BIO 304 furthered my knowledge of microorganisms and their role in nature and our environment. The main focus was on isolation, growth, and identification of bacteria and other microorganisms. I really enjoyed this class which surprised me because biology is not an easy topic for me to understand. The lab portion of this course introduced me to the use of a microscope, how to identify microorganisms, and several tests to aid in this identification.
One of the major projects we conducted in this class was known as the unknown project. In this project we were given two unknown microorganisms and we had to use the knowledge we had acquired throughout the semester to identify our organisms.
At the end of the semester I was able to work alongside another peer and research an organism to present to the class. This project allowed me to draw on my strengths to research and consolidate information regarding microbiology to present to an audience of peers. However, I recognized how difficult research can be to consolidate information from a huge topic into a short presentation . In the future, I hope to further my skills to be better equipped to provide presentations that provide appropriate amounts of information that is informative but not overbearing. We researched poliovirus and you can click the link below to view our PowerPoint presentation.