Abstract:The modular teaching pattern has been applied to the experimental teaching of microbiological examination of water. The modular content is composed of three units, i.e., the plate-count of bacteria in water, the total coliforms testing in water and examination of their physiological and biochemical properties, and the serological test of coliforms. The experimental contents are organized based on the national standard examination methods for drinking water-microbiological parameters (GB/T 5750.12-2006). In the teaching process, we emphasize on the standardized modular experimental procedure and operation to raise the undergraduate students’ awareness of standardization. The continuous modular experiments belonged to the hygienically microbiological examination experiments are converted to the basic experiments of bacteria taxonomy, and through which two teaching goals can be achieved. The first is to cultivate the undergraduate students’ experimental ability of microbiological testing, and the second is the students will master the systematic taxonomic identification methods for Escherichia coli. In the module examination, the undergraduate students are required to write a research paper about this module and fill out a report designed with references to a standard test report from a professional testing institution. The reform of the teaching module for microbiological examination of water can improve the students’ research skills in microbiology, specifically in microbial quantitation and bacterial identification, which will be helpful for the undergraduate student to carry out innovative research.
