Overview

e‑Bug is a free educational resource comprising of lesson plans, activities and worksheets. It provides exciting, age-appropriate and hands-on ideas to help children learn about micro-organisms, and the spread, prevention and treatment of infection. The resource is produced by the UK Health Security Agency (formally Public Health England) and its international partners, and has been updated since previous versions and in light of COVID-19. Although e‑Bug resources are available for students aged 3 to 16 years, this review focuses on those for primary-aged children, who are starting to look after their own health. 

The Primary e‑Bug resources come in two age-related packs, with, in total, lesson plans and printable resources for sixteen 50-minute sessions that can be used both for science teaching and in PSHE/2021 RSHE (Relationships, Sex and Health Education) lessons on personal hygiene and prevention of health problems. In addition to being able to download these resources from www.e-bug.eu.This website also contains, for example, animated Key Stage ½ (ages 5-11) stories about microbes. Similar e-Bug lesson resources linked to the Scottish and Welsh curricula, and in different European languages, can also be downloaded from this website. Teachers can register with e-Bug for a quarterly newsletter about its latest resources and news.

What’s included in the e-Bug electronic resources?

In the e-Bug packs, each lesson plan contains step-by-step instructions for asking key questions, leading discussions, and running a memorable, mostly hands-on, activity for the children to explore and embed their learning. The lesson plans also include keywords, health and safety advice, a list of equipment needed, and concrete ideas for extension activities. A useful ‘Teacher Refresher’ section, which provides detailed and valuable background information, and a Glossary, are also provided. To help children understand what scientists do, two of the Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) lessons feature a famous scientist whose work is related to the lesson.

The hands-on activities are exciting for children and embed their learning. Equally importantly, they have been chosen to be simple for teachers to run, with ‘everyday’ equipment and minimal preparation required. For example, in the EYFS handwashing lesson, children scrub pen marks off an inflated plastic glove; for Key Stages 1/2, a sneeze is modelled using a spray bottle of coloured water and, for Key Stage 2, children measure the height of a yeast mixture as it ferments. There are step-by-step teacher instructions, in both an ‘at-a-glance’ pictorial, and a more-detailed, written, format.

Child-friendly printable resources are provided for class and extension activities, e.g. for group experiments and games, to challenge higher ability students, and/or to continue the learning at home. These include for example, for EYFS, handwashing and teeth-cleaning charts, sequencing cards and a sheet upon which children copy keywords or write simple sentences. For Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7), a take-home factsheet accompanies each lesson, which includes ‘fun facts’ such as ‘There are more microbes on one person’s hand than people on the planet’.

Early Years (3-5 years) e-Bug resources

For Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), there are three e-Bug lesson plans to encourage good handwashing, reducing the spread of microbes and brushing teeth effectively. These are linked to the 2021 EYFS Framework through: 

Communication and Language development (listening, attention, understanding and speaking);

Personal, Social and Emotional development (learning and practising basic hygiene habits);

Physical development (creating with materials and being expressive and imaginative, using fine motor skills.

The hands-on activities in the three EYFS lessons involve children:

• taking turns to wash water-soluble pen marks off an inflated plastic glove using soapy water, to reinforce learning about when and how children should wash their hands;
• spreading coloured water around a paper ‘hand’ by blowing through a straw to simulate microbes spreading due to sneezing; and
• the teacher (and children, if possible) demonstrating how to brush teeth using a model mouth or puppet/toy.

Key Stage 1 (5-7 years) e-Bug resources

There are four Key Stage 1 e-Bug lesson plans introducing children to microbes, encouraging healthy self-care habits and teaching them how to avoid spreading germs. The English National Curriculum for Science statements that e‑Bug resources help teach are:

• from the KS1 ‘Living things and their habitats’ topic, ‘To identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats’
• from the ‘Animals including humans’ topic, ‘To describe the importance for humans of …hygiene’
• and, for ‘Working scientifically’ skills, ‘Asking questions’, ‘Carrying out comparative tests’ and ‘Using observations to answer questions’.

The resources can also be used for PSHE/RSHE lessons.

The hands-on activities in the four Key Stage 1 e-Bug lessons include:

• making modelling-clay microbes to introduce children to viruses, bacteria and fungi;
• testing how floating pepper (‘bad’ microbes) reacts to soap, to explore the washing with and without it;
• measuring how far microbes in a sneeze travel using a spray bottle of coloured water to simulate; and
• leaving eggshells overnight in different liquids to model tooth decay.

Key Stage 2 (7-11 years) e-Bug resources

The 10 Key Stage 2 e-Bug lesson plans reinforce and extend children’s learning about microbes, effective personal hygiene routines and, for upper Key Stage 2, introduce children to the topics of vaccination and the use of antibiotics, both key issues in protecting our nation’s health in forthcoming years.

These lessons can be used both for teaching PSHE/RSHE lessons on personal hygiene and prevention of health problems and as part of teaching the English National Curriculum Science topics ‘Living things and their habitats’, ‘Animals including humans’ and developing students’ ‘Working scientifically’ skills.

In addition to the lesson plans and worksheets/information sheets, some downloadable PowerPoints are available linked to Key Stage 2 e-Bug activities, and two of the lessons reference famous scientists: Elie Metchinikoff (a Nobel prize-winner for research on probiotic bacteria) and, in the Vaccinations lesson, Edward Jenner (who used cowpox to prevent smallpox), Louis Pasteur (who developed a rabies vaccine) and the modern researchers Dame Sarah Gilbert, Kathrin Jansen, Hanneke Schuitemaker and Gagandeep Kang.

The activities suggested in the ten Key Stage 2 e-Bug lesson plans include:

• making a collage of magazine pictures showing where microbes live, and designing a microbe with a back story;
• recording how a yeast and flour mixture, with and without sugar, rises, to illustrate useful microbes;
• setting up a mouldy bread experiment, discussing why children feel ill and reinforcing learning on harmful microbes with a crossword or wordsearch;
• using UV-sensitive gel/glitter to illustrate infections spreading and paint to demonstrate effective handwashing;
• children conducting the ‘simulated sneeze’ experiment themselves, in groups, to illustrate good respiratory hygiene;
• doing an interactive quiz involving food hygiene decisions, identifying microbe hazards in a cookery lesson and discussing different food labelling dates;
• discussing how children look after their pets and playing a game comparing pet health and human health tips, followed by a farm hygiene activity;
• finding it hard to brush a cornflour coating (plaque) off a yogurt pot and measuring out an equivalent amount of sugar to that in different sugary drinks;
• acting out the story of Edward Jenner’s famous vaccine experiment and discussing the benefits of vaccinations; and
• debating the right decisions to make in various infection-related scenarios involving children, and their treatments with or without antibiotics.

Conclusion

In summary, the EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 e-Bug resources provide exciting, hands-on lessons for primary schools to support the children’s science learning about micro-organisms and human health, as well as their PSHE/RSHE learning about hygiene and preventing health problems. They are up to date and will enable children to understand much of what they have heard and may be worried about through the recent COVID-19 pandemic. I would highly recommend these positive, supportive, age-appropriate lessons as a way to enable the children to learn, and to talk about topical, health-related issues.