Visualizing the invisible: class excursions to ignite children's enthusiasm for microbes.,Microbial Biotechnology

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Visualizing the invisible: class excursions to ignite children's enthusiasm for microbes.
Microbial Biotechnology ( IF 4.8 ) Pub Date : 2020-05-14 , DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.13576
Terry J McGenity ₁ , Amare Gessesse ₂ , John E Hallsworth ₃ , Esther Garcia Cela ₄ , Carol Verheecke-Vaessen ₅ , Fengping Wang ₆ , Max Chavarría _{7,

8} , Max M Haggblom ₉ , Søren Molin ₁₀ , Antoine Danchin ₁₁ , Eddy J Smid ₁₂ , Cédric Lood _{13,

14} , Charles S Cockell ₁₅ , Corinne Whitby ₁ , Shuang-Jiang Liu ₁₆ , Nancy P Keller ₁₇ , Lisa Y Stein ₁₈ , Seth R Bordenstein ₁₉ , Rup Lal ₂₀ , Olga C Nunes ₂₁ , Lone Gram ₂₂ , Brajesh K Singh ₂₃ , Nicole S Webster _{24,

25} , Cindy Morris ₂₆ , Sharon Sivinski ₂₇ , Saskia Bindschedler ₂₈ , Pilar Junier ₂₈ , André Antunes ₂₉ , Bonnie K Baxter ₃₀ , Paola Scavone ₃₁ , Kenneth Timmis ₃₂

Affiliation

School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
School of Life and Medical Science, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK.
Cranfield Soil and Agrifood Institute, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK.
School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Escuela de Química, Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales (CIPRONA), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Centro Nacional de Innovaciones Biotecnológicas (CENIBiot), CeNAT-CONARE, San José, Costa Rica.
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
Institut Cochin, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75014, Paris, France.
Food Microbiology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, Laboratory of Computational Systems Biology, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium.
Department of Biosystems, Laboratory of Gene Technology, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium.
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
The Energy and Resources Institute, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, 110003, India.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal.
Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, Australia.
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
INRAE, Pathologie Végétale, 84140, Montfavet, France.
Albuquerque, NM, USA.
Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), Taipa, Macau SAR, China.
Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Department of Microbiology, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Institute of Microbiology, Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany.

We have recently argued that, because microbes have pervasive – often vital – influences on our lives, and that therefore their roles must be taken into account in many of the decisions we face, society must become microbiology‐literate, through the introduction of relevant microbiology topics in school curricula (Timmis et al. 2019. Environ Microbiol 21: 1513‐1528). The current coronavirus pandemic is a stark example of why microbiology literacy is such a crucial enabler of informed policy decisions, particularly those involving preparedness of public‐health systems for disease outbreaks and pandemics. However, a significant barrier to attaining widespread appreciation of microbial contributions to our well‐being and that of the planet is the fact that microbes are seldom visible: most people are only peripherally aware of them, except when they fall ill with an infection. And it is disease, rather than all of the positive activities mediated by microbes, that colours public perception of ‘germs’ and endows them with their poor image. It is imperative to render microbes visible, to give them life and form for children (and adults), and to counter prevalent misconceptions, through exposure to imagination‐capturing images of microbes and examples of their beneficial outputs, accompanied by a balanced narrative. This will engender automatic mental associations between everyday information inputs, as well as visual, olfactory and tactile experiences, on the one hand, and the responsible microbes/microbial communities, on the other hand. Such associations, in turn, will promote awareness of microbes and of the many positive and vital consequences of their actions, and facilitate and encourage incorporation of such consequences into relevant decision‐making processes. While teaching microbiology topics in primary and secondary school is key to this objective, a strategic programme to expose children directly and personally to natural and managed microbial processes, and the results of their actions, through carefully planned class excursions to local venues, can be instrumental in bringing microbes to life for children and, collaterally, their families. In order to encourage the embedding of microbiology‐centric class excursions in current curricula, we suggest and illustrate here some possibilities relating to the topics of food (a favourite pre‐occupation of most children), agriculture (together with horticulture and aquaculture), health and medicine, the environment and biotechnology. And, although not all of the microbially relevant infrastructure will be within reach of schools, there is usually access to a market, local food store, wastewater treatment plant, farm, surface water body, etc., all of which can provide opportunities to explore microbiology in action. If children sometimes consider the present to be mundane, even boring, they are usually excited with both the past and the future so, where possible, visits to local museums (the past) and research institutions advancing knowledge frontiers (the future) are strongly recommended, as is a tapping into the natural enthusiasm of local researchers to leverage the educational value of excursions and virtual excursions. Children are also fascinated by the unknown, so, paradoxically, the invisibility of microbes makes them especially fascinating objects for visualization and exploration. In outlining some of the options for microbiology excursions, providing suggestions for discussion topics and considering their educational value, we strive to extend the vistas of current class excursions and to: (i) inspire teachers and school managers to incorporate more microbiology excursions into curricula; (ii) encourage microbiologists to support school excursions and generally get involved in bringing microbes to life for children; (iii) urge leaders of organizations (biopharma, food industries, universities, etc.) to give school outreach activities a more prominent place in their mission portfolios, and (iv) convey to policymakers the benefits of providing schools with funds, materials and flexibility for educational endeavours beyond the classroom.

中文翻译：

可视化无形之物：课堂游览激发孩子们对微生物的热情。

我们最近认为，由于微生物对我们的生活有着普遍的——通常是至关重要的——影响，因此在我们面临的许多决策中必须考虑到它们的作用，社会必须通过引入相关的微生物学来提高微生物学素养学校课程主题（Timmis等人， 2019。Environ Microbiol 21： 1513‐1528）。当前的冠状病毒大流行是一个鲜明的例子，说明了为什么微生物学知识是明智政策决策的关键推动者，特别是那些涉及公共卫生系统对疾病爆发和大流行做好准备的政策决策。然而，要广泛认识微生物对我们和地球福祉的贡献，一个重大障碍是微生物很少可见：大多数人只是外围地意识到它们，除非他们因感染而生病。正是疾病，而不是微生物介导的所有积极活动，影响了公众对“细菌”的看法，并赋予它们不良形象。必须让微生物变得可见，为儿童（和成人）赋予它们生命和形态，并通过接触充满想象力的微生物图像和其有益产出的例子，并辅以平衡的叙述来反驳普遍存在的误解。一方面，这将在日常信息输入以及视觉、嗅觉和触觉体验与负责的微生物/微生物群落之间产生自动的心理关联。反过来，此类协会将提高人们对微生物及其行为的许多积极和重要后果的认识，并促进和鼓励将这些后果纳入相关决策过程。虽然在中小学教授微生物学主题是实现这一目标的关键，但通过精心计划的课堂游览当地场所，让儿童直接亲自接触自然和管理的微生物过程及其行动结果的战略计划可能会有所帮助为儿童及其家人带来微生物。为了鼓励在当前课程中嵌入以微生物学为中心的课堂游览，我们在此建议并说明一些与食品（大多数孩子最喜欢的当务之急）、农业（以及园艺和水产养殖）、健康等主题相关的可能性。以及医学、环境和生物技术。而且，虽然并非所有微生物相关基础设施都在学校范围内，但通常可以进入市场、当地食品店、废水处理厂、农场、地表水体等，所有这些都可以提供探索的机会微生物学在行动。如果孩子有时认为现在很平凡，甚至无聊，他们通常对过去和未来都感到兴奋，因此，在可能的情况下，强烈建议参观当地博物馆（过去）和推进知识前沿（未来）的研究机构，以及利用当地研究人员的自然热情来利用短途旅行和虚拟短途旅行的教育价值。孩子们也对未知事物着迷，因此，矛盾的是，微生物的隐形性使它们成为特别令人着迷的可视化和探索对象。在概述微生物学游览的一些选择、为讨论主题提供建议并考虑其教育价值时，我们努力扩展当前课堂游览的前景，并：（i）激励教师和学校管理人员将更多的微生物学游览纳入课程中； (ii) 鼓励微生物学家支持学校郊游并普遍参与为儿童创造微生物的活动； (iii) 敦促各组织（生物制药、食品工业、大学等）的领导人将学校外展活动放在其任务组合中更加突出的位置，以及 (iv) 向政策制定者传达为学校提供资金、材料和灵活性的好处致力于课堂之外的教育事业。

更新日期：2020-05-14

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