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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

microbial fermentation, folic acid, micronutrient fortified corn masa, baking

College

Life Sciences

Department

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science

Abstract

Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met This was an intensive project, which turned out to be a great opportunity for our students. We had one graduate student and four to five undergraduate students working on it at any given time. Due to attrition in the lab, we had about 16 undergraduates who were involved across the course of the entire project. Students learned the nuances of a very challenging multi-day, microbial assay for folic acid, and also learned many other laboratory skills and became quite proficient in microbial enumeration and isolation. The importance of laboratory methods validation across multiple analysts became readily apparent, and students were involved in looking for and minimizing analyst-to-analyst (or student-to-student) differences in techniques. It was hard, painstaking work, but our student eventually managed to produce accurate and reliable results as a group. Some of the students were also able to travel go Guadalajara, Mexico to collect samples and run analyses. They were thus able to participate in a cultural experience and learning, in addition to their work in the lab.

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