Overview for educators
Background for educators
If you are not very familiar with the human microbiome or the human microbiome project, it is recommended that you first read over the student modules. These will give you a solid understanding of the human microbiome. If you are looking for more information, see the list of useful links for outside sites, an open access scientific journal, and news articles about the human microbiome.
Grade level of material on this site
The student information on this site is written for an 11-12th grade advanced biology student. It is ideal for use in Advanced Placement Biology classes as well as special topics classes on microbiology and biotechnology. For information that is more suitable for a younger high schooler or middle schooler audience, I would recommend the University of Utah's human microbiome educational site. The information on that site is written with a younger, less-educated audience in mind.
Using the material on this site for your lesson
When to do a human microbiome lecture:
In a general biology course, the human microbiome lecture is ideally done after you have had your general lecture on prokaryotic cells. The materials on this site focus more on the microbes than human physiology so it is not necessary to have covered human anatomy and physiology before introducing this lesson
The night before class:
Select one of the news articles on the human microbiome from the useful links page. Assign this for your students to read the night before and ask them to write a summary of the reading to bring into class the next day. Alternatively, you could provide them with discussion questions for the particular article that they read.
Day 1:
Have students break into small groups to discuss their readings from the night before for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, have the students remain in their small groups and then come onto this site to read through the modules and go over the discussion questions that go with each module. You do not necessarily have to assign the students all the modules to read. 2-3 modules would probably be an ideal amount for students to work through in class. The rest of the modules can be assigned as homework for that day.
Alternatively, if you do not want your students to go through the material on their own, you could use the Powerpoint presentation provided on this site to go over the material with your students. The modules on this site are included in the slides (although in less detail) as are the discussion questions. The modules on this site should be used to supplement the in-class presentation. At the end of class, introduce the "Exploring the Human Body Biome" project to your students and have them divide into groups and pick which topic they would like to cover. Students should need about a week to complete the project. The poster presentation is discussed below.
For homework, have your students review the handout and answer the pre-lab questions for the "You are What You Eat" experiment. The experiment will begun during the next class period.
Day 2:
Go over the background and safety information for the "You are What You Eat" Experiment and discuss the pre-lab questions. Have students divide into small groups and then set up the experiment. The plates for the experiment will need to be monitored over the course of several days. If you don't do so already, have your students keep a lab notebook with their hypotheses, methods, observations, and conclusions written down. Additionally, have them write up a lab report that includes the post-lab discussion questions that are listed on the experiment handout.
Project Presentation:
As one of the final products of the student's "Exploring the Human Body Biome" project is a poster, turn the project presentation into a miniature scientific poster session. Explain to your students that scientists often go to poster sessions where they and many other scientists bring a poster about their research to share with others. At your poster session, each group should have the opportunity to give a 3-5 minute talk about their poster to you and the rest of the class. For the remaining time, encourage students to walk around and look at the other posters. Give students a worksheet that requires them to read the other posters in order to complete.
If you are not very familiar with the human microbiome or the human microbiome project, it is recommended that you first read over the student modules. These will give you a solid understanding of the human microbiome. If you are looking for more information, see the list of useful links for outside sites, an open access scientific journal, and news articles about the human microbiome.
Grade level of material on this site
The student information on this site is written for an 11-12th grade advanced biology student. It is ideal for use in Advanced Placement Biology classes as well as special topics classes on microbiology and biotechnology. For information that is more suitable for a younger high schooler or middle schooler audience, I would recommend the University of Utah's human microbiome educational site. The information on that site is written with a younger, less-educated audience in mind.
Using the material on this site for your lesson
When to do a human microbiome lecture:
In a general biology course, the human microbiome lecture is ideally done after you have had your general lecture on prokaryotic cells. The materials on this site focus more on the microbes than human physiology so it is not necessary to have covered human anatomy and physiology before introducing this lesson
The night before class:
Select one of the news articles on the human microbiome from the useful links page. Assign this for your students to read the night before and ask them to write a summary of the reading to bring into class the next day. Alternatively, you could provide them with discussion questions for the particular article that they read.
Day 1:
Have students break into small groups to discuss their readings from the night before for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards, have the students remain in their small groups and then come onto this site to read through the modules and go over the discussion questions that go with each module. You do not necessarily have to assign the students all the modules to read. 2-3 modules would probably be an ideal amount for students to work through in class. The rest of the modules can be assigned as homework for that day.
Alternatively, if you do not want your students to go through the material on their own, you could use the Powerpoint presentation provided on this site to go over the material with your students. The modules on this site are included in the slides (although in less detail) as are the discussion questions. The modules on this site should be used to supplement the in-class presentation. At the end of class, introduce the "Exploring the Human Body Biome" project to your students and have them divide into groups and pick which topic they would like to cover. Students should need about a week to complete the project. The poster presentation is discussed below.
For homework, have your students review the handout and answer the pre-lab questions for the "You are What You Eat" experiment. The experiment will begun during the next class period.
Day 2:
Go over the background and safety information for the "You are What You Eat" Experiment and discuss the pre-lab questions. Have students divide into small groups and then set up the experiment. The plates for the experiment will need to be monitored over the course of several days. If you don't do so already, have your students keep a lab notebook with their hypotheses, methods, observations, and conclusions written down. Additionally, have them write up a lab report that includes the post-lab discussion questions that are listed on the experiment handout.
Project Presentation:
As one of the final products of the student's "Exploring the Human Body Biome" project is a poster, turn the project presentation into a miniature scientific poster session. Explain to your students that scientists often go to poster sessions where they and many other scientists bring a poster about their research to share with others. At your poster session, each group should have the opportunity to give a 3-5 minute talk about their poster to you and the rest of the class. For the remaining time, encourage students to walk around and look at the other posters. Give students a worksheet that requires them to read the other posters in order to complete.
