Submission Deadline Marks and Feedback

Before 10am on: 20 working days after deadline (L4, 5 and 7)

03/05/2024 15 working days after deadline (L6)
10 working days after deadline (block delivery)

03/06/2024

Unit title & code Applied Microbiology- BHS014-6

Assignment number and title
Assignment type
Weighting of assignment
Size or length of assessment
Unit learning outcomes
01; Portfolio of Applied Microbiology
Portfolio report containing three entries
100%
5000 (exclude tables and references)
1. Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding
• Evaluate the conceptual and methodological advances in applied microbiology, and
develop a critical appreciation of the potential and limitations of exploiting microorganisms
for industrial and biotechnology applications including genomic, and multi/interdisciplinary
approaches.
2. Demonstrate the following skills and abilities
• Critically assess the literature relevant to the application of microbiology in industry, and
identify key principles and methodologies applicable to specific contexts, also recognizing the
applicable risks, and ethical issues as well as the areas requiring further research and
development.

What am I required to do in this assignment?

You must submit a portfolio report of 5000 words (excluding references and figure legends).
• The portfolio should contain three entries and submitted to BREO as single PDF file:
• Entry 1: Manipulation of microbes and probiotics (1500 words, 30% of overall grade): This entry relates to the
activities in Practical 1 and 2, including bacteria transformation, preparation of agar plates, bacteria streaking to
isolate single colonies, and Yakult viable cell count.
• Entry 2: Industrial application of microbes (1500 words, 30% of overall grade): This entry relates to the activity assay
to detection of cellulose degrading bacteria.
• Entry 3: Virtual gene cloning and recombinant protein (2000 words, 40% of overall grade): This entry relates to
analysis of IPTG-induced recombinant protein by SDS-PAGE and Coomassie Blue staining activities in Practical 3,
and the virtual gene cloning discussed in tutorial 5.
• Each entry should include an introduction (with aims), methods, your laboratory results, discussion and references.
• You must ensure that your assignment is written in your own words without help from paraphrasing tools or third-party
(including AI-generative tools).
What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF)
In order to pass this assessment, you will need to:
• Demonstrate key knowledge of advanced scientific principles and practical skills in applied microbiology.
• Demonstrate the ability to analyse and interpret applied microbiology data.
• Communicate your data professionally in academic writing.

How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade?

This assignment brief explains the basic structure and requirements of your submission. Further specific guidance will be
provided in the practical and tutorial sessions.
A high-quality report should:
• Contain a title page giving the assessment title, unit code, assessment number, your student number and your final
word count (excluding references and figure legends).
• Demonstrate good clarity of academic English.
Each report should be organized in the structure below:
Introduction: This section should summarise the published background literature relevant to the study. They must explain what your
experimental studies were about and place them in the context of published literature.
Aim and objectives: They should clearly state the scientific aim(s) of the studies.
Methods: You should briefly summarise how the experiments were performed.
• Methods should be written in the past tense.
• They should be written in paragraphs, not bullet or numbered points as in your protocol.
• They should contain sufficient detail to allow someone else to reproduce your experiments but avoid unnecessary
detail.
Results: You should include experimental data, which may be presented in text, tables, graphs, diagrams, or photographs as
appropriate for your studies. You should also include written text to explain what your findings are and what is shown in the
figures and tables.
• Figures and tables should be separately numbered and be clearly labelled with figure legends.
• The main text should describe your findings/observations and may state brief conclusions.
• Data should be cited in the main text.
Discussion: You should interpret your results, explaining what they indicate. You should evaluate the quality of your data
and the reliability of the experimental technique used. You should identify any problems with the technique or data (if any
exist) and suggest possible solutions. You should also compare your findings to previously published findings or your
expected findings, and place your results in the context of published scientific literature. Finally, conclude what have you
gained from this task, does it directly reflect and enhance your understanding of this unit.
Reference List: Each report should include a minimum of five references from the scientific literature. All information from the
literature should be cited/referenced appropriately using UoB Harvard format.

2
How does this assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?
• Lectures and tutorials will cover content related to this assignment. In the scheduled lecturer and tutorial sessions, students learn
the theoretical part of this assignment such as transformation, industrial application of microbes, gene expression and
heterologous expression system.
• This practical session will provide an opportunity to apply their knowledge and understanding and skills in action.
• Tutorial classes will be used to discuss what is expected from individual portfolio entries. The example of Entry 3 will
be discussed in a tutorial session.
• This assessment will allow you to demonstrate your understanding of relevant microbiology techniques in the context of
overexpression and purification of recombinant proteins using bacterial expression vector and E. coli (DE3) host cells,
manuplation of microbes and the industrial application of microbes.
• Your submission should demonstrate your capability to appropriately present and analyse scientific data, by using
scientific language and IT resources to effectively communicate your findings.

How will my assignment be marked?

Your assignment will be marked according to the threshold expectations and the criteria on the
following page. You can use them to evaluate your own work and consider your grade before you submit.

3
 Assessment 3rd Class – 40-49% Lower 2nd – 50-59% Upper 2nd – 60-69% 1st Class – 70%+
Criteria
A satisfactory level A good level of data A very good data analysis Excellent data analysis and
of data analysis analysis and mostly and, thorough and is more accurate, thorough
Data handling and presentation. correct. Presentation is complete. Presentation is and complete. Excellent
and Some attempt is generally clear and very clear and more presentation and is very
presentation given to explain appropriate. appropriate with tables or accurate and appropriate
(30%) what is being figures and explained with figure legends. Clear
presented. appropriately. explanation of what is
being presented.

Satisfactory evidence of A good level of evidence Demonstrates a very Demonstrates an

reflection and evaluation of reflection and well- developed ability excellent ability to
of scientific problem and evaluation of scientific to evaluate scientific evaluate scientific problems
approach. Some critical problem and approach problems and to make and to make clear
Data
evaluation of cited demonstrated. clear evaluative links evaluative links between
interpretation,
literature, though at Satisfactory critical between the current the current scientific
critical
times a little shallow. evaluation of cited scientific thought and the thought and the work in
evaluation
Demonstrates some literature. Demonstrates a work in hand. Clearly hand. Clear, very well-
and
ability to make evaluative good ability to make referenced links are referenced links are made
discussion
links between the evaluative links between made between the data between the data obtained,
(50%)
current scientific thought the current scientific obtained, and the and the scientific literature.
and the work in hand, thought and the work in scientific literature. Shows reflection and
but the evaluation is hand, but the evaluation is Shows critical evaluation deep critical evaluation of
sometimes rather at acceptable level. of cited literature. cited literature.
superficial.
Written expression is Written expression is Written expression is An excellent written
satisfactory, and clear, and arguments very clear and concise. expression and is clear
Written arguments can be can be followed without and concise. Arguments
Arguments are put
expression and followed. The structure undue difficulty. The are put forward succinctly
forward succinctly and
structure (10%) of the work is structure of the work is with relevant literature and
the structure of the
satisfactory, but good and well planned. piece is well-planned, the structure of the piece
planning could have well- thought-out and is well-planned, well-
been more thorough in logical, enhancing its thought- out and logical,
parts. readability. enhancing its readability.

A satisfactory range of A reasonable range of A very good range of A broad range of literature
Use of relevant literature is relevant literature is literature is accessed including primary
literature and accessed, including accessed, including including primary sources is accessed.
referencing some primary source. important primary sources. sources. Correct UoB Discussed results with
(10%). In-text citations are In-text citations are used Harvard formatting of relevant literature and
used. appropriately and UoB citations and reference arguments put forward.
Harvard format is list used throughout. Correct UoB Harvard
generally correctly used. formatting of citations and
reference list used
throughout.