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Lesson plans for school activities

Lesson plans for the NIHR HPRU in Antimicrobial resistance Teaching children about bacteria, drug resistant infections and how their behaviours like hand-washing can make a difference is the key to ensuring that antibiotics remain effective in their lifetime.

There are several excellent resources that teachers and parents can use to deliver this message. The e.bug website is a free resource which contains material for students at junior and senior level and resources for teachers including lesson plans, games and downloadable material. BBC Bite size is also excellent, with its Health and Wellbeing section offering videos relating to hand hygiene and classroom suggestions for exploring the topic further and its Science section offering videos and class material and ideas related to microorganisms for all key stages. There is also an engaging animated summary of the work of medical pioneers Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain called 'The World's First Antibiotic'.

For older children– a Comic book has been devised following Surgeon X trying to save the world against the background of an antibiotic apocalypse. It is available in print, as an e-book and via the app store.

Finally, our research unit has developed two lesson plans aimed at children in KS1 and KS2. These resources, a presentation and lesson plan are available for download below. Researchers from the Unit can also support the delivery of these lessons in schools in West London, as part of our outreach activities. Please contact head.ops@imperial.ac.uk to arrange this.

A number of supplementary materials including a short “graphic novel” of the history of antimicrobial resistance, a snakes and ladders games reinforcing good behaviours relevant to reducing resistance and an information sheet for parents are also available below.