Microbiology/Immunology in an Integrated Curriculum:
The majority of the discussion time was devoted to the impact of integrated curricula on the teaching and learning of microbiology content. Several participants indicated that in order to successfully incorporate the discipline in such curricula, there is an increased need to:

• Identify a microbiology/immunology core curriculum with a set of course objectives and expected outcomes that are reviewed nationally and published for distribution.  The availability of such document can serve as a planning guide to teaching faculty regardless of the curriculum methodology used for the delivery of the content; i.e. PBL, system-based, discipline-based, clinical presentation, etc.

• Identify text books appropriate for teaching the course in an interdisciplinary curriculum

• Identify microbiology/immunology content that can be enlarged upon and discussed in greater depth in the clerkship years.  The group discussed a variety of potential methods of delivery in the clinical years.

Resources and Copy Right Issues:
All participants agreed that the lack of an appropriate source with images that can be shared in teaching, is problematic. Interest was expressed in finding a way to exchange images among microbiology educators for teaching purposes.

Wet Labs – To Be or Not To Be That is The Question
The last issue raised was the value and purpose of microbiology wet labs.  Interest was expressed in further investigating the status of microbiology-wet labs among various institutions.

The discussion ended with a consensus that discipline-based round table discussion provides a forum for identifying problems and potential solutions and is a valuable addition to IAMSE meetings.
 

Participants: Gerald Tritz,Ph.D.; Elizabeth Kachur,Ph.D.; Musau Wakabongo,Ph.D.; Kelly Jackson, Ph.D.; Peter Borgia,Ph.D.; Leticia Elizondo, Roger Smith,D.V.M.,Ph.D. and Bonnie Buxton, Ph.D.