Prior to the classic experiment of Francesco Redi, people believed that some life forms could spontaneously arise from non-living matter. Go to the Access Excellence site I have linked to read the progression of thought and experiment regarding spontaneous generation from Redi to Louis Pasteur.

    Aother web site (Kent School District, Kent, Washington) has a good explanation of the actual experiment that Redi conducted. We are going to repeat this experiment using chunks of stew meat in beakers. In addition we will follow the maggots all the way through their life ctycle to identify what species of flies laid their eggs on the meat. The meat has been continuously refrigerated up to the point of our experiment.
   Answer the questions on the Kent School site in your journal using complete sentence form.

What you will hopefully learn.

•   Just how recent is some of the knowledge that you take for granted.
•   The life cycle of flies such as blowflies
•   Why an experimental control is important
•   People are extremely reluctant to challenge existing beliefs
•   Decomposition is necessary for new life - recycling of nutrients
•   History of science
•   A few ways science has affected your life.

Further Inquiry
  Try duplicating Spallanzani's experiment with broth
  Try duplicating Pasteurs experiment with broth (how can you make such a flask?)