"Germs and vaccines" educational program with the La main à la pâte foundation

To mark the bicentenary of Louis Pasteur's birth in 2022, the La main à la pâte foundation is developing an original educational project and is involved in the major commemorative campaign launched by the Institut de France, France Mémoire, the French Academy of Sciences and the Institut Pasteur. The program has been developed by the teams at La main à la pâte in conjunction with the Institut Pasteur, with Guillaume Dumenil and Jean-François Chambon serving as in-house advisors.

The La main à la pâte foundation embarked on this educational project for teachers back in March 2021. The resources, aimed at primary and middle school students, are based on two major themes in Louis Pasteur's work that had a major impact on the history of science and our daily lives.

How was scientific knowledge about infectious diseases developed at the time of Louis Pasteur and his successors? That is the question explored by the interdisciplinary module devised by the La main à la pâte foundation. Teachers (mainly of upper middle school classes, but versions for upper primary/lower middle school or for high school are also available) are transported back to the era when this scientific knowledge was being developed, at a time when science and society were closely linked.

The module is composed of four teaching sequences. It looks at the major scientific discoveries that established the role of microorganisms in infectious diseases and the implementation of methods to tackle them (vaccination and aseptic or antiseptic techniques).

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