Spring 2027

General Microbiology

Introductory survey of microorganisms covering structure, function, ecology, nutrition, physiology, and genetics, plus applied areas including medical, agricultural, food, and industrial microbiology.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Collin Kieffer

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Michelle Rondon, Katrina Forest

Assessment structures ranged from noncumulative exams without a textbook to challenging tests that required heavy textbook reading and covered material not discussed in lecture.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify the three Domains of the phylogenetic tree of life and draw inferences about evolutionary processes based on phylogenetic trees.

  • Describe the basic cell structure of cells (bacteria, archaea, eukarya) and the structure of viruses and explain how this affects microbial function.

  • Understand the impact of environmental conditions on microbial growth and how this impacts the abundance and distribution of microbes on Earth.

  • Describe how microbes obtain nutrients and energy from the environment and how this is important to food production, waste treatment, sustainability and global ecosystems.

  • Describe the flow and exchange of information in microbial cells and populations and understand how this affects microbial diversity and evolution.

  • Compare different methods of microbial growth control and their impact on microbes.

  • Compare and contrast the different ways in which microbes interact with their human hosts and the impacts on global health and disease.

  • Describe the human immune response to microbes.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

CHEM 103, 108, 109, or 115. Not open to students with credit forMICROBIO 303

MICROBIO 101 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BETTY SLINGER is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATRINA FOREST is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHELLE RONDON is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TIMOTHY PAUSTIAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 4000

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Betty Slinger, Timothy Paustian

Past students described instructors as passionate and clear, with one noting that rewatching lectures helped grasp material after initially finding them hard to follow.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.27 GPA, 52.8% A/AB (n=301 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.05 GPA, 44.3% A/AB (n=370 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.09 GPA, 46.7% A/AB (n=353 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Michelle Rondon, Katrina Forest

Assessment structures ranged from noncumulative exams without a textbook to challenging tests that required heavy textbook reading and covered material not discussed in lecture.

Past student reviews · Timothy Paustian

One student found Timothy Paustian's lectures difficult to follow due to fast pacing and random vocabulary, while another reported he was unavailable during his listed office hours.

Topics

  • Microbial structure, function, ecology, nutrition, physiology, and genetics
  • Applied microbiology: medical, agricultural, food, and industrial contexts
  • Microbe-host interactions and impacts on global health and disease

Skills

  • Interpret phylogenetic trees to infer evolutionary processes
  • Relate microbial cell and virus structure to function
  • Explain information flow in microbial cells and its impact on diversity
  • Describe human immune responses to microbial pathogens

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
MICROBIO 101 · Spring 2027

General Microbiology

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:192:001593",
    "course_id": "MICROBIO 101",
    "course_uid": "course_33598f09781fa5dbdd045075",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "001593",
    "source_subject_id": "192",
    "title": "General Microbiology",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3b8b3a399e4f7e38eccf075d51d03077f99232199eff37cf2d47902db751f7e7",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}