Assignments

Have a planner/calendar for this semester filled out with :

• your class schedule; from each of your classes syllabus schedules
• homework due dates, exam dates, &c, &c for all of your classes
• relevant info from the NCSU fall semester academic calendar from the Registration & Records web site
• breaks, holidays, scheduled personal things, &c

This planner can be in any format, including electronic. This will not be taken up (you won't have to do without it while I grsade them), but I'll look at them in class, so be prepared to show them to me. If yours is electronic, be sure you have what you need to show it to me.

The 2011 Common Reading for NCSU is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (by Rebecca Skloot), a book with particular relevance to Microbiology. All incoming students should have been given a copy of this book during Orientation, and are expected to read it before classes start. We will discuss this book in class.

After our discussion in class, prepare a short description about one aspect of this book that you found particularly interesting. Was Henrietta Lacks treated fairly? What about her family? What do you think of her families reaction? How have HeLa cells been useful? Are HeLa cells a new species? The possibilites are endless...

This paper will not be graded by quantity, but by quality. An original, inciteful, organized, and well-written paper might be only one paragraph in length and recieve full credit. On the other hand, a multivolume, rambling stream-of-concisousness, full of error and bereft of point, will be graded harshly.

Preliminary Plan of Work:

Create a preliminary Plan of Work (Degree Plan) on MyPack. Your plan may span 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, or whatever — it should be based on your individual situation. To create or modify your plan of work, you log in to MyPack Portal. The Degree Planner and Degree Audit are located under "Degree Progress/Graduation" on your MyPack home page. If you have difficulty modifying your Degree Plan, please view the Degree Planner tutorial. When you're finished, print out a copy of your Degree Plan (which shows semester-by-semester) and the Degree Audit (which shows all of your requirements), and bring these to class to turn in.

This is a preliminary plan; you are likely to have loose ends, including classes you expect to get AP or transfer credit for once the paperwork goes through, classes you have credit for but you think ought to be placed differently in your degree audit, &c, &c. Make a list of these remaining issues and turn this in with the printout of your plan.

This preliminary POW will not be graded, but the more complete this preliminary version is, the better I can help you with it.

Resources

• Degree audit web site
• Using the New Degree Audit web page
• Degree Planner tutorial
• Course catalog web site
• 8-semester Microbiology plan (for student starting NCSU after summer 2009)
• 8-semester Microbiology plan (for student starting NCSU before Fall 2009)
• Microbiology degree requirements (for student starting NCSU after summer 2009
• Microbiology degree requirements (for student starting NCSU before Fall 2009)

Final Plan of Work:

Edit your Plan of Work to fix any remaining issues and incorporate any second majors, minors, or summer classes you might be planning. When you're finished, print out a copy of your "Degree Audit/Plan of Work" and the "Semester Layout", and bring these to class to turn in. Include a page decribing in detail any remaining issues with your plan and exactly how these will be dealt with.

Fill out the Bacillus isolation worksheet during lab. Answer all of the questions, and sign the Honor Pledge.

• Bacillus isolation worksheet

Send me an email describing 3 internships or jobs that are currently posted at CALS Career Services or other locations for Microbiology majors. (5 pts) Sign up with CALS Career Services and post your resume.

From the CALS Career Services main web page, you can log into ePack to both search for jobs/internships and post your online resume. In case you missed it in class (from Marcy Bullock), use your Unity ID as the Username, then click the "New User" link to have the system email a password to you. Use this password (with you Unity ID) to log on to ePack.

Once you're in ePack, Internships are under "Jobs and Internships". You need to search on JOB Catergories (not employer Categories). They are grouped by CALS on the drop down and over 1000 internships are in the CALS categories.

Once you've created your resume in your favorite word-processing program, you need to save it in a format that ePack thinks is OK: .doc or (preferably) .pdf. IIf you're using some other word processing program, in may be able to save the file as a .doc file. You can also save it as a .pdf file - on Macs, this means "Print"ing the file, then specify in the print dialog box to "Save as PDF". Once you have your resume as a .doc or .pdf file, you should be fine uploading it to ePack.

Resources

• CALS Career Services web site

Fill out the Mock Epidemic worksheet during lab. Answer all of the questions, and sign the Honor Pledge.

• Mock Epidemic worksheet

To start this assignment, ask yourself "What do I want to do for a living?". In other words, what is your career goal?

Of course many, or even most, students will not end up pursuing their original career goal (I did not). And although some students may have a very clear goal, others have only vague goals. Some are dead set on their goal, considering no alternative, whereas others are still "in the market". This is fine. Nevertheless, start by comitting, at least for the purposes of this assignment, to a more-or-less specific career goal.

Once you've identified this career goal, the real work begins. The assignment should include a reasonable educational/training path to attaining this goal, and what you would need at each step to continue on this path. Be specific at all stages - for example, if your career path requires a Ph.D. in Microbial Ecology, how do you get into Grad School? What scores on what test do you need? What GPA is good enough? What classes or experiences do you need? What schools are good ones for this? How many would you apply to? How long will it take you to get your Ph.D.? And once you have your Ph.D., do you need to do a Postdoc? Where would be a good place to do this?

You also need to put this plan into the context of your broader potential life. Planning on getting married? How much might this impact your plans? Is Grad School a good time for kids? Will you need to plan the location of your ultimate home based on your job, personal preferences, or family demands?

At this draft stage, you need to have a complete version of all of the information you think appropriate for the final version. "Draft" does not mean vague or incomplete, but rather a complete (if unpolished) version ready for comments & revision. If you have loose ends or questions, make note of these in the draft.

Be sure to include citations/sources.

Fill out the Food contamination worksheet during lab. Answer all of the questions, and sign the Honor Pledge.

• Food Contamination worksheet

Be sure to address the comments, suggestions, and corrections made on your draft assignment. Also "polish" for spelling, grammar, and organization.

At this point, you will also need to provide me with a detailed "Plan B". This needn't be described in the same detail as your original plan, but should not be superficial. If your original plan really did fall through, why might this happen, and what would you do?