Towards an Evolutionary Perspective in Teaching and Popularizing Microbiology

Abstract

Microorganisms are extremely abundant on our planet, and, as a result, they interact with many others forms of life. Today, science recognizes the essential role of these organisms in the emergence and maintenance of life on Earth. Nonetheless, misconceptions about microorganisms in the imaginations of students and the lay audience persist. A major challenge in teaching and popularizing microbiology is to provide students and the general public with a varied understanding of microbes in nature to reinforce their importance in a multitude of processes. In this perspective article, I discuss the persistence of the association between microbes and disease in laypersons’ views. Moreover, I advocate for the adoption of a perspective anchored in evolutionary biology for teaching and popularizing microbiology to minimize this problem. To do so, I present several topics that interconnect evolution and microbiology and discuss how these topics could increase the general public’s understanding of the microbial world.

Impact of the ´Alforja Educativa’ on Ecuadorian schoolchildren’s knowledge of bacteria, antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance, a pretest-posttest study

“…Only 37% were aware that bacteria can be both good and bad and just 14% had known that bacteria are important to life. These findings are aligned with previous research showing that the essential role of bacteria is often underappreciated [ 14 , 15 ]. For example, in a study from Italy, fourth to eighth grade students considered microbes to be evil organisms, threatening their health and wellbeing, and only 25% of students recognized that bacteria can play a positive role [ 16 ].…”

Making Yogurt: A Practical Study to Develop an Understanding of Useful Bacteria

“…Learning about living things that cannot be seen with the naked eye is one of the c o m p l e x subjects in science and biology education. Although the use of cartoons on this subject has come to the fore in recent years (Scavone et al, 2019;Morel et al, 2019;de Fraga, 2018), their effects on primary school students have not been investigated in depth. However, like this study, hands-on experimental studies are known to be effective in this age group (Verran et al, 2018;Lago et al, 2017;Scalas et al, 2017).…”

Preprint articles as a tool for teaching data analysis and scientific communication

“…Finally, several students made sophisticated arguments about the potential of preprint articles to promote misinformation, an argument that has been echoed by researchers and that is crucial given that 17–30% of SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 papers published in 2020 were preprints [ 14 , 65 – 67 ]. This exercise therefore had the unexpected and added benefit of helping students to understand the importance of the scientific publication process in conveying accurate information to the public [ 68 ] and in preventing and challenging public misconceptions [ 69 ], both of which are crucial to the continued development of a scientifically literate society.…”