In article <3heo4p$bnb at newsbf02.news.aol.com>, ekupp at aol.com (Ekupp) writes:
>I've been asked by the science fair organizers at the local Elem. school
... The old standby is to put someone's hands on a petri plate of
agar before and after hand-washing with regular soap and/or a
disinfectant soap. This takes overnight, but you can always do
the "Julia Child method", of having a previously-incubated set
of plates on hand. The take-home message is: "Wash your hands!"
Be sure to securely tape the edges of the incubated plates so
the kids can't lift the lid and come in contact with Staph.
aureus or other nasties.
If you have access to a microscope, here's another one that
we've done: Guide the kids through a gram-stain, and show them
the difference in color between gram-positive and negative, and
also some various cell morphologies and patterns: cocci, rods,
chains, etc.
