The Internet has changed the way teachers and students access information and build knowledge. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for both teachers and students and a demand for new methodologies of remote learning. In the life sciences, mixing online content with practical activities represents an even greater challenge. In microbiology, the implementation of an active teaching methodology, the #Adopt project, based on the social network Facebook®, represents an excellent option for connecting remote education with classroom activities. In 2020, the version applied in high school, “Adopt a Microorganism”, was adapted to meet the demands of emergency remote education owing to the suppression of face-to-face activities caused by the pandemic. In the present study, we assessed how the change in methodology impacted the discourse richness of students from high school integrated with technical education in the Business Administration program of the Federal Institute of São Paulo, Sorocaba Campus. Three questionnaires related to the groups of microorganisms (Archaea, Bacteria, Virus, Fungi, and Protozoan) were applied. The students’ responses in the 2019 and 2020 classes were compared concerning content richness and multiplicity of concepts through the application of the Shannon diversity index, an approach that is generally used to assess biodiversity in different environments. The observed results suggest that remote learning provided students with a conceptual basis and richness of content equivalent to that achieved by students subjected to the hybrid teaching model. In conclusion, this study suggests that the #Adopt project methodology increases students’ discourse richness in microbiology even without face-to-face traditional classes.
The internet has changed the way teachers and students access information and build knowledge. The COVID-19 pandemic has recently created challenges for both teachers and students, demanding new methodologies for remote learning. In Life Sciences, mixing online content with practical activities represents an even greater challenge. In Microbiology, the implementation of an active teaching methodology, the #Adote project, based on the social network Facebook®, represents a great alternative to associate remote education with classroom activities. In 2020, the version applied in high school, \Adopt a Microorganism", was adapted to meet the demands of emergency remote education due to the suppression of face-to-face activities caused by the pandemic. In the present study, we assessed how the change in methodology impacted the learning of Microbiology and the richness of the discourse of high school integrated to technical education in Business Administration of the Federal Institute of São Paulo, Campus Sorocaba. For that, three questionnaires related to the adopted microorganism species were applied. The responses of students in the 2019 and 2020 classes were compared in terms of content richness and multiplicity of concepts through the application of the Shannon diversity index, an approach usually used to assess biodiversity in different environments. The observed results suggest that remote learning provided students with a conceptual basis and richness of content equivalent to those achieved by students submitted to the hybrid teaching model. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the #Adote project methodology can be used in both hybrid and remote models, indicating that it is a viable alternative not only for teaching Microbiology, but possibly for other areas of knowledge.
The Internet is increasingly present in the daily lives of young people, being an important tool when thinking about education. With the advances in computing and mobile telephony, consultations on the network represent a fundamental stage of learning in any area of human knowledge. In fact, the Internet currently represents an extension of the physical environment of the classroom, allowing access to information almost instantly. In this scenario, Blended Learning emerges as a development involving active methodologies that are based on a mix between traditional and virtual teaching, making the student the main protagonist of their learning process. In this context, the #Adote Project, developed with high school students, inserted in the "Adopt a Microorganism" strand, and also applied to higher education students, with Basic Microbiology discipline, offered to USP Dentistry course students, in the "Adopt a Bacterium". The project has as its base and objective the use of Facebook® as an educational platform, where posts and discussions are carried out, mediated by researchers, undergraduate and graduate students. The purpose of this work was to verify if the Blended Learning developed through the #Adote project proves to be effective for the students' learning. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project needed to be applied to the remote emergency model, due to the suppression of face-to-face activities at USP. As a result, the assessment of student performance in this new teaching-learning format has become a new objective of this work. The evaluation methodology used was based on questionnaires, applied at different times, which allowed a careful evaluation of the results achieved. After analyzing the students' responses, it was possible to conclude that, even in an emergency format, the teaching methodology employed led to an increase in the richness of the discourse on microbiology topics. Similar results were achieved with students undergoing training in the hybrid and remote models, which allowed for a gain in learning, an increase in content and a decrease in conceptual errors. As the main conclusion of the presente work, the fact that the methodology used in the #Adote project, in its two aspects, proved to be an important tool for the teaching-learning process in topics related to microbiology.
Traditional lab classes of microbiology are common in several educational institutions, which can provide a learning experience disconnected from the myriad of experiments performed in research laboratories. Attempting to promote an authentic learning opportunity of the functioning of a bacteriology research laboratory, we developed the ‘Real-Lab-Day’, a multimodal learning experience to develop competencies, abilities, critical analysis, and teamwork skills for undergraduate students. Students were divided into groups and assigned to research laboratories to be mentored by graduate students, to design and carry out scientific assays. Undergraduate students were introduced to methods such as cellular and molecular assays, flow cytometry, and fluorescence microscopy, as tools to address scientific questions about bacterial pathogenicity, bacterial resistance, and other topics. To consolidate their learning, students created and presented a poster in a rotational panel of peer learning. The perceived learning and interest in microbiology research were improved by the Real-Lab-Day experience, and more than 95% of the students approved the Real-Lab-Day as a teaching tool in microbiology. Students exposed to a research laboratory had a positive experience of the teaching method and over 90% saw it as beneficial to improve their understanding of the scientific concepts discussed during lectures. Likewise, their interest in pursuing a career in microbiology was stimulated by the Real-Lab-Day experience. In conclusion, this educational initiative depicts an alternative methodology to connect students to the research and offers an opportunity to be in close contact with experts and graduate students, who gain teaching experience.
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