Is everything everywhere? A hands-on activity to engage undergraduates with key concepts in quantitative microbial biogeography.

ABSTRACT: The ubiquity and ease with which microbial cells disperse over space is a key concept in microbiology, especially in microbial ecology. The phenomenon prompted Baas Becking's famous "everything is everywhere" statement that now acts as the null hypothesis in studies that test the dispersal limitation of microbial taxa. Despite covering the content in lectures, exam performance indicated that the concepts of dispersal and biogeography challenged undergraduate students in an upper-level Microbial Ecology course. Therefore, we iteratively designed a hands-on classroom activity to supplement the lecture content and reinforce fundamental microbial dispersal and biogeography concepts while also building quantitative reasoning and teamwork skills. In a class period soon after the lecture, the stu

SUBMITTER: Vandepol NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11360409 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature