Hand washing and safe food handling are very important to me. Im not above bringing food safety brochures to potlucks. This fixation is not without cause, though; as a teenager, I contracted my first obvious food-borne illness after eating strawberries in Mexico City.
During the space of the next few years, I had the educational experience of coming down with G.I. infections of Staph and Salmonella, also due to the unsafe food handling practices of others. And then, in my youth, I landed a job that required me to become a certified food service manager. It was during this training course that I learned the sad fact that most food-borne illnesses are attributable to fecal matter under the fingernails. Serious EW!
In the Food Service Sanitation class, I also learned that the top 3 ways to prevent food-borne illness are: wash your hands, wash your hands, and wash your hands.
Knowing my interest, and tolerating it exceptionally well, my friend Kelly, the homeschool mom who coordinates my kids science club, asked me to present a unit on microbiology this spring. Imagine my delight at being asked to share the Gospel of Food Safety with seven impressionable children! I found many resources to tap, and put together a loosely structured unit that began with hand washing, then moved to safe food handling, and then into kitchen sanitation.
Using Googles image search, I found plenty of pictures of bacteria and some of the hideous effects they can have on the human body. Among the photos was a lovely image of the E.coli bacterium, in which it looks like a pink duster: fuzzy and deceptively harmless. Having once dreamed of being a puppeteer, I decided this was my chance; I made an old pink sock into an E. Coli puppet, by sticking bright pink feathers into the knit, so the effect was somewhat like a humongous E. Coli bacterium. So I opened the microbiology unit with a brief and-to me, anyway-funny talk given by the puppet. Escher, as the puppet liked to be called, had to speak up to be heard over the groans of the 10-to-15-year-olds in the audience.
OK, so the puppet was a flop. But things went better from there. We had a lot of fun doing experiments with GloGerm, a harmless product that simulates the presence of bacteria. It comes in powder and lotion, and once rubbed in to hands, cutting boards, cutlery, etc., it cant be seen without aid of a black light. For the first experiment, I secretly rubbed GloGerm lotion into my hands, then shook hands with each student. After a while, we went into the bathroom-the only windowless room in the house-and looked at each childs hands and face under the black light. They were amazed at how the bacteria transferred from hands to noses, eyes, and mouths. The kids soon came up with some original ideas about how they wanted to use this product.
As much as the kids liked the GloGerm experiments, they were even more enthusiastic about the experiments in which they cultured swabs of various surfaces, from the dog and cats mouths, to telephones, doorknobs, and bathroom fixtures. Everyone was grossed out when we viewed the colonies of bacteria that had grown on the agar plates.
Even though the topic was icky and many of the experiments disgusting, the science club kids seemed to enjoy the unit a great deal. The group came away with a greater understanding of- and appreciation for the factors that contribute to food-borne illness. They were so appreciative that they even gave me a funny and thoughtful card, and a gag gift: a microbiology safety kit they put together, containing rubber gloves, a can of Lysol, hand sanitizer and so on. Or maybe they gave it to me as a good riddance gift. I may never know.
I saved dozens of links from my searches for interesting microbiology activities, but space doesnt permit me to list them all here, so my very faves appear below. I hope you and yours can share the gross fun!
-Shay
Food Safety.gov The gateway to government food safety information provides news and safety alerts, consumer advice, info for kids, teens and educators, and much more. The best single site on this topic.
Science and Our Food Supply Curriculum for use in middle level and high school science classes. My primary resource, adapted to suit the interest of the group.
Food Safety Music The Elvis of E. Coli provides new lyrics to old rock songs, including Stomach Ache Tonight, We Are the Microbes, and many more hits. Listen to the songs, read the lyrics, and order your own copy.
Federal Citizen Information Center Lots of materials to download for free or order for a nominal fee.
Microbe World Resources and hands-on activities. This is where I found a neat Fun with Fomites experiment that the science club kids especially enjoyed.
Can We Get Too Clean? A paper written by a college student, provided to encourage others to themselves learn about and think through subjects of interest.
Virtual Museum of Bacteria Brings together many links on bacteria, bacteriology, and related topics available on the web. It also provides crystal-clear information about many aspects of bacteria.
Bacteria Study Kit This is the most homeschool-friendly and all-in-one source for culturing common bacteria. Unfortunately, I found it after I ordered something inferior and more expensive from another source.
Henry the Hand Henry offers information on food safety and the importance of hand washing, plus activities and a contest.
Educational Worksheets from GlowGerm The producer of GlowGerm, the bacteria simulator, offers some experiments and information for educators.
Sponges and Sinks and Rags, Oh, My! Where microbes lurk and how to rout them.
How Stuff Works: Black Light Of course, the kids wanted to know how the black light works.
2004, 2005 Shay Seaborne; Used by permission
See the original post here:
Germ Warfare: Learning About Germs
- Germ warfare - mutant bugs could wipe out human life [Last Updated On: January 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: January 24th, 2017]
- Germ warfare: the battle for the key to modern vaccines - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Deadly global pandemic to kill tens of millions: Bill Gates - Press TV [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Biopreparat - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- 'Ideation' is complex, convoluted, not-so-funny satire - Marinscope Community Newspapers [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- The Vaccine Race: How Scientists Used Human Cells to Combat Killer Viruses by Meredith Wadman review - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
- We're 'in touch' every day with things that can make us sick - Williamsport Sun-Gazette [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Getting ready for a global pandemic - Amandala [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Killen Church Youth Taking Out Germs - courierjournal [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Ed Vasicek: The ever-surfacing future has arrived - Kokomo Tribune [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- A human pinball in a germ warfare experiment - Varsity Online [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2017]
- US Navy Film Reveals Crazy Cold War Chemical Weapons Plans - The National Interest Online (blog) [Last Updated On: March 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 12th, 2017]
- Amherst College announces the Mammoths as first official mascot ... - Boston.com [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Letter: Protect the public health officials who protect us - Republican Eagle [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Geoffrey Norman: What Next? After The Syrian Strike - Caledonian Record [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Could The Global Community Coexist With A Nuclear Pyongyang ... - Daily Caller [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Nuclear war: the US took a highly bureaucratic response to preparing for it - The Australian Financial Review [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Shoemaker: Seeing a tragedy or a mere statistic? - Opinion ... - MetroWest Daily News [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- LETTER: Process of forgetting simply facilitated - The Guardian [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- 'New' way to look at smallpox - Fiji Times [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- I meant every word - Fort Madison Daily Democrat [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- What Do We Celebrate? - The Runner [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2017]
- We'll pass on the Liberal Lollapalooza - Net Newsledger [Last Updated On: June 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 18th, 2017]
- Whom Are You Fooling? - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com [Last Updated On: June 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 23rd, 2017]
- The case for keeping 'Langevin Block' - Macleans.ca [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- Military Tested Germ Warfare on San Francisco and Other ... [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- Area man wants Amherst to change town's name - The Recorder [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2017]
- EARLE LOCKERBY: A simplistic approach - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2017]
- Belchertown man wants Amherst's town name banished - Amherst Bulletin [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2017]
- Shir Ishii - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2018] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2018]
- U.S. Germ Warfare Experiments used against the American ... [Last Updated On: March 10th, 2018] [Originally Added On: March 10th, 2018]
- The Long Read: The Germ Warfare Island Abandoned by the ... [Last Updated On: May 12th, 2018] [Originally Added On: May 12th, 2018]
- Conspiracy Theory? US Army Has Admitted to Conducting 100s ... [Last Updated On: May 30th, 2018] [Originally Added On: May 30th, 2018]
- US Army Has Admitted To Conducting 100s Of Germ Warfare ... [Last Updated On: May 30th, 2018] [Originally Added On: May 30th, 2018]
- GERM WARFARE - Carpet Cleaning and Upholstery Cleaning [Last Updated On: July 10th, 2018] [Originally Added On: July 10th, 2018]
- Coconut Oil: Germ Warfare! | Underground Wellness [Last Updated On: July 15th, 2018] [Originally Added On: July 15th, 2018]
- Germ Warfare | Recess Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia [Last Updated On: July 16th, 2018] [Originally Added On: July 16th, 2018]
- History of cancer chemotherapy - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: October 16th, 2018] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2018]
- International Military Tribunal for the Far East - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: October 16th, 2018] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2018]
- Recess Season 4 Episode 38 | Germ Warfare | Recess Full Episodes TV Series [Last Updated On: November 30th, 2018] [Originally Added On: November 30th, 2018]
- U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits - The New ... [Last Updated On: December 4th, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 4th, 2018]
- Germ Warfare | Dexter's Laboratory Wiki | FANDOM powered ... [Last Updated On: December 4th, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 4th, 2018]
- Colonial Germ Warfare : The Colonial Williamsburg Official ... [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2018]
- America's Secret War: Germs & Biological Weapons - Spies, Scientists (2001) [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2018]
- UNIT 731 Japan's Biological Warfare Project [Last Updated On: March 29th, 2019] [Originally Added On: March 29th, 2019]
- Korean War - Air warfare | Britannica.com [Last Updated On: March 29th, 2019] [Originally Added On: March 29th, 2019]
- "M*A*S*H" Germ Warfare (TV Episode 1972) - IMDb [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2019] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2019]
- Unit 731 - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: April 29th, 2019] [Originally Added On: April 29th, 2019]
- The Concern for the Secretive Bio-Geopolitics - FXStreet [Last Updated On: October 16th, 2019] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2019]
- Depression Quest: Bad Brains, Good Friends and Night in the Woods - HeadStuff.org [Last Updated On: November 25th, 2019] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2019]
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service: This Never Happened to the Other Fellow - Ricochet.com [Last Updated On: November 25th, 2019] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2019]
- The Fall or Dive of Sydney Gottlieb and Company - CounterPunch [Last Updated On: January 9th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 9th, 2020]
- As China death toll rises, do we need a vaccine for the virus of State secrecy - The Conservative Woman [Last Updated On: January 30th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2020]
- DC Hero's Most Disgusting Power Was Popular With The President - Screen Rant [Last Updated On: January 30th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2020]
- Lord Jeffery Amherst, the town namesake who attempted a Native American genocide - Buffalo News [Last Updated On: January 30th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2020]
- Clean Buildings Expo To Offer Expanded Education Sessions - CleanLink [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2020]
- What If Donald Got the Bug? - LA Progressive [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2020]
- Letter to the editor: Don't get your coronavirus information from Rush - The Winchester Star [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2020]
- Herbs That Fight Viruses - Newsmax [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2020]
- Don't Touch Anything: The Unintended Consequences of Environmental Ecosystems - The Good Men Project [Last Updated On: March 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 4th, 2020]
- COVID-19 and Us OrissaPOST - Wink Report [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- STERAMIST IS MOBILIZED TO AID IN THE CONTROL SARS-CoV-2 IN DAEGU-KYUNGBUK PROVINCE, SOUTH KOREA - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- We clean freaks will stand and scrub together | Sam Venable - Knoxville News Sentinel [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- Corbella: Don't spread the virus or fake news - Calgary Sun [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- Coronavirus and what we can learn from the 1918 flu's hidden history - Mashable [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- Exasperating Farrago of Distortions! Coronavirus and the Pandemic of Conspiracy Theories - News18 [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- Rab McNeil: Stocks wiped out as germ warfare sees panic buyers rolling in the aisles - HeraldScotland [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- Is biological warfare raising its ugly head? - citytoday [Last Updated On: March 16th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 16th, 2020]
- REVEALED: Millions of Brits were in SECRET germ war tests between 1940 and 1979 - Politicalite [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- Coronavirus: How Orania has been affected by the disease - The South African [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- The Plague and the Long War - Inkstick [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- Historically Speaking: The flu epidemic we've been here before - Roswell Daily Record [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- For China and Russia, coronavirus hoaxes are another strain of disinformation warfare - The Globe and Mail [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- State Department marks bioweapons accord with reference to pandemic - Washington Times [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- Past Pandemics Exposed Chinas Weaknesses - Foreign Affairs Magazine [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- 'All Of This Panic Could Have Been Prevented': Author Max Brooks On COVID-19 - NPR [Last Updated On: March 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 31st, 2020]
- U.S. Created Coronavirus to Target Islamic Nations! (And Other Conspiracy Theories) | News and Politics - PJ Media [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2020]
- The decade of transformation: Remaking international relations - NationofChange [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2020]
- Mad Man Modly: The Secretary of the Navy Gets the Boot - Antiwar.com [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2020]
- Plagues and wars alter economic policies: but not for ever - The Guardian [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2020]