Environmental prevalence of Tc^R

This is the flagship course-based research module of the Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant microbes in the Environment (PARE) program. It engages students in a crowdsourcing effort to provide environmental surveillance data that could lead to identification of “hotspots” or environmental resistance reservoirs. Students perform classic microbiological techniques such as serial dilution and plating, colony counting and colony-forming unit (CFU) calculations. Students are encouraged to create a hypothesis about collection sites that may harbor high or low levels of tetracycline resistance, although outcomes are completely unknown prior to class making this a true discovery project. The “Determining concentration of E. coli” skill-builder activity is recommended to precede the Core PARE module. Instructors can choose whether to sample soil or water. Note that water sampling is in pilot phase. We welcome any feedback and information on your results with the water pilot. 

NOTE: Students will be culturing environmental unknowns. Please use the “request access” page prior to embarking on this project.

Process Overview

Instructional Videos

Downloads

SOIL SAMPLING: Instructor & Student Manual

WATER SAMPLING: Instructor & Student Manual

Data Entry Instruction Slides

Error-checking Spreadsheet Template

Curated Tetracycline Resistance Data through 2019

All files (.zip)