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The Development and Impact of Penicillin

History
GCSE / Year 10 / Grade 8
7 questions
~14 mins
1 views0 downloads

About This Worksheet

This worksheet analyzes a primary source related to the discovery and development of penicillin, encouraging students to evaluate its content, origin, and usefulness.

Topics covered:

#History
#History
#Modern Medicine
#Standard
#Source Analysis (Text)
#Penicillin
#Explain the significance of penicillin in modern medicine
#Compare different perspectives on the discovery of penicillin
#Analyse the reliability of primary sources about medical breakthroughs

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The Development and Impact of Penicillin

Subject: HistoryGrade: GCSE / Year 10 / Grade 8
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Untitled Worksheet

Grade GCSE / Year 10 / Grade 8
A

Source Analysis: The Discovery of Penicillin

Source A: The Breakthrough of Penicillin

"In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered a mold that produced a substance capable of killing bacteria. This discovery was accidental; Fleming noticed that a petri dish left out in his lab was contaminated with mold, and the bacteria nearby had been destroyed. Fleming then identified the mold as Penicillium notatum and realized its potential to treat bacterial infections. At first, Fleming struggled to produce enough of the substance to be useful, and his work was largely ignored for several years. It wasn't until the 1940s, during World War II, that scientists like Howard Florey and Ernst Chain developed a method to mass-produce penicillin, saving countless lives.

Provenance: Alexander Fleming, 1945, report on the development of penicillin.

B

Questions

1.
What does Source A tell us about how penicillin was discovered?
[2 marks]
2.
Explain the purpose of Fleming's report and how it might influence others' views on penicillin.
[3 marks]
3.
Compare the reliability of this source with other types of sources about medical discoveries.
[5 marks]
4.
Outline how the development of penicillin during the 1940s changed its impact on medicine.
[4 marks]
5.
Analyse the limitations of Fleming's report as a historical source.
[5 marks]
6.
Compare how Fleming's personal account differs from reports by other scientists involved in developing penicillin.
[5 marks]
7.
Explain why Fleming’s discovery was considered a turning point in medicine.
[3 marks]

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Details

Created
1/1/2026
Updated
1/1/2026
Type
worksheet
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