Little did Chloe Ewing, Zachary Smith and Seran Dillard know that by sitting in the row, they were bound to get “germs” squirted on them.
Germs, bacteria and viruses — they are everywhere.
Fruitville Elementary School science teacher Andrew Jaffee led the third grade on a quest Thursday, Oct. 15 to find out whether hand soap or hand sanitizer is more effective at protecting kids from the flu for Global Handwashing Day.
With assistance from Amy Ballantyne, lab manager at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, students were asked to press their thumb against a culture dish to collect and test for bacteria and germs. After sanitizing their hands, they repeated the process and followed suit with hand soap.
“Soap will work better,” said third-grader Katie Savage. “Sanitizer has too much alcohol and it burns. I have sensitive skin.”
The difference between hand sanitizer and hand washing is that, although both are effective at curbing the spread of germs, sanitizer will not stop viruses — washing your hands will.
“I think that nothing beats hand-washing,” Jafffee said. “It’s 99.999% effective.”
The results of the experiment will be released next week.
Contact Loren Mayo at lmayo@yourobserver.com.
Currently 0 Responses
- May
21 Humanity Working to End Genocide meeting
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm - May
21 Cat Depot: Volunteer Orientation and Cat Socialization Level 1 Training
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm - May
22 Voice Aerobics with Mary Spremulli, MA, CCC-SLP
10:00 am - 11:00 am - May
22 Rhonda Riley: The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope
7:00 pm
-
Culinary roots
05/16/13
Trevor Kunk is the chef de cuisine at Blue Hill in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which the James Beard Foundation just named "most outstanding restaurant." -
Bright lights
05/16/13
Sarasota native and resident Bri Oliva made her TV debut May 7, on the "Rachael Ray Show." Oliva was selected to participate in a segment called "Hidden Dangers on the Playground." -
Key to the city
05/02/13
More than 100 community members and leaders, friends and family surprised Paul Thorpe, one of the founding members of the Downtown Association of Sarasota, April 25, at The Gator Club, to show their appreciation and celebrate the strides he’s made for Sarasota over the past four decades.
