Why do we need to wash our hands before eating? This experiment will tell you that!

Washing your hands before eating is a very important practice. But is there a way to visually illustrate the importance of doing this for your kids to understand and remember for a long time?

Dayna Robertson, a teacher at Discovery Primary School in Idaho Falls, USA, recently posted a very effective method of teaching children on social networks. All you need is just a few slices of bread.

Experiments with bread show why you need to wash your hands before eating.

Together with colleague and behavioral expert Jaralee Metcalf, Robertson conducted a classic classroom experience with his students: they asked children with different, dirty hands to touch them together. Same slice of bread, taken from the oven on the same day.

Then, they "sealed" the slices of bread in separate plastic bags and to see if a month later what happened.

The bread was rubbed on Chromebooks in the classroom.

" We took out fresh bread and touched them, " Metcalf explained in his Facebook post, which has been shared 65,000 times and is still growing.

" We left a slice of bread untouched. A slice touched by dirty hands. A slice washed by antibacterial handwash. A slice touched by hands that were touched wash warm water and soap. And at the end, we scrub all Chromebooks in the classroom. "

The "clean" bread doesn't touch at all.

No slice of bread looks "clean", except for slices of bread that are not touched by any hands, and slices of bread that come in contact with hands that have been washed with soap and water.

As you can see, the bread slices do not touch almost completely with their hands. The bread is the same as the hands were washed with soap and water (except for the blemishes left by the common hand-grip).

What about other slices of bread? Of course not.

Slices of bread touched by dirty hands.

Bread slices were exposed to "dirty hands" and "Chromebook computers" were covered with mold, a sign of the contaminating bacteria present on people's hands that touched them earlier. Bread slices touched by " hand- sanitizing handwashing" hands are a good example of how hand-washing liquid cannot replace traditional handwashing.

The experiment that the classroom is conducting is exactly what the teachers have been trying to teach their students to do over the years. And although this experiment is also classed as a classic, it has been done by schools and teachers around the world.

Slices of bread in contact with hands that have been washed with soap and water.

" You should wash your hands very carefully before, during and during cooking. In addition, you should also wash your hands before eating, after using the toilet, after sneezing, touching animals and all other cases. can make your hands dirty, "explains epidemiologist Terri Stillwell.

Slices of bread in contact with hands that have been washed with antibacterial hand sanitizer.

It is certainly a long list, but it is also an important measure to prevent the spread of pathogens and infectious diseases, in the context of everyday, we have to touch countless hands. Various dirty things.

However, the sad thing is that according to studies, although there are many reasons why each person needs to practice a clean hand washing habit, most of us often disobey this seemingly simple idea. And if so, many people still do it the wrong way.

Hopefully, with at least one elementary class doing this experiment, everyone has learned an important lesson for themselves. This is all thanks to a rather "horrible" experiment from a visual standpoint.

"All my students found that to be terrible. They really realized the need for handwashing, and that they couldn't rely solely on the commercially available hand sanitizers. soap and water must be used , " concluded Robertson.

1. Watching this experiment, you'll never forget to wash your hands before eating
2. "Standard" handwashing with principles not to be missed