Implementation at Wingate University – by Debra Davis, Wingate University

PROFESSOR DEBRA DAVIS ASSISTING SWI PARTNER INSTRUCTOR INNOCENT NWACHUKWU AT 2015 SWI TRAINING

by Debra Davis

When I decided to implement the Small World Initiative (SWI) on our campus, I had the choice of implementing in an already established course [easily done with all the health profession programs on our campus] or develop and entirely new course.  If I am to be entirely honest, due to my own insecurities, I chose the latter and developed a course for non-science majors because I felt if I messed this up, I would not destroy the curriculum, and at the very least, the non-science majors would still learn something.  In the fall, I used my microbiology course students as “guinea pigs” and unofficially implemented an abbreviated version of SWI in their lab portion.  The students that semester were very excited about doing a research project in class. I never imagined they would be such excited guinea pigs.  One particular student [who is now in his first semester of pharmacy school] declared himself embarking on a future career as an epidemiology pharmacist [is there even such a profession??] and became my lab helper in the spring. 

My experience with SWI in a non-majors course was contrary to my fears. In short – it was quite the challenge, but all in all, it was simply amazing.  I had a cohort of athletes in my small class, particularly football players, mainly because my course “fit their schedule.”  During the course, the students were inspired to learn; they worked hard, and due to their natural competitive streak, when each assessment was returned, they crowned the “smartest football player” the teammate with the highest grade.  At the end of the semester, we had a poster presentation where the students eloquently discussed their findings with invited success coaches, peers, fellow students, and biology faculty.  The feedback I received from my colleagues was incredibly encouraging; they were amazed at the work the students completed and how well they were able to explain themselves.  Their advisors wanted to know when I was going to offer the course again because the student feedback was so positive.  Two of the freshmen students who did very well in my course are now in freshman biology courses because of the confidence they acquired. 

Most of our isolates were common soil bacteria that are already known for their antibiotic production.  Our contribution to the science of SWI was minimal, but…. the student experience was invaluable, and my experience as their instructor was life changing.  I am better prepared to offer this course again next spring. I am excited as I have a full class. The word is out on our campus, and the students have been signing up!  Who knows what this next group will bring! 

The SWI Magic – by Ana Maria Barral, National University

PROFESSOR ANA MARIA BARRAL WITH HER SWI STUDENTS AT NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

by Ana Maria Barral

I learned about the Small World Initiative (SWI) in 2013, through an email sent via the ASM-educator list. The email called for applicants to participate in a training workshop at Yale University and required an application form signed off by a department chair. The deadline was a couple of days away. My colleague, Huda Makhluf, and I had been interested in research-based courses for a while, and thanks to that interest and some frantic emails back and forth, we completed and submitted the application form in time. A few weeks later, we learned that we were selected as one of the pilot partners to come to New Haven. In July 2013, I spent a crazy and inspiring week at Yale with 23 other instructors learning not only the lab protocols and techniques used but also the pedagogic foundations of scientific teaching. We picked and patched colonies from smelly plates, got excited about inhibition zones, could not wait to see the PCR results, and returned to our home institutions with the mission to implement SWI.

Most (if not all) institutions that implemented SWI in that first round were very different from Yale. Small colleges, non-traditional colleges, community colleges…both their material resources and student populations do not compare to those of Yale. Over the coming weeks and months, we worked and often struggled to adapt the SWI framework to many different courses and school styles, passing the hurdles of IRB applications and setting up the logistics of lab activities we were not familiar with.

My first SWI class was small, only 7 students. They were mainly pre-nursing students, a few were heading to radiation therapy or PA school. They were, as most of our students are, adult working students. Their main goal, which they did not hide, was to get good grades so they could get in the programs of their choice. Some of them were good at the lecture part, asking questions and showing they knew the material. Others were quiet and shy. In the lab, however, things started soon to change. With SWI, there are no right or wrong results, and so some students became really interested in what they were doing. They called each other in the lab to show off their stainings and wondered about the meaning of their results. They started asking questions, and very often, I did not have the answers, just as it happens in real science. I could tell that a couple of students were nervous about this lack of clarity; others, however, started to stand out in their efforts. One of the aspects that I love about SWI is how it empowers students.

In that first SWI class, one of my students, a quiet and shy young woman working as a LVN started to produce amazing results. Not only was her lab work impeccable, she was also studying Bergey’s manual and planning her next tests! A few months later, she would be the student representing National University at the ASM conference Presidential Forum. As I watched her glowing by her poster, explaining her work, and interacting easily with scientists and fellow students, I felt almost like a proud parent.

The magic repeated again and again with each SWI course. In 2015, the student who volunteered to present her work at the AAAS meeting student poster competition was an older student who never in her life imagined attending a science conference.

While one of the original reasons of SWI was to increase the number of STEM graduates, I see its impact on education even broader. To make students (any students!) aware of the challenges and excitement of science and give them the possibility to live it from the beginning to its culmination in a public presentation is a huge value. Our society needs citizens who know and appreciate science, and the world needs more awareness of the antibiotic crisis.

It is a win-win for everybody! 

ANA MARIA BARRAL'S STUDENT PRESENTING ATASM CONFERENCE

SWI’s Impact on My Students – by Todd Kelson, Brigham Young University

Todd Kelson's student Heitor Nagliati proudly presenting at the 2015 NIH IDeA Western Regional Conference

by Todd Kelson

Recently, I attended a research conference with two of my undergraduate students who were presenting their research results on the Small World Initiative (SWI). I was standing off to the side, and a faculty member from another college who knew I was involved in SWI asked me, “How is the student response to this lab?” This was my answer: A typical lab looks a little like this - Students come to lab and immediately go to the incubator where their plates are stored. They look at their plates and begin telling their neighbors what they’ve found, and they are excited to show off their zones of inhibition. They get their lab notebooks off the shelf and begin recording their observations. All of this happens before I ever start my mini-lecture for the day. Compare this to my old fashioned lab, where students sat at their lab bench quietly and waited until I began to speak. Then after my mini-lecture, they opened their lab manual and followed the directions, step-by-step. They couldn’t wait to finish and get out of there.

The Small World Initiative has helped to bring back enthusiasm about science among my freshmen lab students. They comment how excited they are to be doing something that might make a difference for the global threat of antibiotic resistance. They love working in a lab where they get to decide, to some extent, what they will do – and the lab experience is a little different for each and every one of my students. Their excitement energizes me, and I want to be a better teacher for them. Will we ever discover a new antibiotic? I don’t know. But the enthusiasm that my students have for science tells me that it doesn’t matter. They are becoming future scientists who will make a difference.