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Germs
By: Student Scientist G.
Kentucky, Age 9
GERMS
What are you investigating?
I am investigating germs. I think they are yellow and black. Germs are tiny things. Germs can make you sick. There are good germs that help you stay healthy.
Why did you choose this topic?
I want to know more about germs. Other people tell me to wash my hands. If you wash your hands, you will get off germs.
What did you expect the outcome to be?
I expected the outcome to be a bunch of germs to gather in a group coating the food.
Hypothesis:
Washing with soap and water will kill more germs that water alone or hand sanitizer.
How did you test your hypothesis?
Materials:
Magnifying glass
Agar – Germ Food
Petrie Dish
Liquid soap
Sink Water
Hand sanitizer
Microscope
Hands
Procedure:
The teacher had to use the microwave to heat up the Agar, so it would be a liquid. The teacher put the Agar in the Petrie dish.
One student washed their hands with soap and water. Another student washed with hand sanitizer. One student used water only.
The students touched their hands to the Agar. We shut the Petrie dish and put tape on it to close it.
What did you find out?
We see black specks because germs are eating the food. We see specks in the bottom of the dish. We think they are germs.
We wanted to know which way worked the best to get off germs.
I found out the germs turned out to be white. Some of them had black dots on them. There was some that was black and white together.
What was it all about?
There are good germs in your body that help you stay healthy. If too many bad germs get in your body, you will get sick. The germs might turn out to be dead but they may turn out to be alive, but are most likely to be dead. Germs don’t move very fast when they’re outside of the body but they do move fast when they’re inside of a body. Germs are so small you cannot see them. Germs are lock like a slug. There are good germs that are in your body that keep you healthy.
What new questions do you have?
Do all germs go in your body? Way do germs get you sick? Do germs bite you?
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Scientist's comments
Hi Dylan,
I was excited to read your report because I also work on ''germs'' –- or microorganisms, organisms too small to be seen without a microscope. Your experiment was very similar to one that my college classes used to do in their labs -– they tested which products are best for reducing the growth of bacteria. You made good qualitative observations about your experiments (what your bacteria looked like), but it will be important to also make quantitative observations (how many bacteria colonies you see) as well if you want to test how effective your handwashing treatments were. Luckily germs don't bite, but there are some that eat other bacteria called Bdellovibrio and even one that sucks the juices out of other bacteria like a little vampire called Vampirococcus!
Susan Perkins
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