The Discovery and Development of Penicillin Mark as Favorite (0 Favorites)

LESSON PLAN in Interdisciplinary, History, Pharmaceuticals, Molecular Structure , Functional Groups, Chemistry Basics. Last updated December 11, 2025.

Summary

In this lesson, students will learn about the discovery and development of penicillin by reading an article and engaging in related activities. The activities help promote literacy in the science classroom. Parts of this lesson could be used as plans for a substitute teacher.

Grade Level

High School

NGSS Alignment

This lesson will help prepare your students to meet the performance expectations in the following standards:

  • HS-PS2-6: Communicate scientific and technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in the functioning of designed materials.
  • HS-ETS1-2: Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into small, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
  • Scientific and Engineering Practices:
    • Asking Questions and Defining Problems
    • Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
    • Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

  • Provide an overview of the discovery and development of penicillin.
  • Explain how contributions from many people were necessary in bringing penicillin to market.
  • Identify the beta-lactam ring on penicillin and penicillin-like drugs.
  • Provide the common name for various lactam ring structures.
  • Explain how classes of antibiotics are grouped.
  • Provide a brief explanation of the various mechanisms of antibiotic action in a bacterial cell.
  • Provide a molecular level explanation of how penicillin works.
  • Explain the threat of antibiotic resistance, and how this threat has developed.

Chemistry Topics

This lesson supports students’ understanding of:

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Molecular structure
  • Functional groups
  • Antibiotics
  • Antibiotic resistance

Time

Teacher Preparation: 10 - 15 minutes

Lesson: Approximate times for students to complete each activity in the lesson:

  • Anticipation Guide: 10 minutes
  • Reading: 20 minutes
  • Activity: People Who Contributed: 35 minutes
  • Activity: Penicillin Structure: 40 minutes
  • Activity: How Do Antibiotics Work?: 45 minutes
  • Antibiotic Resistance Videos: 45 minutes

Materials

  • Reading document and desired student handouts to accompany the lesson.
  • Access to the internet

Teacher Notes

Background:

Lesson Overview:

The lesson includes the multiple components, as outlined individually below. The Reading is essential for all of the activities. Teachers can choose to do one or all of the included activities. Student handouts and corresponding answer keys are provided for each item described below:

  • Activity: Anticipation Guide
    • Students should identify whether they agree or disagree with the ten statements. After they complete the reading, they can adjust their answers and rephrase “disagree” statements so they read true.
  • Reading: Discovery and Development of Penicillin
  • Activity: People Who Contributed
    • This activity is designed to allow students to see that it takes many people to make advances in science, many of those working behind the scenes.
    • Students will make predictions about the order of events for various contributions to the development of penicillin. Students will then use three websites to complete a graphic organizer ordering the events and assigning them to various contributors.
  • Activity: Penicillin Structure
    • This activity is designed to allow students to look more carefully at the structure of the penicillin molecule.
    • Students will interpret the skeletal structure of a penicillin molecule, determining its molecular structure and mass.
    • Students will then examine the beta-lactam ring more closely and learn about the term “beta-lactam”. Students will also learn how to use the Greek lettering system to identify other lactam rings.
    • Finally, students will compare and contrast other beta-lactam class antibiotics to penicillin.
  • Activity: How Do Antibiotics Work?
    • This activity is designed to allow students to learn about antibiotics in greater depth. It also challenges students to think about how antibiotics can be specific to bacterial cells, or be specific to a single structure within a bacterial cell.
    • Students will use models and infographics to examine the various mechanisms of action used by antibiotics within the bacterial cell and how antibiotics are classified based on their structure. Students will then take a closer look at how penicillin works on the molecular level by targeting a specific protein involved in cell wall synthesis.
    • NOTE: if students do not have access to the internet, a class set of the infographics can be made.
  • Activity: Antibiotic Resistance Videos
    • Students will watch three short videos on the threat of antibiotic resistance, and answer questions from the videos.
  • Related classroom resources from the AACT library and ACS that may be used to further teach this topic:
  • Extensions:
    • Nova Teachers: Killer Microbe is an activity in which students model how horizontal gene transfer contributes to antibiotic resistance
    • HHMI BioInteractive: Origins of Antibiotic Resistance guides students through analyzing a published scientific figure.