Teaching resources for KS3, GCSE and A Level Biology
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has developed teaching and learning resources for KS3, GCSE and A Level Biology.
This was made possible by a working group of teachers who kindly volunteered their time.
Click on the titles below to access the resources.
Key Stage 3
This up-to-date resource explores the difference between epidemics and pandemics using the examples of coronavirus and Ebola. It examines the treatment and prevention of these infectious diseases. The videos embedded in the PowerPoint detail the work of MSF in the global fight against coronavirus and also the work done during various Ebola outbreaks.
This resource covers malnutrition and examines its causes, its effects on the body and how it can be treated. It examines MSF’s work in this field and covers the topic of digestion and malnutrition from the key stage 3 science (biology) programme of study.
The resource has been created by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) using our authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to review and select content and activities to best match their students’ needs.
GCSE
This teaching resource is designed for students of GCSE Biology and combined science. It is part of a series of videos looking at infectious and killer diseases created by MSF. Here, a set of five short videos takes students through the history, geography, effect on the body, treatment and future of cholera. The PowerPoint presentation has a range of activities for students and answer slides for teachers. A full transcript of the video is also provided.
This resource about HIV/AIDS is designed to support GCSE specifications for biology and combined science. It examines the origins and the spread of this viral disease and how treatment and prevention attempt to reduce the spread. The resource showcases some of the projects that Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have worked on around the world with HIV/AIDS. It is part of a series on ‘killer diseases’ created by MSF.
For GCSE Biology and Combined Science, this exercise is part of a series of videos looking at infectious and killer diseases. Here, a set of five short videos takes students through the history, geography, effect on the body, treatment and future of malaria. The full transcript is also provided.
This resource covers measles as an infectious viral disease and examines how it is spread, its effects on the body and how it can be controlled, reduced or prevented. It examines MSF’s work in these fields.
This resource about Ebola is designed to support GCSE specifications for biology and combined science. A set of five short videos takes students through the history, geography, effect on the body, treatment and future of Ebola. The PowerPoint presentation has a range of activities for students and answer slides for teachers. A full transcript of the video is also provided. It is part of a series on ‘killer diseases’ created by MSF.
This teaching resource is designed for students of GCSE Biology and combined science. Students explore the role of vaccinations is in the treatment of infectious diseases with a focus on measles.
The resource showcases the work Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the fight against measles in The Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen. The resource contains a student resource pack and a PowerPoint presentation with answer slides for teachers.
This resource covers parasitic diseases in general, for example how they are transmitted, and examines sleeping sickness in detail – its symptoms and how it is diagnosed and treated.
The resource has been created by Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) using our authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to review and select content and activities to best match their students’ needs.
This comprehensive lesson resource containing 8-10 tasks (two lessons if needed) looks at an innovative partnership-based project started in 2023 in Honduras to help reduce the spread of arboviruses – notably dengue fever.
The resource covers the main details of the initiative and guides students to interact with the lesson resources to gain a better understanding of one way in which communities are working together to reduce the spread of dengue and other diseases in this tropical country.
The focus of the resource is the strategy of infecting mosquitoes with the Wolbachia bacterium to prevent them being able to pass on any other, more fatal, infections to humans or to their own offspring.
This resource covers antibiotics – how they work and therefore how resistance develops, the causes and consequences of ABR, and how it can be controlled. It examines MSF’s work in these fields.
The resource has been created by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) using our authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to review and select content and activities to best match their students’ needs.
This resource covers snakebite – its symptoms and treatment, as well as issues around access to antivenoms and MSF’s work in this area. It would be especially relevant on Snakebite Awareness Day, which takes place every year on 19th September, but can be used at any time.
The resource has been created by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) using our authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to review and select content and activities to best match their students’ needs.
This resource covers snakebite – its symptoms and treatment, as well as issues around access to antivenoms and MSF’s work in this area. It would be especially relevant on Snakebite Awareness Day, which takes place every year on 19th September, but can be used at any time.
This resource revises how communicable diseases are caused and spread, and how this spread can be reduced or prevented. It examines MSF’s work in this field, focusing on cholera, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
The resource has been created by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) using our authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to review and select content and activities to best match their students’ needs.
This resource covers key vocabulary and information about food security and some of the biological factors affecting levels of food security, alongside MSF’s work in this field.
The resource has been created by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) using our authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to review and select content and activities to best match their students’ needs.
A Level
This resource explores Dr John Snow's seminal cholera investigation from London in 1854. It introduces students to the study of epidemiology, data handling and planning an investigation. It has been created for students of A level Biology by a team of biology teachers and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This PowerPoint presentation contains critical thinking questions throughout as well as the answers on the slides. This detailed presentation can be modified for use by teachers.
This resource provides an overview of tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), including risk factors for developing TB, available vaccines and treatments and current research and development of both drugs and diagnostic tools.
Using authoritative and recent data from the UK Government, World Health Organization, The Lancet and MSF reports, students participate in a data handling activity which focuses largely on the prevalence of TB in the UK, with a focus on London.
The answers to questions are provided for ease of use by teachers in the teacher resource pack. This multi-media resource has been prepared with the guidance of a working group of biology teachers and is informed by the 2015 specifications of AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel with particular emphasis on the increased mathematical demands.
Attention Biology teachers!
Are you a teacher who uses these resources in the classroom? If so, we would love to hear your feedback, good or bad, to help us keep improving our resources. Please send us an e-mail with your thoughts.
Look out for more resources from MSF on the Times Educational Supplement website