Humans are living in a world full of microorganisms, and our daily lives are directly and indirectly affected by them. In this topic, students will develop an understanding of the diversity of microorganisms, and their beneficial and harmful roles. Students will have the opportunity to study the growth of microorganisms, and develop appropriate laboratory skills and techniques for conducting practical work with microorganisms. Examples of uses of microorganisms in food, medicine, industry pollution control and genetic engineering are included, so as to illustrate the importance of microorganisms and their wide applications. Finally, human diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms, and microbial deterioration are used to illustrate the harmful effects of microorganisms.

 

Microorganisms and Humans builds on students’ prior knowledge of Cellular energetics, Molecular genetics, Diversity of life forms, Functioning of ecosystem, and Diseases studied in the compulsory part. The diagram below shows how the prior knowledge is related to this topic.