Empowering Undergraduates to Fight Climate Change with Soil Microbes.

ABSTRACT: The burning of fossil fuels to meet a growing demand for energy has created a climate crisis that threatens Earth's fragile ecosystems. While most undergraduate students are familiar with solar and wind energy as sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, many are not aware of a climate solution right beneath their feet-soil-dwelling microbes! Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) harness energy from the metabolic activity of microbes in the soil to generate electricity. Recently, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic transformed the traditional microbiology teaching laboratory into take-home laboratory kits and online modes of delivery, which could accommodate distance learning. This laboratory exercise combined both virtual laboratory simulations and a commercially available MFC kit to c

SUBMITTER: Taylor-Cornejo E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8787709 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature