GMU:Humus-Micro-Habitats

Credits: 6 ECTS, 4 SWS

Dates: 04.11. – 08.11.2019 (10:00 – 17:00)
Every day from 10-12 coffee discussions - OPEN for EVERYONE (Room 204) Venue: Marienstraße 7b, DIY BioLab (Room 202)

THIS IS THE WIKI FOR THE COURSES IN SS 2019

Syllabus

Our air, soil and water as well as all plants and animals contain complex ecosystems.

This course will introduce you to various creatures colonizing the ground beneath our feet and give you the opportunity to experience methodologies and experimental strategies that are used in the natural sciences. While working in the DIY BioLab (Chair of Media Environments) you will learn how to think like a microbiologist and what it means to do scientific research. Educational objectives include literature research, experiment design, result documentation, discussion and scientific writing.

The module will be structured in a flexible way, tailored to the needs of the participants and includes lectures as well as practical work in the laboratory. Attendance during the 5 days of the course, as well as the delivery of detailed project documentation (paper, artwork, etc.) until the end of the semester is required.

The 5 day intensive course is integrated into the wider concept of the project module Soil-Humus-Earth (Prof. Ursula Damm) as well as the module Raised Beds and Pets (Mindaugas Gapsevicius).

Students

Projects

...

Questions

What is humus?

Which different types of organisms live in the soil?

How is soil life interacting / what is the soil food web?

Which methods are suitable to learn more about soil microbes?

Basic concepts

Life

"There are over a 100 definitions for 'life' and all are wrong"
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170101-there-are-over-100-definitions-for-life-and-all-are-wrong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life#Definitions
Since there is no unequivocal definition of life, most current definitions in biology are descriptive. Life is considered a characteristic of something that preserves, furthers or reinforces its existence in the given environment. This characteristic exhibits all or most of the following traits:

   Homeostasis 
   Organization
   Metabolism
   Growth
   Adaptation
   Response to stimuli
   Reproduction

Organism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organism
In biology, an organism (from Greek: ὀργανισμός, organismos) is any individual entity that exhibits the properties of life. It is a synonym for "life form".

Microorganism

Living beings that are too small to be seen with the (human) eye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microorganism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interactions_with_microbes

The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from ancient times, such as in Jain scriptures from 6th century BC India and the 1st century BC book On Agriculture by Marcus Terentius Varro. Microbiology, the scientific study of microorganisms, began with their observation under the microscope in the 1670s by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.

Suggested resources regarding the proposed projects/topics

Chitosan from microbes

Microbial photography

Related Projects from the DIY Biolab @Bauhaus

please add projects!! :)

PDFs

https://exploringtheinvisible.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/manual2013.pdf

Links