November 6, 2013

Science Experiments


Recently in Science we started a clean/dirty hands experiment.  This started by me mixing up a special solution and letting it set up in the refrigerator.  Then Carson went around the house touching LOTS of things until his hands were good and germy.  Then he took a Q-tip and rubbed it all over his "dirty" hands.
 


Next he gently swiped the Q-tip across our homemade petri dish.

After getting the "dirty" dish ready, he then cleaned his hands ( it was supposed to be with good 'ol soap and water, but I think he actually used hand sanitizer.)  Then he again swiped his hands with a clean Q-tip and wiped it across the dish.


Once this was complete.  We labeled them appropriately, sealed them each in their own Ziploc bag, placed them in a nice dark shoebox, put them on top of the refrigerator and waited for something to grow in our petri dishes.

Well we faithfully checked them, but I didn't do so well keeping up with the picture taking. With in a couple of days, small cloudy spots began to appear.  This is what they looked like 9 days later.   I find the clean dish rather interesting.... we may need to do some more work in the hand washing department.



Up close with the "clean" dish


Up close with the "dirty" dish.
 
 
Here are pictures after another 6 days.  I chose not to take them out of the Ziploc bags since I caught  a faint whiff after just lifting the box lid.  Tomorrow will be the end of the experiment... or they just might overtake my kitchen.

This is the "dirty" experiment.

This is the "clean"  experiment.
 
 
This was a great experiment.  We really enjoyed watching "stuff" grow.  And now I'm off to wash my hands... it's the number 1 way to fight disease!!
 
 



1 comment:

RaeLyn said...

I loved this experiment! Such a good way to learn. :)