Roland Park Elementary/Middle School

A Blue Ribbon School of Excellence

Microbes!

When was the last time you washed your hands? Did you use soap? What have you done since you washed? Have you eaten, put your fingers in your mouth or touched someone else?

We carry millions of microbes on our hands. Most are harmless, but we can pick up some that cause illnesses, such as colds, flu, and diarrhea.

When we forget to wash our hands, or don't wash them properly, we can spread these germs to other people, or give them to ourselves by touching our eyes, mouths, noses or cuts on our bodies.

Mrs. Gearhart first graders carried an experiment to test how good they were at hand washing. They rubbed their fingers on plates, containing special food for bacteria, before and after washing their hands. After one week they counted the number of colonies (little mounds of bacterial cells) on each plates. Most students found that fewer bacteria grew on the plates after washing hands. Good job!