Spring 2027

Capstone Research Project in Microbiology

Capstone course providing hands-on microbiology research in a lab, covering experimental design, troubleshooting, communication, and ethics.

offering recorded2 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Michelle Rondon3.7/5Melissa Christopherson3.6/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.76 GPA, 85.5% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=51 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Demonstrate proficiency in bacterial culturing, PCR, gel electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing, DNA quantitation, analytical micropipetting, and BLAST analysis.

  • Complete a next-generation or genomics sequencing project on an under-study microbial environment and use bioinformatics tools to analyze large datasets of DNA and/or RNA sequences.

  • Design and troubleshoot experiments, isolate targeted microbes, or microbial groups, from a given environment.

  • Cultivate the ability to work in teams by designing and troubleshooting a team experiment and presenting their progress and findings throughout the semester.

  • Improve scientific writing by preparing and revising drafts of a research proposal.

  • Improve oral scientific communication by presenting powerpoint and poster presentations on scientific research.

  • Explore ethical dilemmas in science through writing, discussion, and case studies.

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

MICROBIO 527

MICROBIO 551

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.69/5 from 101 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.85 GPA, 91.3% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.87 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=26 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.55/5 from 38 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.76 GPA, 85.5% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=40 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=51 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MELISSA CHRISTOPHERSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHELLE RONDON is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. 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
LAB 001Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 002Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 003Classroom Instruction0 / 120
LAB 004Classroom Instruction0 / 120
LAB 005Classroom Instruction0 / 120

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.76 GPA, 85.5% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=51 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Experimental design, troubleshooting, communication of research findings, and research ethics.
  • Bacterial culturing, PCR, gel electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing, DNA quantitation, analytical micropipetting, and BLAST analysis.
  • Next-generation sequencing, genomics, and bioinformatics analysis of microbial DNA/RNA datasets.
  • Ethical dilemmas in science explored through writing, discussion, and case studies.

Skills

  • Proficiency in bacterial culturing, PCR, gel electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing, DNA quantitation, analytical micropipetting, and BLAST analysis.
  • Completing next-generation or genomics sequencing projects and using bioinformatics tools to analyze large DNA/RNA datasets.
  • Designing and troubleshooting experiments and isolating targeted microbes from specific environments.
  • Improving scientific writing through preparing and revising research proposals.
  • Improving oral scientific communication via PowerPoint and poster presentations.

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 · 0.07 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 551 · Spring 2027

Capstone Research Project in 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": "1274:192:001639",
    "course_id": "MICROBIO 551",
    "course_uid": "course_bbe1149c52647cce539e78f4",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "001639",
    "source_subject_id": "192",
    "title": "Capstone Research Project in Microbiology",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 2,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "ca191167e76584e2586d34122fad3d843dc1a7ac11fbd1f3e99c0d5af71633e1",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}