Catalyzing rapid discovery of gold-precipitating bacterial lineages with university students

Abstract

Intriguing and potentially commercially useful microorganisms are found in our surroundings and new tools allow us to learn about their genetic potential and evolutionary history. Engaging students from different disciplines and courses in the search for microbes requires an exciting project with innovative but straightforward procedures and goals. Here we describe an interdisciplinary program to engage students from different courses in the sampling, identification and analysis of the DNA sequences of a unique yet common microbe, Delftia spp. A campus-wide challenge was created to identify the prevalence of this genus, able to precipitate gold, involving introductory level environmental and life science courses, upper-level advanced laboratory modules taken by undergraduate students (juniors and seniors), graduate students and staff from the campus. The number of participants involved allowed for extensive sampling while undergraduate researchers and students in lab-based courses participated in the sample processing and analyses, helping contextualize and solidify their learning of the molecular biology techniques. The results were shared at each step through publicly accessible websites and workshops. This model allows for the rapid discovery of Delftia presence and prevalence and is adaptable to different campuses and experimental questions.

The Potential Role of School Citizen Science Programs in Infectious Disease Surveillance: A Critical Review

“…Four of the 23 CS programs concentrated on microbiological techniques and themes. Students in three of the studies isolated bacterial samples [ 50 , 51 , 52 ], with two of the projects using the Small World Initiative (SWI) protocol [ 50 , 51 ]. At Bowling Green State University, students isolated bacteria, but Davis et al did not comment on data quality and student engagement.…”

Strategies to empower students through open pedagogy and citizen science

“…Past projects include Take a Walk on the Wild Side (2016-2017), Where's Delftia? (2018; (Riley et al, 2020)), and Never Home Alone (2019). Throughout the four years of its facilitation, 3,877 people have contributed 31,153 observations to the projects (Table 3).…”

“…com/ncsu.edu/eng-101-citizen-science /home?pli=1). Goller has included community participation through the use of sampling campaigns (simple CS) that are then analyzed by students enrolled in courses focusing on molecular biology techniques (intermediate CS; (Riley et al, 2020)). Goller's course centers OP through co-creation as students contribute results to a common project and share their methods and approaches.…”

Citizen Science in Postsecondary Education: Current Practices and Knowledge Gaps

“…The focus for most of the papers in the final pool was either the scientific results from data collected by students (e.g., Cosentino et al 2014 , Riley et al 2020 ) or encouragement for instructors who may want to add citizen science to their courses (e.g., Voss and Cooper 2010 , Oberhauser and LeBuhn 2012 , Surasinghe and Courter 2012 , Kridelbaugh 2016 , Hardy and Hardy 2018 ). Only a small subset of the 15 papers was focused, even partially, on the results of assessments of student outcomes from their participation in citizen science.…”