Microbiology class projects?

surely, you have some kind of direction and instruction from the instructor about the subject for this project! you want to be careful not to pick a subject that is too broad or too constricted. do you think you want to report on a specific organism or the disease it causes? places to look over the different bugs and diseases is on these sites:

• http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/ - national institute of allergy and infectious diseases - you will be able to link to a list of diseases or search for a disease or specific organism
  
• a to z index of topics at the cdc - http://www.cdc.gov/az/a.html
  
• who health topics (tropical disease information) http://www.who.int/topics/en/
  
• zoonotic diseases tutorial http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses/
  

also, if you want to get attention, remember there are other kinds of microbes beside bacteria and viruses such as fungi (yeast), worms, protozoa and parasites. if any of you in the group are inclined toward pediatrics, look at childhood disease causing microbes or the ones that we inoculate kids for. we give tetorifice shots for protection after injuries all the time. do you know what causes lockjaw and why we inoculate for tetorifice? how about the animal lovers in the group? parvo virus kills a lot of helpless puppies. rabies is interesting and can be contracted by both animal and man, but do you know what it is and how it is detected in the lab?

you say something in your post that has me concerned: the people in my group are not very motivated, i'd like to try to get started on this. group projects generally result in the same group grade that everyone gets. when some don't do their share of the work and others step up, the ones who do the work end up becoming very angry with those who didn't pull their weight. not only that, but they become cynical about group projects for the future. instructors assign group projects because they are excellent learning tools for students. you learn many things and you learn them better than you would from a lecture not only about the subject you are presenting, but about organizing, working with others, delegating and getting along. as future leaders (rns are leaders) these are skills you will need so group work is something you will be doing again and again in many ways. here are weblinks of guidelines and rules put together by other college instructors who have had problems with students engaged in group projects. please read over them and use their wisdom.

• http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~sludi/semanual/tableofcontents.html - student survival guide to managing group projects. click on the links to get into the text.
  
• http://lowery.tamu.edu/teaming/morgan1/tsld001.htm - use of teams in classes. a slide show presentation on teamwork, how to create teams and how to work on team projects.
  
• http://www.usq.edu.au/course/material/mkt2001/teamwork.htm - teamwork. site specifically for students to help you in working together in a team.
  
• http://www.academictutorials.com/teamwork/ - team tutorial (click the "next" buttons to navigate through the tutorial)
  
• http://tutorials.mydomain.com/teamwork.htm
  

you are smart to start this project early. start organizing and outlining the details of the presentation. start assigning work to the individual members of the group (assuming you are heading the project). follow up on everyone's progress frequently so you know how far they have gotten (or not gotten). the worst tragedies are discovering the day before these presentations are due that someone doesn't have the work done that they promised. the time to involve the instructor was weeks before. if this instructor was military they definitely understand orders, people not carrying them out and what to do about it