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.
Exploring plants, agriculture, and food crop farming through microbiology.
Open lessonUnderstanding animals and their relationships with microbes and ecosystems.
Open lessonMicrobiology of food, beverages, safety, and production systems.
Open lessonPersonal microbiology and how microbes influence our everyday lives.
Open lessonHow microbiology connects with health, wellbeing, and human resilience.
Open lessonUnderstanding infection, disease, prevention, and microbial interactions.
Open lessonMicrobiology in environmental systems, biodiversity, and planetary health.
Open lessonExamining climate change and the microbial dimensions of warming systems.
Open lessonWater systems, sanitation, microbial ecology, and public health links.
Open lessonUnderstanding microbiology as a global scientific and societal subject.
Open lessonScientific exploration, curiosity, and the discovery journeys of microbiology.
Open lessonEmerging areas of microbiology and the future of scientific advancement.
Open lessonHow microbes support biotechnology, innovation, and useful applications.
Open lessonFuture-facing microbiology themes shaping life, society, and sustainability.
Open lessonThe origins of microbes, life history, and our deep biological past.
Open lessonHow microbes have shaped culture, civilisation, and human development.
Open lessonPositive microbial relationships and the beneficial roles microbes play.
Open lessonLooking at wellbeing not only from humans, but also microbial systems.
Open lessonMethods, tools, and scientific processes used to understand microbes.
Open lessonWhy microbiology knowledge matters for informed citizens and societies.
Open lesson