Quality control laboratory design project for poultry science undergraduate students enrolled in an advanced food microbiology course

An exercise for designing a quality control laboratory was developed as a laboratory group project in a senior level undergraduate advanced food microbiology course. The assignment was based on the student's designing their own laboratory and implementing testing methods for different types of bacteria known to cause food-borne illness. Individual research papers and group project participation were required of each student. In each of the laboratory sections students were separated into groups of four students who were then responsible for a group project report describing and justifying a quality control laboratory design based on the detection of a particular food-borne pathogen. A survey questionnaire of students participating in the project was conducted to retrieve their perceptions of the different components of the exercise. Several general responses were evident. Students who did not expect to do scientific writing in their careers identified project activities such as determination of laboratory budgets as being the most difficult component and working with others as the most interesting component. The most difficult aspect of the team component was finding time for all members of the group to meet and getting participation from all group members. It appears that more instructional emphasis on scientific problem solving and group activity skills is needed if undergraduate food and poultry science students are to gain more confidence and ability to remain up to date with rapid technical developments occurring in laboratory science. © Birkhäuser Verlag, 2006.