Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, Play It to Learn It
Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2019, Volume 40
Catarina Mata
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a topic that is particularly hard to teach effectively to students taking their first biology class. Students have several erroneous preconceptions about how resistance works such as: “if you take antibiotics your body becomes immune to the antibiotic and it will not work anymore” or “bacteria getstronger”. Theylackthefoundationtounderstandwhathappenedtoallowsomebacteriatosurviveafter most were killed. Also, when asked the question “When prescribed antibiotics, do you finish taking the whole dosage, or do you stop after a couple of days if you feel better?” About half say they think it is OK to not finish the antibiotics and save them for future use. This exercise can be a complement to an antibiotics lab, or as role –play in lecture. Students play the bacteria and are virtually sprayed with antibiotics multiple times; some survive the early rounds of antibiotic treatment, but only one bacterium survives all rounds. The “choice” of who lives is based on an obvious trait that some but not all of the students exhibit, symbolizing a trait that the resistant bacteria possess. After playing this game several times, and reviewing the idea of mutation, and how fast bacteria can reproduce, students will watch the mega plate Petri dish video on bacteria evolution; write their explanation of what happens; and pair-share before the whole class discussion. Since using this approach to teach antibiotic resistance, the number of students that demonstrate understanding the concept of antibiotic resistance in exams has almost doubled.
