The core lesson architecture of the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative, designed to make microbiology accessible, relevant, and meaningful for learners.
Topic Frameworks are the building blocks of the microbiology curriculum created by IMiLI.
They connect microbiology with sustainability, society, health, and real-life decision making.
Teachers can freely mix, match, and adapt them according to learner needs and teaching goals.
Topic Frameworks (TFs), written by hundreds of microbiologists worldwide in non-specialist language that teachers can interpret for classes and groups of different ages and teaching needs, are generic knowledge frameworks that constitute the individual lessons of the microbiology curriculum. They are the centrepiece of the resources created by the IMiLI to promote microbiology literacy in society.
TFs are essentially stand-alone, so can be freely selected and mixed and matched according to the teaching aims, interests and priorities of individual teachers. New TFs can also be readily created by teachers by combining and adapting parts of different frameworks.
Importantly, TFs are learner interest and experience centric. Wherever possible, topics are approached from the perspective of learners’ real lives (for example, pet ownership or food choices) rather than from microbiology alone.
They also place microbiology within the wider context of sustainability, the Sustainable Development Goals, major societal challenges, and evidence-based decision making. In this way, learners are encouraged to understand their role as stakeholders in important social, environmental, and scientific issues.
Browse the available IMiLI Topic Frameworks designed to support microbiology literacy across personal, social, environmental, and global themes.