Faculty directed student research is an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum in Biology at Widener.  Each member of the Faculty makes a presentation on his or her research project to the Freshman class of Biology majors. In addition students are encouraged to discuss their interests with individual faculty members and can pursue a research project by working in a biology faculty mentor's laboratory. The department offers a  Research Methods course (BIOL 299) that is usually taken as an elective in the sophomore year. Students can also apply for elective Independent Study Research course credit (BIOL 499) with a faculty sponsor. Reports on these research projects are presented at Widener University's annual "Honors Week" Science symposium. Many students also submit abstracts on their projects for inclusion in the program at the annual meeting of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR).  The NCUR meetings are held at University sites throughout the USA. Travel expenses for the student presenters are paid by Widener University.

        For the past several years I have been developing an investigative project based upon my research for inclusion into the laboratory of our Microbiology course. The goal of this project is to incorporate a research component directly into the curriculum of a course to stimulate student interest in the process of scientific discovery. A biochemist, Dr. Robert Morris, and I presented a report on this Streptomyces laboratory project exercise at the 1997 annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

      One of the fundamental properties of the "Microbial World" is diversity.  Bacteria are both structurally and metabolically diverse and the filamentous Actinomycetes are among the most interesting of the "atypical" bacteria.  The Actinomycetes play a key role in biodegradation in the soil and members of the genus Streptomyces produce the majority of natural antibiotics employed in chemotherapeutic treatment of infectious diseases.  Despite this they are often not studied in the curriculum of introductory undergraduate Microbiology laboratories.  This is perhaps because they are classic "slow growers" in culture and handling them requires some additional techniques compared to E. coli or Staphylococcus aureus.
This 10 to 12 week Laboratory Project Exercise employs many techniques already incorporated into the syllabi of most undergraduate Microbiology laboratories such as:

• serial dilution and spread plating


• streak plating and isolation of pure cultures, and


• the Kirby Bauer Antibiotic Sensitivity Assay

      To view an outline of the Streptomyces Laboratory Project Exercise including figures from the ASM poster CLICK HERE.