Life
Dirty Hand Break Experiment
I bet these kids will never forget to wash their hands after participating in this 'experiment.' Especially with flu season coming up, it is important to wash your hands!
D.G. Sciortino
09.21.17

We’ve all been taught that you need to wash your hands after you go to the bathroom, sneeze, or cough. It’s been ingrained in us since we were children.

But sometimes kids just don’t get it.

And you have to remind them over and over again to wash their hands. But if you show them Courtney Simpson’s bread experiment, they may never forget to wash their hands again.

Courtney Simpson took to Facebook to show her findings.

Flickr/Adee Pee
Source:
Flickr/Adee Pee

Here’s how the experiment works:

“To all my teacher friends this is the grossest yet coolest experiment. I did this while teaching about germs and how they spread. You use three pieces of bread,” Simpson wrote.

“You let all the kids see you put a piece of bread in a baggy with a glove on hence ‘controlled’ then you wash your hands and put a piece of bread in a baggy for ‘clean’ last but definitely not least you pass a piece of bread around and let every kid in class touch it then you put it in a baggy and label it dirty. Watch how the bread changes over time due to germs. It is so cool and a great way to teach the importance of hand washing.”

Here is Simpson’s post in full:

“Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes. “Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean running water.”

With flu season on its way in October, it’s now more important than ever to make sure our kids are washing their hands.

The CDC advises that washing hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based rub often can protect you from the flu.

Simpson’s post has gone viral with more than 311,000 shares. Teachers have been tagging each other in the post and saying that they are planning to bring the experiment’s into their classrooms this year.

Some parents said they were going to do it with their kids as well.

The experiment is a great visual for the classroom.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Note: A previous version of this article attributed credit to Donna Gill Allen and Marvilyn Lyons. The original experiment was conducted by Courtney Lee Simpson.

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