Lessons on the Historical Context
These lessons and activities will familiarize students with the life, times, and cultural contexts
of the 19th and 20th centuries out of which emerged the germ theory of disease. By participating in some
or all of these, students will obtain and likely retain conceptual understanding of not only the germ theory
of disease but also the nature of science.
This article presents 11 different ways of altering cookbook labs so that students understand the intention
of the procedure, a step toward allowing more open-ended discovery. For example, given the procedure,
students design a data table. Or, the steps in the procedure are mixed up and students have to put them in
correct order. The suggested strategies can be applied to historic experiments, such as Redi's experiment to
disprove spontaneous generation or Pasteur's swan-necked flask experiments. This approach contrasts with the
normal presentation of these famous experiments where students are told what was done, how, why, and the results.
Very often students do not understand why the methods were chosen or how the results are logical
outcomes. Moreover, students rarely retain any significant conceptual understanding even though they were told
the important points. (This online article is free to NSTA members; nonmembers must pay $4.99.)
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This lesson demonstrates that scientific knowledge is stable but also prone to change.
Students will understand how those changes can happen in the context of the history of spontaneous generation. This
lesson from the American Association for the Advancement of Science aligns with Benchmarks 1 and 10, Nature of
Science and History of Science. It can be carried out as a class lesson or as an independent study. Part of the
lesson involves students accessing related information on the Internet. Thorough teacher background information
and pedagogically sound, structured discussion questions are provided.
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The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series,
called Engines of Ingenuity, about creative people and the machines "that make our civilization run."
This episode is available in audio format. It recounts the story of Semmelweis's observations regarding
contagious disease and the variables he believed could be controlled to prevent spreading of childbed fever.
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Also from the series Engines of Ingenuity, this page recounts the contributions
of various persons to the eventual development of the germ theory of disease.
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In this Science Update from Science Netlinks, students will find out how long a germ
can hang around and wait for its next victim.
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This site focuses on Pasteur and his discovery of microorganisms. Middle school
students may not be able to imagine a world in which people did not know germs existed, because, in general,
students have difficulty understanding that the beliefs, values, attitudes, and points of view of people in the
past were different from those today.
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A safe and simple exercise uses Koch's postulates to prove that an observed fungus
is the cause of fruit disease. Since the fungus that causes brown rot of stone fruit (e.g., apricots, peaches,
nectarines, plums, and cherries) is present naturally on the surface of these fruit, stone fruit purchased from
the supermarket will usually develop the disease. The fungi responsible for brown rot are not human pathogens.
This lab requires dissecting and compound microscopes. A simplified exercise, without cultures, to demonstrate
the germ theory also is described.
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This short video clip takes the viewer on site to where Pasteur conducted his famous anthrax experiment.
We recommend using the video as a re-enforcement rather than an introduction because it discloses Pasteur's
procedure and results, reducing students’ incentive to participate in inquiry regarding what Pasteur might have
hypothesized and how he might have tested his hypotheses.
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Copyright
November 2007 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
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