Current state and perspective of developmental studies of teaching materials for virus education in biology

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. In particular, almost all individuals worldwide have become more fearful of viruses since the pandemic than before. However, virus education worldwide, including Japan, is currently insufficient in terms of virus literacy in high school and undergraduate biology courses. In Japan, viruses are only taught in conjunction with infectious diseases, such as AIDS and influenza, in the high school subjects Health and Physical Education or Modern Society but are not sufficiently addressed in the Sciences (including biology) because viruses are not considered to be living organisms. However, in several undergraduate courses in Japan and worldwide, virus education is receiving increasing attention and development. Good teaching materials on bacteriophages are offered in such courses, taught via lab-based experiments, including plaque assay, titration, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and gene amplification with polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Recently discovered giant viruses are reported to be useful in microscopy-based experiments for high school and undergraduate courses, with potential as teaching materials for virus education, similar to bacteriophages. The development of teaching materials for virus education is crucial and is necessary considering the threat and risk of future viruses for human society.