Great Educational Materials (GEMs) Examples

The ID-EN works to highlight innovative educational contributions of its members through regular posting of ID GEMs - Great Educational Materials.  The purpose of ID-EN GEMs is to share best practices and resources. GEMs can be:

  • an innovative method of teaching an ID concept
  • a particularly helpful video, picture, or diagram
  • an active learning exercise or assignment
  • any other resource that students have identified as valuable

GEM updates are shared via the listserv and materials are available through the Shared Resource Repository, both of which are open to members.  Descriptions of some GEMs are below:

Antibiotic Resistance Animated Mechanisms

Author: Joshua Garcia; [email protected]

Title: Antibiotic Resistance Animated Mechanisms
ID area: Antibiotic Resistance
Location: Classroom
Arrangement: Individual
Estimated classroom time: 20-30 minutes

Description: To get the full effect, select presentation mode and click through the animations.

Antibiotic resistance mechanisms can be a difficult concept for students to understand. These Powerpoint animations illustrate mechanisms of resistance to students through visual means. The mechanisms are not all encompassing but do span from simple mechanisms, such as penicillinase, to more complex mechanisms, including AmpC beta-lactamases.

Disease Detectives

Author: Brandon Bookstaver; [email protected] 

Title: Disease Detectives
ID area: Microbiology
Location: Classroom
Arrangement: Small groups
Estimated classroom time: 10 minutes

Description: Small groups of students select a pathogen from a provided list. They are given a couple of weeks to create a “Disease Detective” PowerPoint presentation based on their pathogen. The presentation is a set of clues about the pathogen. The clues are initially vague/obscure and get more specific with each clue. Students are encouraged to use figures and pictures as clues.
The rest of the class uses an audience response system to record their guess. Points are awarded based on accuracy and how many clues it took to get to the accurate answer.

ID Jeopardy

Author: Jonathan Cho, [email protected]

Title: ID Jeopardy
ID area: Antibiotic Fundamentals
Location: Classroom
Arrangement: Individual or teams/small groups
Estimated classroom time: 30 minutes

Description: Students are divided into small groups to review infectious diseases concepts using a Jeopardy format. The PowerPoint attached is set up to seemly go between the home board and questions. The content is the attached example focuses on basic antimicrobial knowledge. Groups take turns choosing a category and question value. Groups “ring-in” by raising their hands, the first hand up attempts to answer. If the answer was incorrect, the team that raised their hand second has the opportunity to provide an answer. Points are awarded for correct answers and deducted for incorrect answers. After each question faculty provide rationalefor the answer and lead a discussion about the question content. Winning team is awarded donuts.

Integrated (Med Chem/Pharmacology/Therapeutics) ID Questions

Author: Leigh Anne Hylton Gravatt, ([email protected])

Title: Integrated (Med chem/Pharmacology/Therapeutics) ID Questions 
ID area: Antimicrobial fundamentals and therapeutics (disease states) 
Location: Classroom 
Arrangement: Large groups, small groups, individual 
Estimated classroom time: ~5 minutes for the student 

Description: For those of you who teach ID in an integrated manner (Med Chem/Pharmacology/Therapeutics), it is important to also think about testing students in a similar manner. We decided to use existing Med Chem and pharmacology test questions and then created clinical scenarios that would allow testing on different elements of this case from each viewpoint.

The biggest hurdle was convincing the other disciplines that this would not change the essence of their questions, but would instead help the students fully integrate the information. 

Here are some examples: 

Guess that Pathogen

Author: Meghan Jeffres, [email protected]

Title: Guess that Pathogen
ID area: Clinical microbiology
Location: Classroom or independent study
Arrangement: Groups or individual
Estimated classroom time: 20 minutes

Description: The goal of this activity is for students to practice linking together infectious symptoms, site of infection, and gram stain. I have used this as a graded homework assignment and as an ungraded in-class activity either at the end of, or the day after a clinical microbiology lecture. The two most common questions from students are always “Do we have to include the genus and species?” (Yes) and “Do we have spell both genus and species correctly to get points?" (Yes). This activity could also be incorporated into the curriculum after therapeutics are taught, but also include submission of empiric and/or targeted antibiotics.