Superbugs - an educational resource to increase awareness of the microbial world in, on and around us

• Available on request
• Flexible
• Available in Welsh

‘Superbugs’ is an online resource that was developed as an educational tool for key stage 2/3 school children in Wales to introduce concepts around microbiology, infection and antimicrobial resistance.

This website was co-produced together with teachers and pupils from primary and secondary schools across Wales (incorporating feedback from >250 children who tested preliminary versions of the website) and is aligned with the new Curriculum for Wales. It was launched in October 2021 and is available in both English and Welsh.

The Superbugs website features a wide range of activities and information, starting from a basic introduction to life, evolution, and bacteria, to the concept of infection, commensals and microbes in the environment, and to diseases, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. These topics are introduced via different means as introductory texts, images, animations, videos, illustrated stories, interactive timelines, games, quizzes, colouring sheets and protocols for home experiments. To measure the impact of our resource on their learning experience, pupils, teachers and members of the general public can provide feedback via detailed questionnaires, and submit their own Superbugs-related photos, artwork, texts and screenshots.

Also featured on the website is a section on ‘Being a Scientist’ where visitors can explore the types of jobs people working in science actually do (lab researcher, doctor, data scientist, teacher, science journalist etc.), and what inspired these people to choose a career in science in the first place. For bespoke events, this will be accompanied by a live channel where users can meet scientists for live experiments, lab tours and Q&A sessions, and feed into in-person delivery of Superbugs activities as school outreach by our team and associated STEM ambassadors and teachers.

All materials on the website are presented in a non-prescriptive way, aimed at allowing flexibility for the materials to be adapted to the individual needs of teachers (and their lessons) and pupils alike. The development of this website was inspired by our successful delivery of the ‘Superbugs: A Pop-up Science Shop’ event in Cardiff’s St David’s Centre (with a daily footfall of approx. 100,000 one of the UK’s busiest shopping centre), which attracted >6,600 visitors over the course of two weeks during the 2019 summer holidays.

Find out more

For more information about the activity, please visit our website.

About the organiser

This activity is organised by School of Medicine. Contact us at superbugs@cardiff.ac.uk for more details.