed by you stating that the submitted work is not plagiarised. Cover sheets are available on top of the collection boxes, or you can download one from the Biology website (under Undergraduate). In addition, you may also be asked to submit your work electronically (via Learn) for analysis in Turnitin. You will be given instructions on how to do this in the assignment handout.

Marked assignments can be collected from the Secretaries' Office between the hours 9.30-10.30am and 1.30-2.30pm, unless directed otherwise by the course co-ordinator. Teaching staff will endeavour to return work as soon as possible, and should contact you if there are likely to be any delays that will prevent return within the maximum 4-week timeframe.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,381.00

International fee $6,450.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Biological Sciences .

All BIOL313 Occurrences

  • BIOL313-11S2 (C) Semester Two 2011