IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Just in time for flu season, a teacher in Idaho did a little experiment to show her students the importance of washing hands and sanitizing workspaces.
Jaralee Annice Metcalf did the experiment last month, just as flu season was starting. She and her students took five slices of plain white bread and touched one with dirty hands, one with hands washed with soap and water, one with hands that used hand sanitizer, one slice wiped on their Chromebooks and one kept fresh and untouched.
They put each slice in separate plastic baggies and sealed them. They then left them in the baggies for 3-4 weeks. The results were gross.
The only slices that didn't show widespread mold were the control slice (fresh and untouched) and the slice touched with hands that had been washed with soap and water. All the other slices had mold.
The slices with the most widespread mold were the ones touched by dirty hands and wiped over the Chromebooks.
"As somebody who is sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired," Metcalf wrote on Facebook. "Wash your hands! Remind your kids to wash their hands! And hand sanitizer is not an alternative to washing hands!! At all!"
Metcalf clarified that the baggies used are meant for raw meat and they were sealed tight. She also said her class usually sanitized the Chromebooks, but didn't for the experiment.
"We are an elementary school. Not a fancy CDC lab, so relax a little and WASH YOUR HANDS," she wrote.
