Summary
Rohan Deb Roy’s research on mosquitoes, bees, and termites in colonial India offers an exciting and innovative way to introduce UK school students to the history of empire and British society. Instead of beginning with kings, battles, or politicians, his work uses familiar insects to show how the British Empire was shaped by unexpected forces. Mosquitoes influenced colonial medicine and ideas about health through diseases such as malaria, termites threatened the paper records and wooden structures on which imperial rule depended, and bees provided powerful metaphors for social organisation and authority.
This approach can make introductory history lessons more engaging because it encourages pupils to ask surprising questions: How could tiny insects challenge a global empire? What do insects reveal about British attitudes towards India and colonial subjects? By connecting environmental history, science, and empire, Deb Roy’s research helps pupils see that the British empire and everyday life were deeply interconnected. It provides a memorable and interdisciplinary entry point into broader themes of colonialism, power, race, knowledge, and society, encouraging curiosity and critical thinking from the very start of their study of empire.
This resource was produced as part of a collaboration between the University of Reading and anti-racism practitioners at Brighter Futures for Children as part of the ‘Decolonise, Innovate, Transform’ project.
How to use the lesson plan
This lesson plan is for a scheme of work lasting 6 weeks or 6 lessons.
- Key topics to be covered and knowledge achieved by the end of the session are outlined in the lesson plan schemes.
- Supplementary resources have been provided which may be used in class to better situate the content with students. This includes template PowerPoint slides that you can adapt to suit your pupil cohort.
- The ‘Further Reading and references’ section provides references to academic research from Dr Rohan Deb Roy at the University of Reading. You can use this to develop your own knowledge or your teaching materials.
Evaluation
For teachers
We are keen to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of these resources as they are used by teachers in schools. You can scan the QR code on the final page of this resource which will take you to a short post-survey (‘Lesson Plan Effectiveness Evaluation’).
We encourage you to be as open and honest as possible as this will enable us to better develop the materials. All data will be anonymised prior to analysis.
If you do not feel comfortable answering the survey, or prefer to give feedback in a different way, please contact Stéphanie Mitchell, (s.mitchell@reading.ac.uk).