Contamination detectives

Contamination detectives Activity Card Posters have appeared all over StarTown Primary, saying it’s important to wash your hands to stop the spread of illness and diseases. Your challenge Can you help Class 5 find out if washing your hands helps stop the spread of illness? Using glitter to represent generic “bacteria” and “viruses” that can be spread through human contact, try out different styles of handwashing to see if it works and which technique is most effective. Discuss Is it important to wash your hands? If so, when is it important? How long do you normally wash your hands for? What is the best way to wash your hands? Do you think all bacteria are bad? Can bacteria ever be helpful? Class 5 want to find out if washing your hands really makes a difference. The glitter you are using is visible to the human eye. Do you think germs are usually visible in the same way?

Getting started How will you test your ideas to see which works best? How will you make it a fair test? Test your ideas How will you record your findings? Could you make a table or a graph to show your results, like the one below? Maybe you could colour in grids like this one to show how much of the glitter was left and compare how effective the different handwashing techniques are. Handwashing technique Glitter left on hand after washing No handwashing Rinsing for 5 seconds Rinsing for 10 seconds Scrubbing for 5 seconds Share your ideas Tell the rest of the group about your results. Was it harder to wash the glitter off particular areas of the hands? Do you think your experiment was fair? Could you do anything to improve it? Will you change anything about the way you wash your hands in the future? Extra things to do Have a group discussion - why do you think scientists study bacteria and viruses. What can they learn from them? Do bacteria have DNA too? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236