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This interrupted case study for the flipped classroom introduces the human microbiome from the perspective of one of its occupants, Heidi Helicobacter (Helicobacter pylori).  Heidi lives in the gut of Kristen, a college student, and discusses her fellow microbial inhabitants, functions of these various microbes, and alludes to factors that can disrupt the healthy human microbiome. Students prepare for class by viewing several brief videos and then discuss in class whether Kristen should undergo a fecal microbiota transplant to treat her Clostridium difficile infection.  A lab component has students model, using colored beads, how antibiotics can act as a selective agent for drug-resistant microbes such as C. difficile. The case concludes with Kristen about to give birth to a new baby several years later.  Students listen in as Kristen's microbes discuss the formation of the new baby's microbiome. The case has been used successfully in a general biology class and could easily be adapted for a microbiology, human physiology, ecology, or evolution course.

This case is an account of the events that led Drs. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall to the bacterial theory of ulcers. The two physicians refused to accept the standard explanations for what they had observed and instead developed an alternative hypothesis, saving countless patients from unnecessary pain and suffering. Along the way they transformed the way the medical community viewed peptic ulcer disease. The case shows the importance of curiosity, serendipity, and tenacity in scientific inquiry; how science is built upon the work of others; how assumptions can cloud people's views, leaving them closed to new ideas; and how scientific "truth" can and does change when faced with new data and new interpretations. It is appropriate for use in any course at the high school or undergraduate level that teaches students about the scientific method and/or the sociology, nature, and history of science.