Courtesy of the Magic School Bus...

...prepare to feel sick!

Delanie, my little scientist, received a LOT of Magic School Bus paraphernalia for Christmas this year, which thrilled her to no end. I have to say, I was pretty pleased as well. I mean, who is going to get upset about having a really fun way to teach their kids science? Some of the things she got were these really cool science kits.

Recently, we played with the kit that was all about germs. One of the experiments had us making our own agar for petri dishes, with which we were to collect 5 different samples of bacteria. Then we were to monitor the growth of the invisible bacteria to see if they grew to visible colonies of bacteria. Delanie had to make hypotheses about each dish, and then at the end of 11 days, see which ones were proven true.



We have been growing colonies of bacteria on our counter top for the past 11 days...YUMMY! I know you now are all so eager to come over for a meal at my house! As gross as that sounds (and is), I assure you the results and the process were fascinating! We learned some interesting stuff about our home and products that we use.



Seat belts everyone...we're going on a field trip!

First up, we tested how well soap works, and because I wanted to know, we also tested Hand Sanitizer. In order for this to work, we took Delanie's unwashed hand and wiped it over one section of the petri dish. Then she washed her hands and wiped her fingers on a second section of the petri dish. Lastly, I used hand sanitizer, and wiped my fingers along a third section of the petri dish....here is what that looked like after 11 days.





The two big blobs along with the other very visible smaller blobs are in the "Dirty hand section" The other two sections are the clean hand section. I am happy to say that soap alone does do a good job, but not as good of a job as the hand sanitizer. This thrills me to no end, as I depend on sanitizer for some of life's most disgusting moments.

Next was a similar test, but instead of testing soap, we tested toothpaste. We swabbed Delanie's mouth with a Q-Tip, then swabbed the entire petri dish, lastly swabbed toothpaste over half of the dish.

That nasty red crack is over the toothpaste (I guess it's pretty drying). You can see there are colonies in a few places...except where the tooth paste is...Thank goodness! It's nice to know that when I brush I am doing something...not so nice to see what is growing in a human mouth...

This next dish is absolutely riveting. Seriously, the findings in this dish may need to be published in the next Scientific Weekly. This dish shows the results of who in our home has the dirtiest feet. Although the results were close, Delanie ended up having the dirtiest feet, and we won't talk about who came in 2nd or 3rd. I will say though, we did get some interesting orange colonies...mmmmm...It just makes your mouth water doesn't it?


Lastly, we have an experiment that we made up ourselves. The book wants you to test out bacteria colonies in yogurt. Boring. Plus, I like yogurt, and I want my kids to like yogurt, so we didn't go there. Also, I had an inquiring mind about our household and what may be lurking beneath the surface. In this petri dish we have swabbed the toilet handle, the mouse on the computer, Delanie's chap stick, and the bottom of the kitchen sink. I think Delanie did an excellent job of coming up with places that might have germs!

I know this picture isn't as close-up as the others, and because I have my watermark over the top of it (hey, you never know what kind of Internet freaks are going to want to steal pictures of your bacteria), it makes it even harder to see, but I am happy to tell you that there are not any large colonies in this dish. This was SHOCKING to me. If you look very carefully between the "l" and "e" in the word "blessed" you can see a colony that was medium in size. It was from the toilet handle. The next dirtiest was computer mouse (eeew), and the other two didn't really register. I thought for sure the chap stick would be crawling with grossness, but nothing was to be found! That makes me feel better about the times when I've had to share chap sticks with others, but rest assured, I will not make it a habit.

The 5th petri dish had to be discarded...It was tainted. The agar was filled too high in the dish which allowed moisture to collect and grow mold. That dish contained important information about Neosporin and other topical anti-biotic creams. Before it was tainted, it was showing that the anti-biotic cream was successful. I always wrote that stuff off, but know now I should probably consider using this ointment on open wounds that are difficult to keep clean with soap and water.

Thankfully, these petri dishes have opened Delanie's eyes to the germs around her. I don't think I will have to force her to wash up before she eats or after she gets done playing with filth (you know the variety...found at local indoor play yards). Also, when she says "Why do you care if I suck on my fingers?", I can pull out this arsenal of info, and scare her into conformity.

It's all in a loving day's work as a mother.