■微生物的分布和对人类功能和福祉的影响都很普遍,一般生命和地球。基于微生物的技术为我们依赖的重要商品和服务的供应做出了巨大贡献。例如提供食物,药品和干净的水。它们还提供了机制和战略,以减轻和解决人类各级面临的广泛问题和危机,包括联合国制定的可持续发展目标(SDG)中包含的目标。例如,微生物技术可以通过多种方式促进脱碳,从而应对全球变暖,为数十亿缺乏卫生和清洁水的人提供卫生和清洁水,改善土壤肥力,从而提高粮食生产,并开发疫苗和其他药物,以减少并在某些情况下消除致命的感染。它们是生物技术的基础,一个日益重要和不断增长的商业部门和就业来源,和生物经济的中心,绿色交易,等。但是,因为微生物基本上是看不见的,他们对大多数人来说并不熟悉,因此,决策者往往会错过他们提供的有效预防和解决问题的机会,带来的负面影响。为了纠正这种缺乏重要知识的情况,国际微生物学扫盲倡议-IMiLI-正在从全球微生物学界招募并免费提供,社会相关微生物学课程的教学资源,可用于各级学习。它的目标是发展一个有相关微生物学知识的社会,因此,能够充分利用微生物的潜力,并最大限度地减少其负面活动的后果。除了教授微生物,几乎每堂课都讨论了他们对可持续性和可持续发展目标的影响,以及他们解决社会不平等紧迫问题的能力。因此,课程教授可持续性,社会需求和全球公民身份。这些课程还揭示了微生物及其活动对我们个人日常生活的影响,家庭,社区,国家和全球层面及其与各级决策的相关性。And,因为有效,基于证据的决策不仅需要相关信息,还需要批判性和系统思维,这些资源还教授了审议的这些关键通用方面。IMiLI教学资源以学习者为中心,不以学术微生物学为中心,处理日常问题的微生物学。这些话题涵盖了拥有和照顾伴侣动物等各种主题,通过微生物过程生产的各种日常食品,由微生物创造的令人印象深刻的地质构造,儿童疾病以及如何管理以及如何减少浪费和污染。他们还利用探索和发现的非凡兴奋,这些探索和发现代表了微生物学的巨大进步,以吸引人们的兴趣,激励和激励教育者和学习者。IMiLI正在建立区域中心,以将教学资源翻译成区域语言并使其适应区域文化,并促进它们的使用,并协助教育工作者使用它们。其中两个现已开始运作。区域中心构成了资源创造者和教育者-学习者之间的接口。因此,他们将收集和分析最终用户的反馈,并将其传输给资源创建者,以便可以改进和完善教材,以及响应需求而增加的新资源:教育者和学习者将因此直接参与教学资源的演变。由区域中心介导的教育者-学习者和资源创造者之间的互动将建立动态和协同的关系-一个全球社会相关的微生物学教育生态系统-其中创造者也成为学习者,教学资源得到优化,所有参与者/利益相关者都得到了授权,他们的动机也得到了提高。因此,IMiLI概念包含了在更广泛的社会背景下教授社会相关微生物学的原则,生物圈和行星的需求,不平等,我们面临的危机范围以及改进决策的必要性,这将最终导致更好的公民身份和更可持续和有弹性的人类。
地球的生物圈是一个微生物世界:无数微生物驱动的化学转化和能量转移的巨大反应器,推动和拉动许多行星地球化学过程,包括生命元素的循环,缓解或扩大气候变化(例如,自然评论微生物学,2019,17,569)并影响所有生物体的福祉和活动,包括人类。微生物既是我们的祖先,也是使我们能够进化的行星化学的创造者(例如,生命引擎:微生物如何使地球适合居住,2023年)。为了了解生物圈的功能,人类如何影响它的发展,并与其他共享它的生物更可持续地生活,我们需要了解微生物。在最近的一篇社论(环境微生物学,2019、21、1513),我们提倡提高社会的微生物学素养。我们的微生物学素养概念不是基于微生物学学科的知识,凭借其众多的组件主题,加上来自其他学科的越来越多的额外主题,这些主题成为当前微生物学中至关重要的元素。相反,它侧重于影响我们个人/社区/国家/人类世界和生物圈的微生物活动,这些活动对于就我们经常面临的许多问题做出明智的决定至关重要,从个人问题到具有全球重要性的危机。换句话说,它是对成年和向成年过渡至关重要的知识和理解,必须在学校早期获得的知识和理解。2019年社论标志着国际微生物学素养倡议的启动,IMILI.在这里,我们呈现:我们关于如何实现微生物学素养的概念以及支撑它的基本原理;在可持续性的背景下,为实现这些资源中处理的微生物活动的概念和框架而创建的教学资源类型,社会需求和责任以及决策;以及将把教学资源翻译成当地语言的区域中心的关键作用,根据当地文化需求进行调整,与区域教育工作者的接口,并发展和充当微生物学素养教育网络的枢纽。教学资源中的主题以学习者为中心,并因其固有的相关性而被选中,激发和参与的兴趣和能力。重要的是,资源连贯地整合和强调可持续性的总体问题,管理和批判性思维以及过程的普遍相互依存。更广泛地说,该概念强调如何利用微生物活动的多种应用来促进人类/动物,植物,环境和行星健康,改善社会公平,减轻人道主义赤字和人民之间冲突的原因,并增进人民之间的理解(微生物生物技术,2023年,16(6),1091-1111)。重要的是,尽管免费提供(CCBY-NC4.0)IMiLI教学资源的主要目标是学童及其教育者,它们和教学理念适用于所有年龄段,全球学习者的能力和文化光谱:在大学教育中,终身学习,好奇心驱动,基于网络的知识获取和公共宣传。IMiLI教学资源旨在促进全球微生物学教育生态系统的发展,使微生物学知识民主化。
UNASSIGNED: Microbes are all pervasive in their distribution and influence on the functioning and well-being of humans, life in general and the planet. Microbially-based technologies contribute hugely to the supply of important goods and services we depend upon, such as the provision of food, medicines and clean water. They also offer mechanisms and strategies to mitigate and solve a wide range of problems and crises facing humanity at all levels, including those encapsulated in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations. For example, microbial technologies can contribute in multiple ways to decarbonisation and hence confronting global warming, provide sanitation and clean water to the billions of people lacking them, improve soil fertility and hence food production and develop vaccines and other medicines to reduce and in some cases eliminate deadly infections. They are the foundation of biotechnology, an increasingly important and growing business sector and source of employment, and the centre of the bioeconomy, Green Deal, etc. But, because microbes are largely invisible, they are not familiar to most people, so opportunities they offer to effectively prevent and solve problems are often missed by decision-makers, with the negative consequences this entrains. To correct this lack of vital knowledge, the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative-the IMiLI-is recruiting from the global microbiology community and making freely available, teaching resources for a curriculum in societally relevant microbiology that can be used at all levels of learning. Its goal is the development of a society that is literate in relevant microbiology and, as a consequence, able to take full advantage of the potential of microbes and minimise the consequences of their negative activities. In addition to teaching about microbes, almost every lesson discusses the influence they have on sustainability and the SDGs and their ability to solve pressing problems of societal inequalities. The curriculum thus teaches about sustainability, societal needs and global citizenship. The lessons also reveal the impacts microbes and their activities have on our daily lives at the personal, family, community, national and global levels and their relevance for decisions at all levels. And, because effective, evidence-based decisions require not only relevant information but also critical and systems thinking, the resources also teach about these key generic aspects of deliberation. The IMiLI teaching resources are learner-centric, not academic microbiology-centric and deal with the microbiology of everyday issues. These span topics as diverse as owning and caring for a companion animal, the vast range of everyday foods that are produced via microbial processes, impressive geological formations created by microbes, childhood illnesses and how they are managed and how to reduce waste and pollution. They also leverage the exceptional excitement of exploration and discovery that typifies much progress in microbiology to capture the interest, inspire and motivate educators and learners alike. The IMiLI is establishing Regional Centres to translate the teaching resources into regional languages and adapt them to regional cultures, and to promote their use and assist educators employing them. Two of these are now operational. The Regional Centres constitute the interface between resource creators and educators-learners. As such, they will collect and analyse feedback from the end-users and transmit this to the resource creators so that teaching materials can be improved and refined, and new resources added in response to demand: educators and learners will thereby be directly involved in evolution of the teaching resources. The interactions between educators-learners and resource creators mediated by the Regional Centres will establish dynamic and synergistic relationships-a global societally relevant microbiology education ecosystem-in which creators also become learners, teaching resources are optimised and all players/stakeholders are empowered and their motivation increased. The IMiLI concept thus embraces the principle of teaching societally relevant microbiology embedded in the wider context of societal, biosphere and planetary needs, inequalities, the range of crises that confront us and the need for improved decisioning, which should ultimately lead to better citizenship and a humanity that is more sustainable and resilient.
UNASSIGNED: The biosphere of planet Earth is a microbial world: a vast reactor of countless microbially driven chemical transformations and energy transfers that push and pull many planetary geochemical processes, including the cycling of the elements of life, mitigate or amplify climate change (e.g., Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2019, 17, 569) and impact the well-being and activities of all organisms, including humans. Microbes are both our ancestors and creators of the planetary chemistry that allowed us to evolve (e.g., Life\'s engines: How microbes made earth habitable, 2023). To understand how the biosphere functions, how humans can influence its development and live more sustainably with the other organisms sharing it, we need to understand the microbes. In a recent editorial (Environmental Microbiology, 2019, 21, 1513), we advocated for improved microbiology literacy in society. Our concept of microbiology literacy is not based on knowledge of the academic subject of microbiology, with its multitude of component topics, plus the growing number of additional topics from other disciplines that become vitally important elements of current microbiology. Rather it is focused on microbial activities that impact us-individuals/communities/nations/the human world-and the biosphere and that are key to reaching informed decisions on a multitude of issues that regularly confront us, ranging from personal issues to crises of global importance. In other words, it is knowledge and understanding essential for adulthood and the transition to it, knowledge and understanding that must be acquired early in life in school. The 2019 Editorial marked the launch of the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative, the IMiLI. HERE, WE PRESENT: our concept of how microbiology literacy may be achieved and the rationale underpinning it; the type of teaching resources being created to realise the concept and the framing of microbial activities treated in these resources in the context of sustainability, societal needs and responsibilities and decision-making; and the key role of Regional Centres that will translate the teaching resources into local languages, adapt them according to local cultural needs, interface with regional educators and develop and serve as hubs of microbiology literacy education networks. The topics featuring in teaching resources are learner-centric and have been selected for their inherent relevance, interest and ability to excite and engage. Importantly, the resources coherently integrate and emphasise the overarching issues of sustainability, stewardship and critical thinking and the pervasive interdependencies of processes. More broadly, the concept emphasises how the multifarious applications of microbial activities can be leveraged to promote human/animal, plant, environmental and planetary health, improve social equity, alleviate humanitarian deficits and causes of conflicts among peoples and increase understanding between peoples (Microbial Biotechnology, 2023, 16(6), 1091-1111). Importantly, although the primary target of the freely available (CC BY-NC 4.0) IMiLI teaching resources is schoolchildren and their educators, they and the teaching philosophy are intended for all ages, abilities and cultural spectra of learners worldwide: in university education, lifelong learning, curiosity-driven, web-based knowledge acquisition and public outreach. The IMiLI teaching resources aim to promote development of a global microbiology education ecosystem that democratises microbiology knowledge.