Teaching

Beginning in the summer of 2007, I began working on a collaborative research project with scientists at the US Department of Agriculture to investigate the role of free-living protists in the survival of the human pathogen, Campylobacter jejuni, in the environments. An undergraduate student majoring in Microbiology (Nina Park) began working on the project under my direct supervision. I trained Nina in many of the common laboratory techniques, including current techniques in molecular biology and microscopy. Together, we designed experiments and analyzed the results. In the Fall Semester of 2007, Nina worked on the project for undergraduate research course credit (MIBO 4900). I continued supervision of her lab work, but also assisted her in finding, reading, and interpreting some of the relevant scientific literature. Nina completed a research paper detailing and describing experimental results and presented her work in a departmental seminar.

The Designer Fish assignment was first used as part of the lab requirements for MARS 1020 in Spring 2005. According to student feedback and comments from the fall semester MARS 1010 students, lab quizzes accounted for too much of the final grade. The goal of this project was to allow students to use their creativity and mechanical skills to learn about the relationships between fish morphology and their roles in aquatic ecosystems. We hoped to provide students an instructional tool as well as increasing the variety of evaluation mechanisms.

Students were instructed “to create a 3-D life size model of your fish using whatever media you choose (clay, paper maché, wood, etc) with detailed fins, color patterns, and any other special modifications that you choose.” Additionally, students were asked to submitted a written explanation of how the adaptations (fin shape, coloration, and mouth design) and choose a latin name for their fish (examples of these designer fish are shown below).

Perhaps the most exciting place to learn about the natural world is in the field. Working at field labs with undergraduate students offers many “teachable moments” and on several occasions I have been able to communicate how my research fits into the broader theme of environmental function and interaction between species. In the spring of 2005, I went on a field trip with the Marine Biology class at The University of Akron to a field station on the Texas coast. Seven total undergraduate students attended this trip. Here I related my knowledge on the nature of marine systems and the impact of humans on coastal areas to students. Students became intimately experienced with issues surrounding fisheries exploitation and bycatch by actually engaging in trawl fishing and sorting the catch!

My current research is based upon Sapelo Island , a barrier Island on the Georgia coast that is a popular destination for University field classes and ecotourists. Working at this location, I often explain my work on coastal microbes and how this “invisible” component of salt marsh ecosystems actually affects commercial fisheries and the functioning of the ecosystem.

Matt First's Teaching Portfolio