I created an unknown microbe for an MDM 3/e lab activity, and the Case Study that is provided doesn’t match the activity. What gives?

This is one of the more common quirks of the software reported by instructors and students. I explain the reason this way…

The software has over 200 Case Studies that were written specifically for the various places one of our 124 microbes might be encountered. For instance, Vibrio cholera is a gastrointestinal pathogen. But it also is found in contaminated water supplies. This means Case Studies relevant to either situation (medical or ecological) are equally valid. When an unknown bacterium is created, a Case Study appropriate to that microbe is assigned randomly from our database. There is no guarantee the software will provide a Case Study for the scenario central to the Lab Activity being done. A medical scenario may end up with an environmental Case Study.

Here are ways a match between MDM Activity, microbe, and Case Study can be obtained:

• A student can repeat creation of that unknown until an appropriate Case Study is supplied.
• An instructor can provide students with their own Case Study outside the software via an email to the student, asking them to ignore the software’s choice of Case Study and use the one in the email instead.
• Or, if the instructor is using the Admin Console, they can create unknowns for their students and select the Case Study they want students to use.