Infectious Disease: Evolving Challenges to Human Health
NIH Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases
Activity 3 - Superbugs: An Evolving Concern
 Overview of Activity
Students culture the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens and track its growth in the presence and absence of antibiotics. They then discuss the effectiveness of antibiotic treatments and the reason behind why some bacteria are resistant, while others are not.
Activity Type: In Class Laboratory Experiement
URLs: http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/Diseases/
guide/activity3-1.htm
Grade Level: 9-12
Level of Difficulty:Advanced
Amount of Time Required for Activity: Five to Seven 40-minute Class Periods
Recommended Uses:
Prior to attending exhibit, this activity may be used to engage students in thinking about microbial evolution and why it occurs.
After visiting the exhibit, it may be to reinforce how microbial evolution occurs in the presence of antibiotics used in excess.
Description
This is an excellent inquiry based activity that encourages students to look at microbial evolution through a hands-on activity. Students will be engaged in answering questions throughout the entire process that guide them through discovering how and why antibiotic resistance occurs.
Students conduct an experiment testing the growth of bacterial colonies in the presence and absence of penicillin and recoed their results, which they will analyze and graph after completing the experiment
In the second part of this activity, students will be grouping different infectious diseases based on teacher given criteria to understand how scienists study infectious diseases.
This activity is designed as part of a series developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Relation to the Science Standards
High School
Content Standard A - Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry
Content Standard C - Biological Evolution
Content Standard G - Nature of Scientific Knowledge
Related Part of the Exhibit
Microbial Evolution
Antibiotics and Emerging Drug Resistance
Additional Related Links
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/Diseases/
guide/pdfs/ACT3.PDF
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/Diseases/
guide/pdfs/ACT3M.PDF
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/Diseases/
guide/pdfs/ACT3NOCD.pdf
| 
