With flu season in full swing, there is no better time to share with you a simple classroom experiment that shows exactly how important it is to wash your hands!
Jaralee Annice Metcalf shared photos of a science project she did with her class, writing alongside a series of photos, “We took fresh bread and touched it. We did one slice untouched. One with unwashed hands. One with hand sanitizer. One with washed hands with warm water and soap. Then, we decided to rub a piece on all our classroom Chromebooks.” The result: “So DISGUSTING!!!”
Metcalf pointed out that yes, the school typically sanitizes the Chromebooks but didn’t for this experiment, the results took three to four weeks due to the bread’s preservatives which extend shelf life, and the bread was placed in tightly-sealed freezer Ziploc bags.
“If the bread had been exposed to air and moisture, the experiment may have gone faster,” Metcalf tells Parents.com. “The breads that were very clearly exposed to different germs grew mold quicker. And ones touches by clean hands plus the soap and water ones were not exposed to the germs that cause the mold growth to quicken.”
In her Facebook post, Metcalf identified herself “as somebody who is sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired and urged followers to wash their hands” and urged her followers to wash their hands, remind their kids to wash their hands, and to remember that hand sanitizer is not an alternative to washing your hands.
Hand sanitzer is not a substitute for washing your hands — clearly! Yuck!
