Biofilms and biodiversity: an interactive exploration of aquatic microbialbiotechnology and ecology

The study of biofilms provides a unique educational opportunity to examine ecosystems, biodiversity and applications of environmental biotechnology, T here are many variables that could be studied for measuring the interaction s between bacterial biofilms and invertebrate biodiversity as a method for assessing the health of aquatic ecosystems. These interactions also lend th emselves to an easily replicated model system which can be used to reach a wide audience with an educational opportunity for students as well as a pro fessional development opportunity for teachers. At the foundation of the re search are invaluable basic microbiology skills: strain collection, isolati on, cultivation and characterization. Through the additional process of cha racterizing, identifying and enumerating invertebrate organisms that attach to bacterial biofilms in aquatic ecosystems, there evolved a multidiscipli nary class laboratory activity that has found broad application. This activ ity is captivating not only to undergraduate microbiology students but to m iddle and high school students and their teachers. The demand for informati on about the activity has led to the development of a truly interactive web -based lesson, which in turn has resulted in additional inquiries and furth er refinement of the lesson as an undergraduate independent research course , Both of these are freely accessible on the web, with growing internationa l participation and data exchange.