Pre-service primary teachers’ understanding of fermentation: the “lab-brewed” beer Project

Résumé

This work presents a laboratory module that was given in a compulsory course on Natural Sciences in the degree of Primary Education. The research examined the prior knowledge and learning outcomes on microbiology, and particularly, the chemical changes occurring during a fermentation process. The module was presented as a little project where the laboratory group collaboratively produced their own beer. The students performed simple experiments, easily applicable in a primary school setting, in order to understand the biological process and the chemical transformations occurring during fermentation. The assessment of the students' prior knowledge showed that students lacked scientific knowledge on microorganism taxonomy, only a few of them could mention names of widely known microorganisms, and could not explain the fermentation process. Through experiments in which variables were controlled and compared, students also learned to apply the scientific method and modeled the carbon flux during fermentation. This particular concept was shown to be better understood after the implementation of the module.