Brief Overview to Using This Book

1.0. Overview

This book is intended to be a resource to support instructors and students to get the most out of the TWiM podcasts as a learning tool. The TWiM podcasts can be a resource for independent study, yet it can also be a resource instructors integrate in their courses as in class activities or as homework. They can select podcasts that are relevant for the content of their course, use these podcasts as a way to introduce students to reading and understanding scientific papers or to introduce students to a wide variety of topics in microbiology.  All chapters have the same structure, so all of the information you might need is easy to find (see Template Description and Format).  Because this book format does not have a tagging system, we included a specific identifier for each Vision and Change concept and each ASM Fundamental Statement (see tables at the end of this chapter).  You can use these identifiers to search the book for relevant concepts.  Alternatively, we have a google spreadsheet with the topics that you can download and use to sort/filter: PARM Sorting.

2.0. The Podcast Section

2.1. Microbiology Alignment Resources

To help you select podcasts that are relevant for you, podcasts are classified in Section 2.0 by the Vision and Change core concepts and also the 2024 ASM Fundamental Statements.  These were selected by the students involved in the project and we asked for the top three aligned concepts for each, but in reality there may be more. Students also identified techniques that were discussed in the podcast (Section 4.0), as well as microbiological general concepts and processes that were discussed (Section 5.0). Students were also asked to include time stamps where the techniques and concepts are discussed, so it is easier to locate these exact segments in the podcast itself.

2.2. Assessment Resources

Instructors involved in the project, along with the core leadership team, crafted multiple choice questions (Section 6.0) that are aligned with the higher and lower order learning goals identified (Section 3.0).  The questions and learning goals are specific for the podcast and do not assume the students have also read the papers, so they can be used as “stand-alone” activity. The answers are not included in the book, yet they are available as an instructor’s resource, which you can request access to here: Request Access via Form. 

3.0. The Figure Reading Sections

Scientific papers often include visual representations of data that can be difficult for beginning students to understand, let alone interpret. To support faculty in engaging students in this journey into primary literature, we created two additional activities related to, but independent of the podcast listening activity. Although, they can certainly be used in conjunction with the podcast listening activity.  Two figures from the papers discussed in the podcast were selected by students or instructors and are the focus of two independent data interpretation exercises called Figure Reading Exercises.  Students do not need to have read the paper or listened to the podcast to engage in these activities.

3.1. Background Resources

Each figure has a paragraph (Section 7, Experimental Background) that highlights the importance or relevance of the broad topic and includes text to introduce the reader to the figure.  It includes relevant definitions, defines acronyms, and includes other detail that should be used along with the figure and figure legend to answer the assessment questions.

3.2. Assessment Resources

Instructors involved in the project, along with the core leadership team, crafted multiple choice questions (Sections 7.1.2 and 7.2.2 ) that are aligned with the higher and lower order learning goals that we also crafted (Sections 7.1.1 and 7.2.1). The questions and learning goals are specific for each figure and do not assume the students have also read the papers or listened to the podcast, so they can be used as “stand-alone” activities.  Because these activities are meant for beginning students, the questions typically start with several orientation, identification, or experimental design questions, then progress to analysis and interpretation questions.  These assume that students know the meaning of positive and negative controls and independent and dependent variables. The answers are not included in the book, yet they are available as an instructor’s resource, which you can request access to here: Request Access via Form. 

4.0. Accessibility

To make TWiM podcasts more accessible to all users we have purposely included several features, including transcripts, alternative text for images, and use of header sections.

4.1. Transcripts

Transcriptions of the TWIM episodes are either available in our transcript folder (Access Podcast Transcripts) or are available on the TWiM podcast page (https://www.microbe.tv/twim/) included in this book.  Research into learning tells us that many find it useful to be able to read along or to look up specific sections for better understanding. This also enables people with hearing and language challenges to get the most of the podcasts.

4.2. Alternative Text

To make these exercises adaptable to screen readers, each image has descriptive alternative text.

4.3. Section Header Use

To better enable use with screen readers, each chapter is organized with relative section headers.

5.0. Concept Identifier Tables