Teaching is built on direct experimentation: each concept is anchored to something students can run themselves. When a topic cannot be brought into the teaching laboratory, an interactive version is developed instead.
“Each concept I teach is anchored to an experiment. Students should be able to explain a phenomenon, not merely recall a description of it.”Teaching philosophy
Each course is supported with interactive stations, worked examples and quiz-based revision.
Bacterial structure and function, growth and nutrition, control of microorganisms, and the classical experiments that established the field.
Structure and function, from membrane to nucleoid. This unit includes the flagship interactive laboratory — eight stations students run themselves.
Core laboratory competencies: careful observation, aseptic technique, and accurate recording of results.
The flagship station: a complete chapter developed as a hands-on laboratory. Students do not simply read about osmosis — they vary the salinity and observe lysis, crenation and plasmolysis. They do not memorise the Gram procedure — they work through its four steps and observe where the dye is retained. Each station is a self-contained experiment with immediate feedback.
Created by Dr. Meera Salama · Interactive Course Laboratory series · Cyprus International University
Each station can be opened directly; progress is tracked within the laboratory.
Redi's jars, Needham's broth, Spallanzani's sealed flasks and Pasteur's swan neck: the classical experiments on spontaneous generation.
Open →Vary external salinity and observe net water movement: turgid, plasmolysis, crenation and lysis.
Open →Cocci, bacilli and spirilla; every arrangement from single cells to staphylo- clusters, followed by a quiz.
Open →Four steps, two cells: determine where the crystal violet is retained, and why.
Open →Model run-and-tumble movement toward a nutrient source, then disable chemotaxis and compare.
Open →Apply heat, radiation, chemicals and long-term storage; compare endospore survival with the vegetative cell.
Open →Assign CO₂, glucose and K⁺ to the correct transport system and compare their mechanisms.
Open →Inspect every structure of the prokaryotic cell, then test your knowledge with the Find it exercise.
Open →Each chapter is a single, self-contained page for projector, laptop, tablet or phone — no installation, no accounts, and no internet connection required once loaded.
Every station presents a decision or prediction: which mechanism fits K⁺, where the dye is retained, which treatment the endospore survives. Quizzes provide immediate feedback.
Educators may project or link the laboratory in their own classes. Please retain the credit — created by Dr. Meera Salama.
The Interactive Course Laboratory is developed one chapter at a time, following a consistent format: a central question, several interactive experiments and a quiz. Chapter 4 is currently in development; feedback from students and educators is welcome.
Processes at the microscopic scale are difficult to convey through text alone. Students who have induced cell lysis, observed osmotic water movement and compared chemotaxis outcomes retain those principles far better.
The full chapter index is in the laboratory: open it ↗