Superbugs: a multilingual educational resource for schools across the UK and beyond

‘Superbugs online’ is an educational resource to increase understanding and awareness of infections, vaccines and antimicrobial resistance.

'Superbugs' features a wide range of engaging activities and information, starting from a basic introduction to life, evolution and bacteria, to harmless commensals on and in our body and microbes in the environment, to the concepts of infection, epidemics, antibiotic resistance and vaccines.

These topics are introduced via different means as introductory texts, images, animations, videos, interactive timelines, games, quizzes, colouring sheets, a reading corner with illustrated stories and protocols for safe home experiments. And not to forget a Superbugs-themed Wordle!

Also featured 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.

For bespoke events, this content is 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.

In alignment with the new Curriculum for Wales, Superbugs is an interdisciplinary resource spanning all six areas of learning and experience, by combining science and health-related content with numeracy, literacy, expressive arts, history, and more.

All materials on the website were co-produced with teachers and pupils across primary and secondary schools in the UK, and are presented in a non-prescriptive way, aimed at allowing flexibility for the materials to be adapted to the individual needs of teachers and pupils alike.

Superbugs.online is available in English, Welsh and Gaelic to reach as many schools, teachers and pupils across the UK as possible.