Microbiology for Allied Health Students is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements for the single semester Microbiology course for non-majors and allied health students. The book presents the core concepts of microbiology with a focus on applications for careers in allied health. The pedagogical features of Microbiology for Allied Health Students make the material interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the career-application focus and scientific rigor inherent in the subject matter.

The scope and sequence of Microbiology for Allied Health Students has been developed and vetted with input from numerous instructors at institutions across the U.S. It is designed to meet the needs of most microbiology courses allied health students.

With these objectives in mind, the content of this textbook has been arranged in a logical progression from fundamental to more advanced concepts. The opening chapters present an overview of the discipline, with individual chapters focusing on cellular biology as well as each of the different types of microorganisms and the various means by which we can control and combat microbial growth. The focus turns to microbial pathogenicity, emphasizing how interactions between microbes and the human immune system contribute to human health and disease. The last several chapters of the text provide a survey of medical microbiology, presenting the characteristics of microbial diseases organized by body system.

This open lab manual is a remix of Openstax Microbiology, CC-BY 4.0, and created through an Affordable Learning Georgia Round Six Textbook Transformation Grant : https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/biology-textbooks/16/

The lab manual was made to be used with the remixed textbook Microbiology for Allied Health Students, and the textbook has a set of Instructional Materials.

Authors' Description:

This lab manual was created to support a microbiology course for allied health students.

The first section of the manual was adapted from the OpenStax Microbiology textbook, of which a remixed version, Microbiology for Allied Health Students, is used as the text for the course.

The next section, staining methods, encompasses three essential staining procedures used in any microbiology lab.

The manual concludes with descriptions of the major biochemical tests students must perform in order to identify an unknown microorganism. While many traditional lab manuals are lengthy and comprehensive, descriptions of the labs in this manual are kept minimal to encourage students to further research the procedures and results on their own.

The appendix includes a safety contract that each student must sign and submit to the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

This manual was created in partial fulfillment of a grant from the University System of Georgia’s Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation initiative. Special thanks go to Sara Selby for editing and photography.

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