The teacher conducted a very visual experiment that is easy to repeat at home. But we warn you: the author of the technique himself considers this experience disgusting.
He galloped off the street, took off his shoes, stroked the cat, and darted to the table. All children do that, what is really there. Even the most refined and cleanliness-obsessed moms. The child simply does not understand why they need to wash their hands – they seem to be quite clean, the dirt has not even started to fall off. What happens if you touch a completely clean cat? Never mind! It is in this crazy struggle that mothers earn themselves neurosis, forcing the child to wash his hands, and then checking to see if he has washed it. Even if the child is already 40 years old.
A teacher from North Carolina, USA, found a way to solve this problem. Does the child believe only in what he sees? So, you need to show him the microbes visually.
“My colleagues said that this is the most disgusting, but also the coolest experiment,” says the author of the method, Donna Jill Ellen.
All that is needed for the experiment is three slices of bread. One of them will be a control copy – you need to take it with tweezers and put it in a clean plastic bag. Take the second piece with freshly washed clean hands and send it to the packaging as well – this is a clean piece.
“The third piece needs to be touched by every student in the class. And only then put it in a bag labeled “dirty,” explains Donna.
In a few days the children will see the practical results of the experiment. The bread, which each student touched, just got rinsed with mold. The control and clean pieces remained as they were.
“This is a great way to explain to children why it is so important to wash their hands,” the teacher is sure.
By the way, Donna is not the first to teach children hygiene so clearly. Even in the textbook “The Human Body”, published in the 70s of the last century, a similar experience was described. Only there he needed Petri dishes: one child touches with dirty hands, the other – not washed too thoroughly, the third – thoroughly washed with hot water and soap. And then he observes how different in intensity vegetation is cut through in each of the cups. The authors of the book assure that after that the boy did not just remember to wash his hands, but did it with fanaticism.