History of the course

• Agricultural microbiology is a course with a long history in Northeast Agricultural University. It was set up as a basic-specialized course for students majored in plant production(agronomy, horticulture, plant protection) in 1950’s  when Northeast Agricultural was founded. In the beginning, the course emphasized mainly on soil microbes. With the development of physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology and the progress in microbiology itself, new knowledge in the field of life science and agriculture was added, which enriched the contents of the course. It has been taken as a basic-specialized course, which built a solid foundation of microbiology for students majored in the specialties of agriculture.
• In 1990’s, about 1000 students from 15 specialties took the course of agricultural microbiology. In 2001, the specialty of biotechnology, which focused on microbiology, was founded. In order to train professionals in the field of modern agriculture, we made a plan to give bilingual teaching in the course and began to make preparation. In 2003 and 2004, Professor Xu had a chance to work in Mcgill University as a postdocter. He took the course of microbiology there and took back their teaching document. After returning to China, with the sponsorship from NEAU, the bilingual course was started formally in 2004. Up to now, 3 rounds of teaching have been given, experience in bilingual teaching has been established. The results of the teaching was satisfying and the goal of teaching was reached, the students made progress in both special knowledge and English.
• In 2006, the course was appraised as a select course of Northeast Agricultural University. In 2007, it was appraised as a select course of Heilongjiang Province. A bilingual teaching textbook was published in November, 2007.
• After 10 years of reforming, and with the support of ‘Project of Course Construction’, ‘Project of Lab Evaluation’, ‘211  Project ’, ‘Project of Major Discipline’,‘Project of Science Base’, the course has reached the standard of select course. The achievements are as follow.
  · A research and teaching team has been established, which has a proper combination in age and education of the members who  have international vision and clear mind of the trend the discipline.
  · The contents and teaching ideas reflect the course’s character of northern agriculture and comply with international practice. The course takes a leading position among the domestic agricultural universities.
  · Bilingual multi-media and bilingual teaching textbook has turned the former abstract and tasteless lectures into lively ones. The students have made progress in both specialized knowledge and English in the same class.