Tutorial: Biology

0-3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Welcome to Pop-Up Labs! In this course, we will follow the whole arc of scientific inquiry and engagement – from project design and sample collection through data generation, analysis, and interpretation. We will partner with university, governmental, and non-profit partners to tackle real-world research questions where answers lie in the microorganisms comprising host-associated and environmental microbiomes. Whether samples derive from salt marsh grasses, soils from our own organic garden, or swabs collected from island foxes, we’ll enter the world of microbial ecology and discover something new. In the spring semester, we will take a deep-dive into computational analysis to explore alpha and beta diversity, taxonomic composition, and differential abundance in QIIME2 and create publication-quality figures in RStudio. The semester will culminate in a final report and presentation that contextualizes results in the scientific literature and clearly communicates findings to our collaborating partners.