Virtual Microbiology 2017

Assalamualaikum and Hai.

I am going to rant about virtual microbe, just like the title of this post.

So, this assignment worth 20% of carry marks for all three subjects; Microbial Pathogenicity, Microbial Genetic and Immunology.

We collaborated with UKM and UM students. However, surprisingly, from what I heard from other groups is that UKMand UM students, this assignment is not a priority for them. They don't even have marks for this assignment. Basically they are doing this just for fun. But here is the problem with doing something for fun. You don't really do it. 

It is a collaboration project. However, I can say that all the works were done by UPM students. Other students did not really being responsive towards us. Did not really cooperate with us. Our first zoom discussion was a total disaster. Second zoom discussion? Don't even think about it. 

The final product is mainly focusing on literature review. I do not mind if we need to teach them on how to produce a literature review. But is not an easy thing to do it virtually. Moreover, we are trying to teach a bunch of students who don't really want to learn. Another level of difficulties. 

Our popplet and padlet discussion?............

It is really not fair for us to do all the things that was supposed to be done in a group. And we were ignored not once or twice. Well actually I lost count,

I am truly sorry that this reflective journal sounds very rude. But this is what I really feel about this project.

This project is a brilliant project. I don't deny that. It is a brilliant project IF other universities treat this project like it is an important project, just like UPM students did.

I hope we can focus more on developing our own students without stressing them out. 

Thank you.

p/s: Compare with my previous post

Virtual Microbe!

Assalamualaikum and hai! It's been a while right hehe. So as usual, I am going to rant about our assignments here. This time, it is allllll about virtual microbe! The name of the assignment is already interesting. Because we are literally discussing about microbes virtually. Heheh, 

So as third year student, we discussed about virus as we are learning Virology for this semester. Virus is definitely one interesting creature but also veryyyyy complex. Only one process (well actually step) example like translation or transcription, so many things need to be remembered. Because the one step involves maaannyyyyy step. 

For this assignment, we collaborate with UKM students. I am truly grateful that they make a good team with us! We have a lot of sharing session with them as we kinda expose them with all these apps that Dr Wan taught us (Thank you Dr!). Video discussion is quite fun I guess but if only the internet connection is strongggg. The most challenging part is of course trying to get stable network that enable us to record our discussion smoothly. But yea, it's not that easy. Oh we are using Zoom btw.

Even though, this assignment's topic is on Virus, but we learn a lot more than Virus. This kind of task is not the same as those kinds that we do in classes. Because this requires responsibility and hardwork. It is not easy to have everyone from different places to sit in front of the laptop and discuss about virus. Well basically to discuss on any kind of thing. 

Despite all other things that we need to do, we managed to make this task becomes reality. 

The idea of this assignment is very good because it has the sense of innovation here. But after completing at least two video discussions, I honestly think that we are not ready yet, or I am not ready to collaborate with international students from international universities. There are so many things need to be improved. Especially network. Trying to get the network only can turn our mood off.

Next is time zone. Working with people in the same time zone is hard enough as each person have their own schedule. Working with different time zone is definitely harder.

Other than that, language. It is so much different discussing things virtually compared to discussing it offline, in real life, face to face. With so many different slang, accents, it is not going to be easy. 

Even when us just among ourselves, we still need to use Bahasa Melayu a little bit in order to understand, or maybe I can say to facilitate our discussion.  

To me, doing something new is not only about completing it. It is also about measuring how much we accomplish it. And it is completely fine to fail for the first time. We can stay at level 1 and take time trying to improve, making so many attempts before proceeding to level 2. And from the first attempt, we need to take corrective action, before simply proceeding to level 2. 

So I guess that's all from me. Thank you Dr Wan for giving us the opportunity to try and learn something new. 

Bye! 

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL!

1.       1.  The learning outcome is the ecology of microbes had been known. We get to know the types of ecology involve such as soil, water, and atmosphere. The involvement of microbes in our surrounding and daily life can be identified more deeply. If we expose to other people who don’t really have microbiology background, it is going to be quite shocking for them to know that we live with microbes and depend on microbes in so many way.

2 

   2. What have I learned from microbial ecology is the involvement of microbes in our environment. How the interaction actually works two ways. The microbes use the ecology as their source of nutrient which enable them to grow and survive while the ecology gets the benefit from the microbes. But there are also microbes which give negative effect. Learning microbial ecology, makes me realize that not only things that can be seen with our naked eyes are crucial in maintaining the balance in our environment, but also the things that can’t be seen by our naked eyes. In fact, some of them actually contribute quite a big part in our ecology.

3.  3.  The experience from Microbe and Us project that me and my groupmates get is we learnt how to produce a documentary video and also article. Even though before this we had produced a few video, but this documentary video is not really the same. It was different in content and also we included narration. For the article, it was a very new experience as we never write any article before. We also made an interview with one of our lecturer, Prof Shuhaimi. The interview was smooth because Prof Shu was very cooperative and he gave us the informations we needed as well as new information. It was fun working with people who has wide knowledge but never hesitate to share their knowledge.

4. Microbial ecology can be related to most of the subject we already took earlier semester. This is because, as we are taking microbiology course, for sure the focus is on microorganism. Learning all these ecology is related to its morphology, characteristic, the function and many more. The knowledge gained from this subject can be used in the next semester especially when we are going to do our final year project. It is important to know about the microbes and where to isolate them. Without knowing where to isolate them, and also the source of nutrient, how can we grow the microbes for our final year project.

THE AWESOME MICROBES CARNIVAL!

On 19th and 20th of November, we had successfully organized an event,THE AWESOME MICROBES CARNIVAL!!!!

This event was actually to give awareness about microorganisms as they live among us and we live among them. People often have the assumption that all bacteria are bad and can cause negative effects only. We want people to know that there are also beneficial bacteria, as well as virus. Most of them are used in technology too. We invited UPM students, school students and also university students. 

What interesting about this carnival is that we have a lot of things to do. First, we have the entrance which is the tunnel. Tunnel provide the history of researchers and scientist who studied on microorganisms.

Dr Irwan in the tunnel yo!

Second, we provide microscopes so that visitors could experience on how to use them. They could observe the beautiful cells themselves and it could make them appreciate the microorganisms more.

Third, we also brought a 3D model printer. This was the most expensive among all. We want to show to visitors the process of printing and with the 3D model, they could touch them and look at structure more clearly. This could help they to understand more.

3D Printer Machine

Fourth, we have the posters and all. This one was actually assignment for Sem 1 and Sem 3 student. The evaluation was on Friday. Through out the event, we explained about our posters to the visitors and of course answered all their questions. 

 

Our group: Mitochondria

The last one, we provide activities and games. The games are stacking Petri dish, streaking, Photo Puzzle, Microbes Memory, Microbes and Ladder, Kahoot and Acideroid games. For me, visitors enjoyed those games very muchhhh as some of them even tried the games more than once. Well of course they were sooo eager to win the prizes!

Photo Memory

Acideroid Game

Stacking

Photo Puzzle

Oh and yes! We also sell fooooooood. Basically the ingredients are made up of microbe.

From this event, what I learned the most is we should really well prepared when we organize an event. We managed to complete everything right before the event but still, it should complete earlier. Team work and cooperation are VERY important. Without those to, this event couldn't be successful. 

We always must have back up plan if anything happen. We also need to think fast to make any decision. It is not about you are in which committee. But it is about you are in the team. The responsible held by each one of us is equal. 

Surely, this event taught me how to organize thing as I am one of the committee for Activities and Games. Distributing task is not a simple and easy thing to be done. It needs a whole team to cooperate and to work together. 

Most of all, organizing an event is nothing if we just want other people to learn, and not us. So, if we do not know about something, we should just be honest and try to find out about it. It does not matter if the visitors know more than us about what we are explaining. It is the learning process that matter. 

Lastly, I hope for the next event, all of us can do better, as a family. :)

Intracellular Structures of Prokaryotes.

Assalamualaikum!

 

So in this entry, I'm going to write about intracellular structures of prokaryotes.

 

As we all know, prokaryote means no nucleus. 

This is briefly the differences of prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

 

 

And here is a picture of a bacterium with the intracellular structures.

 

 

It's gonna be a lot to write if we want to list down all the structures and their functions. And because of that, I would like to focus on just one structure which is not included in the picture above, Endospore.

 

 For me, endospore is quite interesting because of its characteristics which can withstand extreme condition. It also need special dye to stain it, so that we can observe it under microscope. 

 

 

Endospore also have few positions;

 

 

 

These are some things that I could share here. I will update this entry if I find anything more interesting.

That's all for now. Thank you! 

 

 

Cell Wall and Membrane Structure of Prokaryotes.

Assalamualaikum and hi:) 

I'm going to continue previous entry with next topic which is about cell wall. We have been learning about cell wall since our first semester. As Dr Wan said, we should have been able to identify and classify type of cell wall.

For me, what are the things that are important in this topic is about the functions of each structures and the differences between gram positive and gram negative bacteria.

I find out a new way to remember a little bit about gram positive cell wall. Well it might be simple, but it could help us from being confused between gram positive and gram negative. Especially during exam(well our brain least function during exams right? Or maybe just my brain).

For gram posi+ive:

+hick peptidoglycan

+echoid acid

So from here, we know that gram positive have thicker peptidoglycan compared to gram negative. And gram positive have techoid acid as well, which gram negative have none. 

Oh yes, this maybe could help too.

 

 And it is important too, to recognize the differences between cell wall of archaea and cell wall of bacteria.

So basically these are the things that I would like to highlight in this entry. 

Till then!

Introduction to Prokaryotes

Assalamualaikum and hi! This is my first entry for my third semester. So here we go. 

Our first topic is actually not something new to us. It is aaaalllll about prokaryotes. But there are few new things of course. We learned about proteobacteria. 

Over all there are six of them;

 

Alphaproteobacteria
 Betaproteobacteria
Gammaproteobacteria
Deltaproteobacteria
Epsilonproteobacteria
Zetaproteobacteria  

 

Just click on them to find out more okayyy.

 

I also found out that Deinococcus radiodurans is actually called as 'Conan the Bacterium'.

 

Why is it called with a name like that??

For those who have the same age as me, or basically 90's kids, we only know about Detective Conan, that famous Japan cartoon hahaha so of course we are going to wonder why this bacterium is called as 'Conan'. The name actually is originated from a movie entitled, 'Conan The Barbarian'. In this movie, Conan is the main character. He is very brave and strong of course. So basically Deinococcus radiodurans is called with that name is because of its characteristics which able withstand any extreme conditions. 

Well, I actually learned 2 new things. About the movie(haha) and what 'Conan' is all about. 

 

 

 I think this is enough for this entry. Gonna continue on next entry!

 

Deinococcus radiodurans

The movieeeee

 

Last Day of Lecture

Today was the last day of lecture. The topic was about Aspect in Biotechnology. Well, I am not going to talk much about today's lecture on this entry. But more to summarize this semester. Taking Microbiology 2 course is not as easy as taking Microbiology 1 course in semester 1(which is no that easy as well). The first chapter was totally a new thing for me. 

As I am new to the topic, it was quite hard for me to adapt well. But that's the challenge in taking this course right? The following topics are those I had learned before, so, it was like a recap for me. However, I need to read the all over again in order to memorize them as there are so many facts rather than process. 

For someone who loves to learn about process, I love immunology chapter, but I do not really know where it went wrong as I got a quite low marks in Test 2. So, for thus upcoming final exam, I really hope I am going to do it VERY well, because my carry marks from Test 1 and Test 2 are not that good. I hope Dr Wan will help me a lot on my assignments' marks hehehehe. Thank you Dr Wan for this half of semester 2. See you next semester, insyaAllah! :)

Thank you.      

Biogeochemical Cycles

Actually, we continued the topic of principle of ecology a little bit but I think what I explained in previous post had all the big picture of that topic. So I will just move on to the next topic which is Biogeochemical Cycles.

Dr Wan asked us to answer a question on Padlet.

And again, my internet connection is very slow so I will upload the picture of the padlet later.

With decomposers, recycling of nutrients will occur. But without decomposers, nutrients are trapped. 

The characteristics of biogeochemical cycles are; they are transformed and cycled through oxidation-reduction reactions, and all cycles are linked. 

The cycles are; carbon cycle, sulfur cycle, iron cycle, manganese cycle and nitrogen cycle.

Microbial Group and Principle of Microbial Ecology.

 Microbial group is based on size of population and not individual growth. The methods of microbial growth are;

Binary fission--budding--fragmentation--formation of spores--sexual reproduction.

 

The physical growth requirements are;

light--temperature--pH--water activity and osmotic pressure.

The chemical growth requirements are;

water--carbon--oxygen--nitrogen,phosphorus,sulfur--special growth factors--trace elements

 

 There are 2 major nutritional concern; 

source of energy and source of carbon(light, carbon dioxide, organic molecules,inorganic molecules)

 

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We learned about what is ecology and the hierarchy

(species--populations--communities--ecosystems--biosphere)

 

Homeostasis is dynamic balance of processes materials and organisms in the ecosystem and biosphere. 

 But, how to balance the ecosystem?

 

The flow of energy balance the ecosystem.

 

This flow of energy starts with producers--consumers--decomposers.

And there are few important things about energy; energy itself does not recycle-- it cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transferred. However, conversion of energy is never 100% efficient.

 

 

 

 

Because of Baksis

So every semester, at this point of semester, lecturers have to face the fact that half of class will be missing. Of course, because of Baksis. Mine was last week, that's why my entry for last week was just one entry hehehe. So, as half of my classmates went to Baksis, Dr Wan decided to assign us with one task. Which was, asking us to make a quiz and those people who went to Baksis, will have to anwer it later (at first, then us also who did the quiz must anwer it as well hmm).

So the quiz must be done using EDPUZZLE. You guys can try it at home, sign up as teacher okayy. We were divided into groups. My group's topic was on archaea. So we used this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W25nI9kpxtU 

The video was basically about the characteristics, morphology, reproduction and diversity of archaea. Students must answer the question based on the video (supposedly). So here is some of the things you could find on EDPUZZLE. 

 Okay just one photo haha. As this was the only thing did last Friday, so that's all for now. Til then.

Presentation Day

So today was my group presentation day, Protozoa. Basically we explained about the morphology, nutrition, locomotory organelles, reproduction, and classifications. Here, I attach the mind map we had done using popplet. 

My part was on the reproduction. Reproduction is divided into two, asexual and sexual. For asexual, protozoa undergoes binary fission while for sexual, protozoa undergoes conjugation.

Next, the presentation from virus group.

 In my opinion, popplet is a really good medium for students to do a group work efficiently. However, taking myself as an example, I don't really catch up the presentation using popplet as there will be only mind map and other points mostly explained verbally. For me, I can't really understand it as I need both visual and verbal explanation. So, I actually do not cover these topics well yet. Of course I am going to revise them later. Hence, not much I can write for now.

Till then. 

Algae and Fungi.

So today was Algae's and Fungi's group turn to do their presentation.

Basically, they explained about the general things which are the characteristics, morphology, reproduction, divisions and benefits.

I am trying to insert the pictures of their popplet as well but my internet connection now is so slow, so maybe later I'm gonna upload it. 

Archaea kind of day

It was archaea group's turn to present. Here, attached the mind map done by archaea group.

So, there are 4 categories based on its cell wall ---- Gram -ve bacteria + cell wall, Gram +ve bacteria + cell wall, Bacteria lacking cell wall and the archaebacteria. 

The extreme habitats for archaea are cold and hot environments, high salinity and anaerobic environments. 

The unique features of archaea are the cell wall, membrane lipids, metabolism and genetics.

Special cell wall for Methanogens-- the benefits are: methane--> clean burning fuel--> energy for heat and electricity. Crenarcheota is the only known archaea with outer membrane.

Metabolism -- use many sources of energy --- phototrophs, lithotrophs, organotrophs.    

We also did some SCL questions, which Dr Wan asked us to find the answer by searching some related journals. For my group, the question was  explain the adaptation of archaea to withstand acidic conditions. Well, I couldn't recall the padlet page, so I will just explain how archaea withstand acidic conditions, based on the journal.

cidophilic enzymes have optimal structure and stability in acidic environments and have been shown to be catalytically active at pHs as low as 1. Most known acidophiles are also thermophiles, and hence their proteins reflect thermophilic features. Interestingly, the adaptation of acidophilic proteins to pH is unclear and inconsistent.

Acidophilic proteins must adapt to the low pH because acid interferes with the charge on many residues. At low pH many polar charged residues become protonated and, therefore, their charges change. This has the possibility of disrupting stabilizing structural interactions, unfolding the protein.

While the specific adaptation has not been explored in great detail, the activity of these proteins at low pH seems to be attributed to the prevalence of acidic (negatively charged at a neutral pH) amino acids on the surface of these enzymes and proteins.

That's all for this entry. Thank you!

Presentation Day (Bacteria)

I honestly do not really understand the presentation as they had to talk very quickly because there was time limitation for each person to present. I couldn't really catch up what they were trying to say.

But the Q&A session were quite excellent as they could answer all the question that were being asked by other groups. Here are the questions: 

Presenter: Dayana

After the presentation, we continue the class with lecture on bacteria. Monera kingdom are divided into 4 categories based on the cell wall ( gram +ve, gram -ve, bacteria lacking cell walss, archaeabacteria). Important features for cell morphology are cell wall type, gram stain reaction, shape, size, grouping and endospore presence.

These are the only things that I could recall. I will edit this entry when I know what to write more! Hehe