Learning about antibiotic resistance in a fun way

Making germs on your hand glow, looking at bacteria cells through the lens of a microscope, listening to stories about germs… These are some of the things children did to peek into the world of bacteria and antibiotics at the ‘WAAW! It’s World Antibiotics Awareness Week’ library workshop.

Children could see the germs on their hands glow at the ‘Glo-Germ’ station
With the help of a microscope, children could ‘see the invisible’ and get an idea of what bacteria look like.

Organised by the School’s Singapore Social, Lifestyle and Infection Networks Group (Singapore SLING) led by Assistant Professor Clarence Tam, the WAAW outreach event was held at Jurong Regional Library on 11-12 Nov and at Marine Parade Public Library on 25-26 Nov. The workshop featured different stations for children to learn about bacteria, hand hygiene and antibiotics, including a station where participants could see the germs on their hands glow.

A station to teach children proper hand-washing techniques to maintain good hand hygiene.
A/Prof Hsu Li Yang teaching two girls about bacteria and antibiotics.
A/Prof Hsu Li Yang teaching two girls about bacteria and antibiotics.

This is the second year that the Singapore SLING team has organised this event, with this year’s workshops seeing over 900 children and parents.The workshops are part of the World Health Organization’s annual World Antibiotics Awareness Week, a global campaign to increase awareness of antibiotic resistance and promote the correct use of antibiotics.

Learning about germs through storytelling
Pledging to be ‘Germbusters’ after completing all stations

Media Coverage:

  • News 5, Channel 5, 11 November 2017 (segment from 9:10 to 13:39)
  • Singapore Tonight, Channel NewsAsia, 11 November 2017 (segment from 9:33 to 14:09)