Tonight I watched the ASMCUE 2022 microbrew “Teaching microbiology with poetry: Connecting lower and higher order cognitive skills.” Suparna Chatterjee has two Ph.D. degrees: one in microbiology and one in curriculum and instruction! They presented this short microbrew on their approach to teach microbiology with poetry at Arkansas Tech University. Chatterjee teaches several courses and is an assistant professor. They teach undergraduate students in a rural area with many first-generation college students. Chatterjee spoke about the need to align course activities and assessment strategies. They spoke about students being “afraid of interacting with content in some cases. Chatterjee used a Google Jamboard to engage participants Chatterjee explained Bloom’s taxonomy and LOCS and HOCS (lower and higher order cognitive skills) and UDL. Chatterjee used a poem about antibiotics by Dr. Pradip K. Banerjee. Students work in groups, discuss, and complete a worksheet and reflection with the goal of including both lower and higher order thinking, according to Chatterjee. They noted that starting with poetry supported different ways of interacting with the content, created a safe space, and helped create a space where voices could be heard. One question asked by a participant was how to separate poetry skills from microbiology skills. Chatterjee explained that the goal was to support multiple ways of interacting with the content and thinking critically about the concepts.
