Curriculum Development

Here I'll put hard-links to pieces of curriculum that I developed or helped to develop.  These can include any labs that write, in-class activities that I develop, or assessments that I fashion.  I will hopefully remember to note if I base these pieces on any existing materials or if it is 100% me.  If I manage to assess the efficacy of these pieces I'll upload them after my original post.

• MMG 302 Research Option development  - A fun project that I developed under the supervision of Dr. Marsh to provide a bit of research experience to his microbiology students.

• BS 171 - Final exam and lab exam  -  Not really worthy of a post in-and-of itself, but I did them so I should talk about them.  These were mostly based on previous exams that were provided to us by Dr. Urbance.  As such they are not solely my creation.  An important thing I did learn during the design of these materials was the need to customize your assessments based on what you focused on in class.  As the course was designed for non-majors I did not stress the specifics of the assays, but more meta-analysis.  So, when designing the exams I avoided questions which focused on the specifics and made sure they understood the basic concepts and processes I attempted to convey.

• MMG 302 - Dilutions worksheet  -  Blog post here!

Professional Development

This is a description of any professional experiences that I have undergone aimed at improving my teaching skills. These can include workshops, conference sessions on teaching or education, and coursework.

• MMG302 Research Option Development - By working in conjunction with Dr. Marsh I was able to experience first-hand the excitement and frustration in developing new materials for a course.  I plan to continue my work with this Research Option in the future to see how it matures.

• SME 870 - Teaching College Science -  This course, taught by the very knowledgeable Dr. Joyce Parker, is designed to provide post-graduate students with a legitimate base to begin their teaching experiences.  The official course information can be found here and I wrote a little about it in my blog over here.

Teaching Philosophy

Well, this I suppose my teaching philosophy changes slightly depending on the goals of my students.  

I expect different things from students destined to go into hard science than those merely taking the course to fulfill some general university requirement.  I could care less if my non-major student have memorized glycolysis as they will never (and I mean never) have to know that in the future.  (Hint, I'm in a PhD program for microbiology and even I don't remember glycolysis).  Other students may find this information essential later in life and would therefore be shamed and tortured for not knowing such "essential information".  Sure, I may have been embarrassed at my qualifying exams for not knowing the Citric Acid cycle, but I hadn't used it prior to or since that time...if that tells you anything.

Citric Acid cycle - just in case I need to look it up at some point.

In the age of the internet (and, well, since the invention of the written word), memorization of things that you'll probably never see again is a gigantic waste of time.  If you're not going to rely on that information on a daily/weekly/monthly basis - just understand the foundations and look up the specifics when they're required.  Basic memorization never sticks around, and institutions have known this for ages...but it still remains a primary focus in so many classes.  But, enough digression, onto the goals for my students and what I promise to them.

In a non-majors course I want my students to understand the basic concepts and to have fun with the material. Students who are non-majors or are just starting out with any material shouldn't be bogged down with the nitty-gritty of it all.  When you're first teaching someone to play a sport (take racquetball for instance) you don't go in and tell them specifically how to hit the ball and outline all the rules, you let them go in and smack the ball around for a few hours.  If you start someone off with restrictions and regulations they won't have any fun with it.  You have to let them find the best parts of the game, the parts that will make them want to come back and eventually want to learn the rules and regulations.  This is what I want to convey to this type of student - science IS fun.  Yes, it's learning, but it's also exploration and trying the dumbest things you can think of.  

Did anyone ever tell me as an undergrad not to pour ethanol into a plastic petri dish and light it on fire? No!  Should they have? Probably.  But, my brief attempt to create a fire-resistant bacteria was probably the most fun I had with science during my studies.  It is easy to lose sight of this as a professor, but I hope to get my students to both appreciate and understand (not memorize) the lessons and science that I'm giving them. 

Dr. Frederick - the man, the myth, the pizzazz.

My expectations for my majors students is much the same.  My fondest (sarcasm!) memories in undergrad were listening to my professor drone on about something while I paid little attention in the back.  This happened in ca. 80% of my courses during my undergraduate studies and I learned everything outside of class - because the professors were just as dry as the book! These professors seem to have lost what I hope to instill upon my students - the joy, the excitement, the pizzazz!  Ok, maybe not the pizzazz.  The reason I mention pizzazz is my favorite professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (my undergrad institution).  His name was Dr. Thomas Frederick and the man had it by the truckload.  While he would talk on and on about immunology and IL-10 and all the others he still had that energy, that joy - and all of that transferred to his students (at 8am to boot).  His enthusiasm for the material and his focus on making us see how interesting the topics were rubbed off on me, and I still remember most of the foundational concepts simply because I still think they're fascinating.

My expectations for my majors students is just that.  I work hard to bring comedy and energy to my lectures and I expect you to learn what I teach, but I expect you to get caught up in it also.  I won't make you memorize things for the sake of memorization, but I expect you to know the foundation concepts that are essential to understanding it, and be able to use those to understand the details and solve new problems that rely on similar ideas.  I hate boring classes, and I hate when my students are bored.  

If you're bored, you aren't going to learn as well, and that's not alright with me.

Teaching Experiences

This section is fairly self-explanatory,  I'll post up anything that I do that will qualify as a teaching experience!

• MMG 408 - Advanced Microbiology Lab - Working under Dr. Kazem Kashefi I was responsible for the supervision and instruction of his students during their laboratory time.  Grading and pre-laboratory lectures were my primary responsibilities over the semester besides 'babysitting' the students during lab time.  As the course was undergoing a regime change I helped re-evaluate the exercises being performed and their overall success and usefulness to the course.

• MMG 302 - Introductory Microbiology Lab (2 Semesters) - Under Dr. Terence Marsh I was again responsible for supervision of students during their laboratory period, organizing the other teaching assistants, and providing pre-laboratory lectures to inform the students of their tasks within the laboratory period.  Additionally I have assisted Dr. Marsh in the re-evaluation of the laboratory manual. Which I wrote about over here.

• BS 171 - Cell and Molecular Biology Lab - My only teaching experience outside of the MMG department was within the BioSci department under Dr. Urbance.  The course was unique within my experience as it entailed me running two laboratory sessions without 'adult supervision'.  I was in charge of an undergraduate TA and all of my students.  I would provide a weekly recitation lecture (50 mins) covering the material for the following week and a small refresher lecture at the start of their lab period.  This was likely the most valuable teaching experience I have had here at MSU as it most closely emulated 'the real thing'.  I learned how to give a successful lecture while balancing my expectations for grading with the topics and ideas I focused on in class.  

• MMG 302 - Research Option Development - Link here 

Teaching Evaluations

Here I'll put up any helpful evaluations that I have received during my teaching experiences.  

MMG 302 (Spring 2012-2013):  

• Currently awaiting responses

Michael Manzella - Curriculum Vitae

Employment History

• Ph.D. Candidate in the labs of Dr. Gemma Reguera and Dr. Kazem Kashefi at Michigan State University (Summer 2009 – Present )

• Identification and isolation of nanowires from Fe(III)-reducing organisms that grow at temperatures up to 121°C and applying the knowledge gained to the development of novel, biobased nanodevices for bioremediation. 

• Collaborative effort with physicists and engineers to use scanning probe techniques and for the development of nanodevices.

• Rotation in Dr. Gemma Reguera’s Lab at Michigan State University (Spring 2009 – Summer 2009)

• Used genetic techniques to create a gene knockout in an environmental bacterium, Geobacter sulfurreducens, which is responsible for the reduction of Fe(III) oxides as well as soluble toxic metals and radionuclides.

• Summer Undergraduate Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh in Dr. Neal DeLuca’s Lab (Summer 2007 – Fall 2007)

• Performed cell culture and chromatography techniques in order to purify the transcription factor ICP4 from HSV1 infected cells. 

Teaching Experience

• MMG-302 (Introductory Microbiology Lab) – 2 semesters

• Supervision, grading, and assessment of exercise efficacy

• Currently involved in the development of an advanced option within MMG-302 for students interested in further microbiological training under Dr. Marsh*

• MMG-408 (Advanced Microbiology Lab) – 1 semester

• Supervision, grading, and assessment of exercise efficacy following a professorial change in the course

• BS-171 (Cell and Molecular Biology Lab) – 1 semester

• This course involved both a laboratory and recitation section

• Weekly recitations involved the creation of lesson plans to inform students of the methodology and history behind the experiments being performed

• ISE 870 (Teaching College Science) – Ongoing graduate course

• Taught by Dr. Joyce Parker this course is designed to prepare post-graduate students for teaching at the college level*

• University Graduate Certification in College Teaching (Natural Science)

• Indicated (*) experiences are being pursued for completion of this certification program

Education

• Michigan State University; East Lansing, MI

• Currently pursuing a PhD in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Department

• Cumulative GPA:  3.71

• Rochester Institute of Technology; Rochester, NY

• Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology – November, 2007

• Overall GPA:  3.90

Publications and Presentations

Publications

• Indumathy Jayamani; Michael P. Manzella ; Alison Cupples (Submitted). RDX Degradation Potential in Soils Previously Unexposed to RDX and the Identification of RDX Degrading Species in One Agricultural Soil.  International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation.

Presentations

Indumathy Jayamani, Michael P. Manzella, Alison M. Cupples.  Development of Biomarkers for Assessing In Situ RDX Biodegradation Potential. SERDP/ESTCP Symposium; December 2008. (Poster Presentation)

• Paxhia, Michael D., Jenna M. Young, Michael P. Manzella, Gemma Reguera.  Using Lipopolysaccharide Truncation Mutants to Investigate Surface Characteristics and Metal Reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens.  UURAF; April 2012. (Poster Presentation)

Awards and Volunteer Opportunities

Awards

• GAANN Fellowship – Interdisciplinary Bioelectronics Training Program
• Jan 2013 - Present
• MSU College of Natural Science Continuation Fellowship
• Summer 2012
• MSU College of Natural Science Summer Fellowship
• Summer 2008

Volunteer Opportunities

• Microbiology and Molecular Genetics representative for the Biomedical and Physical Sciences program
• Recruiting year 2012
• Microbiology and Molecular Genetics recruiting officer
• Recruiting years 2010 and 2011
• High School Engineering Institute assistant instructor
• Summer 2008

Re-evaluation of the MMG 302 lab manual

After several semesters of being a TA for MMG 302 I decided it was time to assist Dr. Marsh in the re-evaluation of the course materials that he provides to the students.  He agreed that it was well-past due and thus we embarked on a semester-long journey.  

As the weeks went on I would take notes on the sections of the lab manual which confused students due to it being poorly worded or simply inaccurate within the current iteration of the course.  My purpose was to smooth out these sections so the students wouldn't have to worry about whether following the manual's instructions would lead them astray.  While small changes always manage to creep into lab courses (merely due to science not always being "an exact science"), it should not be the norm.  

In addition to the small changes such as mis-numbering, odd phrasing, and the occasional change in experimental parameters, there were several aspects which I was more than adamant about changing:

• One main point was that I hoped to change the organization of the experiments within the lab manual to be more congruous with the activities performed in lab.  At the start of most class periods we would have to tell students to begin their day with the 2nd or 3rd experiment presented within the lab manual.  For most students this was a non-issue, but I know that some students enter the lab with a specific 'game plan' and the disruption caused by changing things up like this threw them off.  So, while not an essential change - I thought it was a valuable one. 

• The inclusion of several conclusion questions to expand upon new experiments that were added to the manual was another main focus.  Several new experiments had been added to the course in previous years but questions and conclusions about them had not.  As such, students would receive 'free' points for doing the required tasks, but were not forced (read encouraged) to interpret the data.  In my mind this was a complete waste of both class time and resources.  So, I suggested a few conclusion questions and Dr. Marsh agreed that they were worthy of inclusion in the manual.  Now students will need to demonstrate an understanding of biofilm formation and the growth of mixed cultures on selective media - take that free points!  

• The main lesson that I learned from all of this, however, is to never get too attached to your materials.  Things that are out-dated or dysfunctional should not be kept around.  They don't work for a reason - and unless you figure out what that reason is and fix it, they are doing a disservice to your student.  There were large sections of the manual which students had not touched (or read) for years and therefore there is no reason to make students pay for and cart them around.  I encouraged Dr. Marsh to remove the sections and he agreed that most were unimportant (in terms of the course, of course) at this point in time.  He suggested leaving several in as valuable microbiological techniques which I was unable to argue against.  Regardless, I believe the manual next year will be much slimmer and valuable for the students.  

We shall see how these changes affect the students during the summer semester of 2013 as Dr. Marsh will roll out the new iteration of the manual then.  It is unlikely that it will be perfect, as things seldom are, but I hope that it will lead to a smoother run-through of the course.

Closing question:  Does anyone have something atypical that they like to put into their laboratory materials to help their students with comprehension?