Launching 2 New Teaching Resources for IMD

We’re extremely excited to be launching two new educational resources for International Microorganism Day 2020. We have designed lessons to help teach children about how to make sourdough bread as well as how to culture the microbes that you find in mud and ponds. 

The educational resources come with a bright infographic and student instructions as well as a teacher/parent pack with some additional info to help everything go smoothly. You can check them out here.

The two resources are designed around experiments that can be done by children of all ages with some adult supervision. We were looking for simple activities that highlighted the beneficial microbes that we could encounter in everyday life and where better to start, than bread.

Resource 1: Sourdough Bread

This teaching resource shows children how to produce a sourdough starter that can be used to make bread. Typically when making bread, you add your own yeast to allow the bread to rise. Sourdough is different and relies on natural yeasts and bacteria found in whole wheat flour that need to be cultivated properly before they can be used. This is a week long, simple but visually impactful lesson that will leave you with something tasty at the end. 

Resource 2: Winogradsky Column

The Winogradsky column is a special way of growing microbes that you find in mud. You can make simple Winogradsky columns using any kind of bottle. Just add some mud and a source of carbon and sulphur and watch your Winogradsly column blossom slowly into life. A special thanks goes to Justine Dees for the inspiration and useful discussion for this project. She has a collection of resources on her website JoyfulMicrobe.com.

How to use the education resources

Simply go to our education resources page and download them. If you have any questions you can always contact us on social media. We’d love to see photos and videos of you performing the experiments at home or in the classroom so please get in touch with us or tag us on social media if you feel like sharing.