Microbiology: An Introduction, 13th Edition

Reach every student by pairing this text with Mastering Microbiology

Mastering^™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools developed to engage students and emulate the office-hour experience, Mastering personalizes learning and improves results for each student. An expanded, robust Mastering Microbiology program works with the text to provide an interactive and personalized learning experience that ensures students learn microbiology both in and out of the classroom. Learn more about Mastering Microbiology.

Opportunities for interactive learning and adaptive practice

• EXPANDED! Interactive Microbiology is a dynamic suite of interactive tutorials and animations that teach key microbiology concepts. Students actively engage with each topic and learn from manipulating variables, predicting outcomes, and answering assessment questions that test their understanding of basic concepts and their ability to integrate and build on these concepts.
• Each Interactive Microbiology module presents information in two parts: one for basic concepts, and one as a “scientific thinking” exercise that requires students to apply what they’ve learned to a novel scenario. Interactive Microbiology explores challenging and important topics including Operons, Biofilms and Quorum Sensing, Aerobic Respiration in Bacteria, Complement, Antibiotic Resistance, and more.
• NEW! Interactive Microbiology modules available for Fall 2018:
• Antimicrobial Resistance: Mechanisms
• Aerobic Respiration in Prokaryotes
• Antimicrobial Resistance: Selection
• Human Microbiome
• NEW! Pearson eText, optimized for mobile, seamlessly integrates videos and other rich media with the text andgives students access to their textbook anytime, anywhere. Pearson eText is available with Mastering Microbiology when packaged with new books, or as an upgrade students can purchase online. The Pearson eText  mobile app offers:

• Offline access on most iOS and Android phones/tablets.
• Accessibility (screen-reader ready)
• Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and night reading mode
• Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, bookmarking, and search tools
• Embedded videos for a more interactive learning experience  

• Dynamic Study Modules help students study effectively on their own by continuously assessing their activity and performance in real time. Students complete a set of questions with a unique answer format that also asks them to indicate their  level of confidence in their answer. Questions repeat until the student can answer them all correctly and confidently. These are available as graded assignments prior to class, and accessible on smartphones, tablets, and computers. Instructors can now remove questions from Dynamic Study Modules to better fit their course.
• Adaptive Follow-Up Assignments can be optionally assigned based on each student’s performance on the original homework assignment and provide additional coaching and practice as needed.  Exclusively available with Microbiology: An Introduction, these question sets continuously adapt to each student’s needs, making efficient use of study time.

Help students tough key microbiology topics

• NEW! In the Clinic Video Tutors bring to life the clinical case scenarios in the chapter-opening In the Clinic features from the printed text. These videos show how concepts in each chapter are relevant to healthcare settings. Topics include: how DNA mutations enable microbes to develop antibiotic resistance; how gut microbes affect metabolism; how dichotomous keys help clinicians identify agents of infection; and signs and symptoms of common microbial infections. Each Video Tutor includes assessments assignable in Mastering Microbiology that are tied to learning outcomes.
• MicroBoosters are a suite of brief video tutorials covering key concepts that some students may need to review or relearn. Titles include Study Skills, Math, Scientific Terminology, Basic Chemistry, Cell Biology, and Basic Biology. MicroBoosters can be assigned in Mastering Microbiology or as Dynamic Study Modules, and are available for self-study in the Mastering Study Area.   
• Big Picture Coaching Activities are paired with the book’s Big Picture: Core Topic and Big Picture: Disease features. Similar to the proven coaching activities that accompany the book’s Foundation Figures, these  assignment options ensure that students master the toughest topics before moving on in the chapter.
• Additional animations include: MicroFlix^™ 3D movie-quality animations with self-paced coaching activities and gradable quizzes help students master the three toughest topics in microbiology: metabolism, DNA replication, and immunology; BioFlix^® 3D movie-quality animations on basic topics in general biology; and Microbiology Animations for over 100 microbiology processes.

Tools for you, the instructor

• NEW! Ready-to-Go Teaching Modules in the Instructor Resources of Mastering Microbiology help instructors efficiently make use of the available teaching tools for the toughest topics in microbiology. Within the Ready-to-Go Teaching Modules, Adopt a Microbe modules enable instructors to select specific pathogens for additional focus throughout the text. Pre-class assignments, in-class activities, and post-class assessments are provided for ease of use. Watch our video to learn about Ready-to-Go Teaching modules.
• Learning Catalytics helps generate class discussion, customize lectures, and promote peer-to-peer learning with real-time analytics. As a student response tool, Learning Catalytics uses students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops to engage them in more interactive tasks and thinking.
• NEW! Upload a full PowerPoint^® deck for easy creation of slide questions.
• NEW! Team names are no longer case sensitive.
• Help your students develop critical thinking skills.
• Monitor responses to find out where your students are struggling.
• Rely on real-time data to adjust your teaching strategy.
• Automatically group students for discussion, teamwork, and peer-to-peer learning.

About the Book

• ASM guidelines: The American Society of Microbiology has released six underlying concepts and 22 related topics to provide a framework for key microbiological topics deemed to be of lasting importance beyond the classroom. These topics identify what students should understand at a deep level, including the big-picture ramifications of those concepts and how they relate to other issues within the field.  The 13th edition explains the themes and competencies at the beginning of the book and incorporates call-outs when chapter content matches one of these 22 topics. This approach helps students and instructors focus on the enduring understandings of the course and provides a teaching tool for instructors to assess students’ understanding and critical thinking skills. Mastering Microbiology content is tagged to these statements in addition to book-specific and global learning outcomes.
• Each Big Picture spread includes an overview that breaks down important concepts into manageable steps and gives students a clear learning framework for related chapters. Each spread includes Key Concepts that help students make the connection between the presented topic and previously learned microbiology principles. Each spread is paired with a coaching activity and assessment questions in Mastering Microbiology.
• Three Big Picture spreads focus on important fundamental topics in microbiology:
• Metabolism
• Genetics
• Immunity
• Eight Big Picture spreads focus on diseases and related public health issues that present complex real-world challenges:
• NEW! Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
• NEW! The Hygiene Hypothesis
• NEW! Vertical Transmission: Mother to Child
• NEW! Bioterrorism
• Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Climate Change and Disease
• Cholera After Natural Disasters
• STI Home Test Kits

Help students connect course content and their future career

• NEW! Exploring the Microbiome boxes illustrate how research in microbiology has changed our understanding of human health and disease. These boxes highlight the possibilities in this exciting field and present insights into some of the newly identified ways that microbes influence human health. In addition, they provide examples of how research in this field is done—building on existing information, designing fair testing, drawing conclusions, and raising new questions.
• Clinical Content is included throughout the chapter:
• Each chapter opens with an In the Clinic scenario and includes Critical Thinking Questions, which encourage students to think like nurses and spark student interest in the forthcoming chapter content. These scenarios are supported by new In the Clinic Video Tutors in Mastering Microbiology.
• Clinical Cases woven through every chapter help motivate students to think critically about the chapter content and provide them with practical application to their future careers in allied health. Each case segment includes critical thinking questions that students should be able to answer after reading the chapter material. Each clinical case has an accompanying Mastering Microbiology coaching activity.
• Clinical Focus boxes present clinical scenarios based on real-life cases. Students are asked to think like microbiologists, asking and answering questions as they proceed through the cases

Give Students Opportunities to Practice and Study

• Check Your Understanding Questions and Figure Questions emphasize critical thinking rather than memorization. Check Your Understanding questions appear at key points throughout the chapters, encouraging students to engage interactively with the text and self-assess their understanding of the corresponding Learning Objectives.
• Study Questions at the end of each chapter align with Bloom’s taxonomy, and help students progress from knowledge and understanding to analysis to clinical applications and evaluation.
• Name It activities give students clues about the physical and biochemical nature of a microbe, signs and symptoms of the disease the microbe causes, information about vaccines, etc., and then asks students to identify the microbe.
• Draw It activities ask students to answer questions by either producing their own sketches or identifying elements of an illustration.