Bard College Teaching

This post is so delayed, and I am very sorry about it! Work and life have really caught up with me, and I have been so busy trying to keep everything together.

In January, I spend two weeks in Bard College, teaching a group of liberal arts students the microbiome in the Citizen Science program. There was a snow storm the day I flew out to NY - I was flying to Albany, and be picked up by the bus driver (together with other faculty members). It snowed so much that I was worried we were going to be stranded in the airport. Luckily, after spending two hours waiting, our driver finally arrived, and we were on the way to the college campus.

The room that I was going to spend the next two weeks was very "spartan" like - a single bed, a single chair and a table. Some of the other faculty members brought along rugs, blankets and lamps to make it more homely - I just treated it as a time for me to rough it out :)

We had additional last minute training for a couple of days, and we were going to meet our students on Sunday evening. There was a opening ceremony, and then we get to talk to our students. Each faculty members were supposed to have 18 students, but due to a few faculty members having last minute cancellations, I had 21 students.

I spend Sunday morning doing some last minute preparation - all the faculty members were excited and nervous at the same time. The students were not biology majors, so this program had been known as "Science Jail" in the past, and our goal was to make them not only understand but also enjoy science!

I arranged my class tables so that I can see all the students. I am excited to meet my students this evening, and ready to take them on a wild trip through the microbiome!

My syllabus for this course was the human gut microbiome, how they are affected by antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance bacteria, and finally ended with a global view on antibiotic resistance bacteria and how it is going to affect us! I used a mixture of videos, scientific readings and group discussions to go through the syllabus. My main goal was not to teach them everything about the microbiome, but for them to appreciate science, and the secondary goal was to empower them the knowledge to be able to find the real facts behind the scientific propaganda and present it to the class (normal people) in simple terms.

Apart from teaching theories, we also had three days of laboratory sessions. The labs were simple, including gram staining, plaque assay and Kirby Bauer assay. I didn't really teach the labs, but instead I taught the Teaching Fellow (who is a senior in Bard College) how to teach the labs. So, in turn, I took a more supervisory role, and the Teaching Fellow became the teacher.

The two weeks when we were there, I couldn't help but be amazed by the beauty of the location. It was almost as if we were in Winter Wonderland.

The student had a final project. The faculty members had the freedom to choose whatever final project they wanted the students to undertake - most of the faculty members asked for a written assignment and a presentation about microbiome. I was pretty bored with microbiome by then, and so I asked the students to be creative and do anything they liked (with bonus points for creativity) about the microbiome.

My class final project included a song, three videos, cooking, a comic drawing, a game, two books, haiku, a computer simulation program and an art installation. Of course, there were also presentations, and for these creative items, they had to prepare a short 5 minutes presentation as well. I was blown away by the creativity of these students... no wonder most of them are art majors :)