An academic discipline is a branch of knowledge that is taught, studied or researched.  For example, biology, mathematics, chemistry and physics are well established examples of disciplines that are taught in high school. As a student progresses to the college or university level, these four basic academic disciplines branch into dozens of other disciplines or sub-disciplines.  Each of these disciplines or sub-disciplines may represent different college courses and even different majors in college and graduate school. 

In today’s evolving world of science, many research problems do not lend themselves to be solved by one discipline; consequently, interdisciplinary research is required.  Interdisciplinary research occurs where one or more disciplines are integrated to answer a single question.  This case study, Brain Eating Amoeba, required an interdisciplinary approach to determine if N. fowleri is present in a body of water. 

For you to be an effective scientist and solve the research problem in this case study, you had to learn background information in specific disciplines.  Your last assignment is to identify the disciplines you were introduced to in this research.