Authoring Lab manual 113 : microbiology for the health sciences : a quest to better prepare students for healthcare and save them a bunch of money

BIO 113 (Microbiology for the Health Sciences) is an introductory-level biology course with 408 seats every year and is taken primarily by pre-nursing, health education & promotion, dietetics, and respiratory therapy majors. The lab manual Dr. Bernstein and I wrote together was created to replace the previous Pearson lab manual, which was not written specifically for Ball State students. When changes needed to be made, it was challenging requesting those from the publisher. As a result the manual often included labs which were not performed at Ball State and didn’t include labs that were performed. The procedures in the lab manual called for equipment not available at Ball State and often needed numerous corrections to be announced to the class before each lab session, making the use of the manual in difficult as a teaching tool. Furthermore, the lab manual was written from what appeared to be a pure microbiology perspective ignoring the primary interests of BIO 113 students. To correct this, under the guidance of and with Dr. Bernstein, I co-authored the first and second editions of “Lab Manual 113: Microbiology for the Health Sciences.”