Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Organization

TTK Department of Microbiology

Code

ktudmikrobb17gm

Title

Environmental Microbiology Practices

Usual semester

Spring

Published semester

2025/26/2

ECTS

5

Language

en

Learning outcomes

Competencies: Knowledge: Aware of the main topics, concepts and terminology of environmental microbiology. Familiar with the most important research methods in microbiology. Learned the most frequently used sampling and laboratory methods in environmental microbiology. Ability: Able to plan and execute microbiological sampling, and the evaluation of results. Able to use the basic concepts and terminology of microbial ecology, and can evaluate data objectively. Able to apply his/her knowledge for understanding ecological phenomena observed in nature. Able to document precisely microbiological investigations. Attitude: Open to learn more about microbiology and related areas in natural sciences. Committed to use his/her knowledge for better understanding of microbial systems, and open to adopt an integrative view. Committed to objectively evaluating data obtained through empirical studies and drawing unbiased conclusions from them. Committed to the conservation of wildlife on the Earth. Autonomy and Responsibility: Able to independently conduct an environmental microbiological study from problem identification to drawing conclusions Responsible for forming scientifically sound opinion concerning ecological problems and environmental science issues. Feels responsible for acquiring scientifically based knowledge, and for high standards in his/her own research.

Course content

The course assumes a basic level knowledge of biology and chemistry. The objective of the course is to provide an advanced-level understanding of the topics in environmental microbiology. Main topics of the practical course: Soil, air and water sampling for microbiological studies. Sampling the surface of objects. Determination of germ counts (spread-plate technique, MPN method). Estimation of microbial activity (Biometer flask). Demonstration of ammonification and dissimlatory nitrate reduction. Coli count determination. Determination the count of bacteria of faecal origin. Determination of chlorophyll-a content of phytoplankton samples. Bright field and epifluorescent microscopy. Gram staining of bacterial cultures. Procedure of culture transfer (subculturing).

Assessment method

gy5 = practical mark (5) (1 failed, 5 excellent) Evaluation is based on the students’ individual performance. The students write a test based on the conducted exercises, which serve as the basis of evaluation.

Bibliography

Task descriptions provided by the course instructor (pdf)

Programmes of the course