Germ Experiment

Just a quick "science experiment" we did this week.  Very easy and fun for all ages.  We read a bit about germs (bacteria, viruses, fungi).  Afterwards, we made a gel solution and poured it into 5 petri dishes.  We let it set for a couple of hours to gel up, then comes the fun part.  Each of the kids picked 1 or 2 germs they wanted to grow.  You can use a q-tip to harvest the germs, or just place items directly on the gel.  Our germs included cat hair, moss, inside the 5 year olds mouth, milk, and dirt.  The lids were place on the dishes and taped down.  Now we are waiting for our germs to grow--checking daily of course.  I will try and post a picture of our germs soon!

Here is the solution we used to make our gel.  The germs eat the sugar and the protein from the gelatin in order to grow.  Would anyone like to make a guess as to which substance has the most germs???

Germ Gel
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon sugar

Boil water, add gelatin and sugar, stir for 1 minute, remove from heat.  Pour into petri dishes and let cool for 2 hours before adding germs.  Enjoy!

October 5, 2007

Guessing

"Would anyone like to make a guess as to which substance has the most germs???"

That would be the human mouth.

Growing germs, sounds like fun and I have everything I need.
~Randy

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Posted by Scarecrow at 7:09 PM

October 8, 2007

Germs

I would love to see pictures of the germs when they are done growing. God Bless, mj

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Posted by smmagers at 9:42 PM