Evaluation of student engagement through knowledge elaboration and the use of comics in Microbiology education.

Despite the many challenges faced by the sudden adaptation of the teaching-learning processes during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this period allowed the exploration of innovative educational methods. Here, we report the description and evaluation of a didactic activity designed to foster an active learning environment among Veterinary Medicine undergraduate students enrolling in Microbiology classes during the ERT period at the University of Minas Gerais. The activity consisted of initial expositive classes, followed by students' active search for information, and the execution of a report and short comics covering the topic. The activity was evaluated by a voluntary postquestionnaire. The results suggest that the students had good emotional and educational perception toward the task, and that they noticed the elaboration of the comics as the most valuable tool aiding in the retention of microbiological concepts. We conclude that the proposed strategy, specially by the incorporation of the comics, helped the meaningful learning of microbiology.

Recycling Old Antibiotics with Ionic Liquids.

Antibiotics are considered one of the great "miracles" of the 20th century. Now in the 21st century in the post-antibiotic era, the miracle is turning into a nightmare, due to the growing problem of the resistance of microorganisms to classic antimicrobials and the non-investment by the pharmaceutical industry in new antimicrobial agents. Unfortunately, the current COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the global risks associated with uncontrolled infections and the various forms of impact that such a pandemic may have on the economy and on social habits besides the associated morbidity and mortality. Therefore, there is an urgent need to recycle classic antibiotics, as is the case in the use of ionic liquids (ILs) based on antibiotics. Thus, the aim of the present review is to summarize the data on ILs, mainly those with antimicrobial action and especially against resistant strains. The main conclusions of this article are that ILs are flexible due to their ability to modulate cations and anions as a salt, making it possible to combine the properties of both and multiplying the activity of separate cations and anions. Also, these compounds have low cost methods of production, which makes it highly attractive to explore them, especially as antimicrobial agents and against resistant strains. ILs may further be combined with other therapeutic strategies, such as phage or lysine therapy, enhancing the therapeutic arsenal needed to fight this worldwide problem of antibacterial resistance. Thus, the use of ILs as antibiotics by themselves or together with phage therapy and lysine therapy are promising alternatives against pathogenic microorganisms, and may have the possibility to be used in new ways in order to restrain uncontrolled infections.