Student creating agar at at University of St. Thomas spring workshop
Tiny Earth Partner Instructor (TEPI) Dr. Joanna Klein uses innovative teaching strategies in her Tiny Earth course that engage students with the intricate world of microbes. At the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Klein creatively integrates “agar art” into her Tiny Earth course, demonstrating how interdisciplinary teaching can inspire creativity and highlight microbes’ beneficial roles in human health.
Who is Dr. Klein?
Dr. Klein is a Professor of Microbiology and Health at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. She has been a TEPI since 2014, actively teaching the Tiny Earth course and serving as a leader in the TEPI community. She is the chair of the Tiny Earth Science Committee and a Certified TEPI Trainer-in-Training. Dr. Klein actively engages with the network as a Tiny Earth Symposia regular and has brought her students to present at both virtual and in-person events in Madison, Wisconsin.
An antibiotic-discovery superstar, Dr. Klein has guided her students to send isolates to the Tiny Earth Chemistry Hub at UW-Madison, with some of these being elevated isolates of interest. She is collaborating with colleagues at St. Thomas to further the antibiotic-discovery pipeline by adding chemistry curriculum.
Dr. Klein earned her B.S. in biology and a Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Iowa, where she conducted research on Salmonella pathogenesis. She expanded her science background during her three years of postdoctoral education at the University of Minnesota, studying intron splicing in the gram-positive bacterium, Lactococcus lactis. Building on this experience, Dr. Klein plans to continue her research inside and outside of her classroom.
Students presenting an Agar Art Workshop at the University of St. Thomas
Course-based undergraduate research has been a hallmark of Dr. Klein’s teaching career. Her first time teaching Tiny Earth was in a microbiology class designed for non-majors. While teaching this group of students, she recognized how much the Tiny Earth curriculum resonated with her class, even among non-microbiology majors, highlighting its potential to engage diverse audiences in science.
“My microbiology course has been mostly a mix of majors including pre-nursing, health science, biology, and biochemistry students so I really have to serve all of their learning needs. I find that Tiny Earth really captivates people’s interests.” — Dr. Joanna Klein
What is “Agar Art”?
When Dr. Klein noticed colorful bacteria growing on students’ petri plates, she recognized the potential for agar art–the process of using bacteria to create artistic designs on agar plates. That summer, Dr. Klein responded to a campus-wide call for creative projects tied to sustainability. Creating agar art with soil bacteria collected from campus grounds, seemed like an ideal addition to the sustainability initiative. As a lifelong Trekkie, Dr. Klein and a student submitted Star Trek-inspired agar art to the ASM Agar Art Contest, earning a finalist spot for the People’s Choice Award in the professional category.
Dr. Klein and Tiny Earth student’s Star Trek-inspired submission to the 2023 ASM Agar Art contest
The practice expanded from one petri plate to many when Dr. Klein integrated agar art into her Tiny Earth class. The pigmented bacteria collected by her students created a palette of eight different colors to produce vibrant art pieces. These colorful compounds are secondary metabolites and may include known or unknown antibiotics with antimicrobial properties. Dr. Klein then connected with the Art History Department Chair to organize Agar Art workshops for students with an online gallery space that displays the students’ Agar Art pieces. Dr. Klein acknowledges that both science and art require critical thinking skills.
A rewarding aspect of this collaboration is how agar art improves students’ understanding of microbes compared to traditional teaching methods.
“It’s important for TEPIs to sometimes plan things at the spur of the moment, make observations in class, and if necessary, tap into what students are observing or experiencing and try something new.” — Dr. Joanna Klein
Dr. Joanna Klein (left) and Tiny Earth student (right) posing with agar art showcase display
As Dr. Klein continues working with her students and other Tiny Earth stakeholders, her goal is to publish an archive that showcases her students’ work. She also hopes to inspire and support other instructors in developing interdisciplinary projects that allow students to apply Tiny Earth to future lab research.
Thank you, Dr. Joanna Klein, for all of your contributions to your students, the Tiny Earth network, and the scientific teaching community!
Written by: Caroline Bedell, Tiny Earth Communications & Media Intern