RESOURCES FOR
TEACHING THE MICROBIOME
Explore Genomic Resources
Our free resource library is packed full of lesson plans, videos, interactive games and other educational content from the National Human Genome Research Institute and our partners.
Read Genomics: Insights
Read articles written by promising researchers about the science they're doing in the lab to inform, educate, and raise awareness about genetics and genomics.
1
Microbiome Defined in the Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms
NIH researcher Julie Segre, PhD explains in a brief audio file that a microbiome is all of the genetic material found within an individual microbe such as a bacterium, fungal cell, or virus. It also may refer to the collection of genetic material found in a community of microbes that live together.
2
Invisible Residents: Microbiome Infographic
Research teams involved in the Human Microbiome Project spent years surveying bacteria and other microbes at different parts of the body on 242 healthy people. This infographic explores the complex combinations of microbes living in and on the human body.
3
In Good Health? Thank Your 100 Trillion Bacteria
New York Times feature story on the Human Microbiome Project. "For years, bacteria have had a bad name. They are the cause of infections, of diseases. They are something to be scrubbed away, things to be avoided. But now researchers have taken a detailed look at another set of bacteria that may play even bigger roles in health and disease: the 100 trillion good bacteria that live in or on the human body."
4
Ted Ed Animation: You Are Your Microbes
In this four-minute animation demo from Ted Ed, Jessica Green and Karen Guillemin explain that we are homes to millions of unique and diverse communities of bacteria that help our bodies function. The importance of understanding the many organisms that make up each and every organism is emphasized. Complete with five multiple choice questions.
5
Microbe Motels: An Interactive Method for Teaching the Human Micro biome
Published in 2016, this interactive lesson plan is easy to accomplish in a typical classroom using minimal resources. Explaining the value of the human microbiome, the immense number of microscopic creatures living harmoniously in and on all of us reveals the lesson name: We are literally microbe motels!
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Bring the Magic of the Microbiome to Your Classroom
Bring the Magic of the Microbiome To Your Classroom is a collection of four different activities help K-12 and undergraduate educators teach students about the importance of the human micro biome.
7
The NIH Human Microbiome Project
Overview and working materials for the core research portal of the NIH Human Microbiome Project. Microbial cells outnumber human cells by about ten to one. Until recently though, this abundant community of human-associated microbes remained largely unstudied, leaving their influence upon human development, physiology, immunity, and nutrition almost entirely unknown. The Human Microbiome Project was established with the mission of generating research resources enabling comprehensive characterization of the human microbiota and analysis of their role in human health and disease.
8
Tending the Body’s Microbial Garden
Informative feature story by Carl Zimmer of The New York Times on how fecal transplants based on microbiome research can effectively treat some patients. The stool of a healthy donor is given to an infected patient via suppository. The concept is that the new bacteria in the donor's stool will establish themselves in the gut and successfully compete with bad bacteria. Details, and new approaches including probiotic stool pill therapy, are discussed.
9
Ted Talk: How Our Microbes Make Us Who We Are
“The three pounds of microbes that you carry around with you might be more important than every single gene you carry around in your genome."
Rob Knight studies the human microbiome, the community of tiny single-cell organisms living inside and on our bodies that have a huge — and largely unexplored — role in our health.
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Internet-Based Tools for Teaching the Microbiome
Teacher-compiled resource during the National Human Genome Research Institute's annual short course for genetics teachers. A list of over a dozen resources made-for-teachers-by-teachers.
Harold Chittum Ph.D., University of Pikeville
Dia-Eldin A. Elnaiem Ph.D., University of Maryland Eastern Shore
J. Michael Engle Ph.D., Mount Aloysius College
Danny L. Franke Ph.D., Alderson-Broaddus College
Diana E. Northup Ph.D., University of New Mexico Lori West Ph.D., Lee University