Today was the first day of classes. It is still surreal to start when teaching an online asynchronous course, and I am starting to enjoy the thought process of designing an engaging online introduction to the course. We tried several new things this semester on our Start Here module for the Yeast Metabolic Engineering course. It has been a lot of fun. I’m convinced that community can be created online and have enjoyed reading about online engagement techniques and course design from Flower Darby, Karen Costa, the K. Patricia Cross Academy, and members of the PALM and HITS communities. Tonight I was responding to our comments on our introduction video on my phone and thinking about better discussion prompts. The ASK BIO group has also made me rethink my choices for multiple choice questions too, and I finished recording audio tracks for all module 1 assignments. Nevertheless, my mind kept on returning to gutters…
We presented two posters about Delftia projects at SENCER this weekend. I blogged about the Delftia WikiEdu poster a couple of days ago, and the second poster was on a series of new cases we developed and assessed for the metagenomics course. I have been thinking about Delftia and sustainability lately… and compiling more information with our group this spring to write a review. Several have heard me go on and on about wanting to do a podcast about this microbe… well… today I received an email from a public radio producer asking about microbes in gutters. Turns out several years ago, a talented microbiology student worked with me to do a mini summer project about microbes in household gutters. Michelle Musante is an excellent science communicator and blogged about it with Rob Dunn and YourWildLife in 2017. The sample size was small, yet we were still able to compare shady and sun exposed gutters and their microbial communities. We found some key differences and weird microbes… not much Delftia, if I remember correctly. However, we have consistently found Delftia sequences in DNA extracted from goo from downspouts and drains around campus. I had to tell this person about it. I’ll talk to them more tomorrow. Gutters and downspouts are interesting environments for microbes! Why do we find Delftia in downspouts and drains but not as much in gutters? Temperature may play a part or sampling size… The gutter and downspouts do make me think about why Delftia is found in certain places.
