About Selected Destination

Destination Service Learning-BIOC17

Science Wing at University of Toronto Scarborough 

My placement was located in SW248 and SW 250 in the Science Wing of UTSC.

Excerpt from BIOC17 syllabus

BIOC17 is a third year Microbiology course offered by the Department of Biological Sciences. The course title is "Microbiology: The Bacterial Cell". It has a weekly lecture component and a 3 hour laboratory component which is mandatory to pass the course. The lab component contributes 41 % to the final grade which includes assessment in the form of assignments, participation credits and lab manual data sheets.

Excerpt from the course syllabus highlighting the course objective

The main goal of this course as outlined in the syllabus is to introduce students to the concept of bacterial physiology and impact of the huge diversity of microorganisms on human health. The lab component provides the skill set which can be directly applied in the job market for example in food industry, blood services and medical microbiology. It is also provides the basic knowledge required for certain fourth year courses and some graduate programs. To view the original syllabus, please click here.

Administration and organization of the course

Hierarchical structure of the course

The course is offered by Department of Biological Sciences. Pre-requisites for this course are BIOB10 & BIOB11 and either one of BIOB12, BIOB33, BIOB32 or BIOB52. The lecture part of this course is taught by Dr. Terebiznik and the labs are coordinated by Dr. Shelly Brunt. Next up in the hierarchy is Daniel the Lab Manager. He is the go to person for the TAs while the labs are running. He sets up student benches each week with the required mix of ingredients needed to perform the experiment. He is also the first point of contact in case of any emergency. TAs directly communicate with the students and I fall some where between the students and the TAs. I have worked with 4 TAs in this course; Darren and Elizabeth on Tuesday mornings and Fraser and Arujan on Wednesday afternoons. The TAs have been really helpful and accomodating throughout the term. I assisted the TAs while they were busy and answered student questions regarding the procedural aspects of the experiements and data analysis. The funding for the expensive equipment and reagents used in the lab comes from the Department of Biological Sciences itself.