The inside story of the microbiome – FT.com

I am always looking for research projects.  In the fall I teach courses that asks my entering freshmen to follow their own noses and search for answers to questions that they are passionate about.  I use Ken Macrorie’s model for this.  It’s called an “I-Search”.  I always do a parallel I-Search along with them.  Here is my Scoop.it site where I gathered answers to my I-Search question: How can I help students focus their attention in the classroom and out?

 Come the spring I will be teaching a junior level research course called “Writing Across the Disciplines” and I will choose a research question to parallels theirs. The microbiome might be a good topic although I am tempted to look into the new gene slicing technique called “CRISPR” as well.  I always have several projects going at once.  I often will drop a question for awhile but come back to it later.  Curation tools like Scoop.It are terrifically handy for seeking out and sharing “signal”.  I believe that we all need at least one digital curation tool in our repertoire.  Scoop.it is a good one.  The free version lets you pursue one topic. Here are a few more curation tools at this site.