Sudbury Clean hands and Bread Experiment

Warning – some people might be grossed out by this! Proceed with caution!
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Some of you might remember the Experiment, that Izzy started at Morning Circle just before Schools closed.
I went into school yesterday to take photos of the bags, it is probably a bit far gone by now, as you can see, even the slice of bread that went into the bag without anybody touching it (called the “control group”), already grew a considerable amount of mold, but it is the only one where there are parts without any mold on it.

Control Group

This is the one that people had touched who did wash their hands thoroughly beforehand. As you can see it has a similar kind of mold on it as the control group:

Washed hands

The following one is the one that people with unwashed, dirty hands touched. You can see lots of different colors and different kinds of molds growing on this one.

Dirty Hands

The next one is the one that only people touched who had used Hand Sanitizer, but not washed their hands. As you can see it has a similar range of different kinds of molds as the “dirty hands” one.

Hand sanitizer

The last pictures is of the bread that i wiped on several door handles in school. I was surprised that this one only grew mostly one kind of mold, mostly the same as the control group.

Door Handles

What conclusions can be drawn from this experiment? Please add your thoughts into the comment section.
I would love to have a microscope at home and look at these different molds closer!

 

Grow crystal geodes over a few days….

Ingredients:
  • Eggs
  • Salt
  • Water
  • Food Coloring
  • Glass bowls
  • Boiling water (adult help required)

    Method:
  1. Crack an egg in half, length ways (like an Easter egg), use the insides for lunch!
  2. Wash the egg shell and leave to dry.
  3. Put 1 egg shell rounded side down per glass bowl (slightly bigger than the shell)
  4. Boil enough water to fill a glass bowl.
  5. Add enough salt to the water as will dissolve. Stop adding salt when it sinks to the bottom.
  6. Add a few drops of food colouring, and stir.
  7. Pour into the egg shells to top, before pouring into the bowl, fill up to the top of the egg shell.
It will take a day or a few days for the crystals to grow! Enjoy your cool creations.

Here is another experiment over a week, called ‘Bendy Bones’:

What you need….

Washed chicken bones
Water
Vinegar
2 glass jars or plastic containers
Paper and pen for labeling

What to do?

Label each jar with the words ‘water’ and ‘vinegar’
Put one bone in each jar  
Pour water in one jar to cover the bone
Pour vinegar in the second jar to cover the bone
Leave for one week

The science behind it…..

Bones contain calcium carbonate, when it reacts with the acid in the vinegar, it soften the bones and makes them weak. Bones need calcium carbonate to keep them strong

Questions…

What happened the the two types of bones?
Did the bones fizz and make bubbles?
If you used a piece of pasta instead of bones, would you get the same result?
If the bones were left for 2 weeks, would you get a different result?

We would love if anybody will try this out and maybe send us some pictures?