Science project

Science Fair Management Plan
Stage One

My Interests in Science - wells, pulleys, flight, insects, birds, forces, design, art, animals and natural disasters

Aim - Which way of cleaning your hands gets rid of the most germs?

Hypothesis - I think the hand gel will take away the most germs.

Here is a list from first to last that I will test.
1. Antibacterial Hand Gel
2. Hand wipes
3. Washed hands with soap
4. Washed hands

What I know about my topic -

I know that most germs are not dangerous/infectious ie. that make you sick.
That there are germs everywhere and that different places have different amounts of germs.
I am doing this experiment because Swine flu has moved into our country. Our government health authority recommends using Hand Gel to clean you hands. But does using hand gel take away more germs than using hand wipes, washing your hands with water or using water and soap?
I know how to grow bacteria in a culture because I have done this before in Grade 2.

What I have found out about my topic -

To grow germs you must have a dark place.
Potato slices make good cultures.
The more surfaces the potato slice touches the more germs it will pick up.
It's important to have a control slice of potato so that you can see how many germs were already on the potato slice.
If you wash your hands with water and soap it will take away a lot of the germs but if you dry your hands with a hand towel there are more germs in the towel and they will go onto your hands.
However if you use a paper towel it will probably remove all the germs off your hands. This is why they use paper towels in hospitals and doctors rooms I think.
This could possibly be another part to my experiment or not?
I learnt that the way you wash your hands also affects the amount of germs left on your hands. So for my experiment, for the best results I will need to teach the subjects how to wash, wipe, gel their hands properly.
Did you know that Penicillin made for curing many harmful diseases caused by bacteria, pencillin comes from mould, a bacteria?

Now for a few jokes....
Why did the germ cross the microscope? To get to the other slide!
What are germs least favourite tv shows? Soap Operas!