By: Hannah Harlan, Lexie Emmert, Nicole Shaw, and Sable Page

What is Germ Busters?  Germ busters is a project to help educate and prevent the spreading of germs and illnesses.  With germ busters we have helped and plan to keep doing things to educate our school and community in different ways to stay healthy. '..-.)..

How Do Germs Spread? From:  Direct Contact example: touching a door knob  The air Airborne diseases are caused when germs travel through the air by coughs or sneezes. Some bacteria and viruses can live up to 2 hours on surfaces such as desks. This shows how easy it is to catch germs and should make you want to try to stay healthy!

Why Does Hand Washing Help You Stay Healthy?  One way hand washing helps you stay healthy is that it helps prevent you spreading your germs to others and from infecting yourself.  One good thing that comes from washing your hands is that you will be sick less often.

How To Wash Your Hands 1.Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap to your hands. Use warm water if available. 2.Rub soap onto your hands to create a bubbly lather. Continue rubbing hands for seconds. Use friction when washing hands. To clean underneath your finger nails rub the tips of your finger nails against your hands. Also clean in between your fingers. A fun way to keep time is to sing the "Happy Birthday" twice through to a friend. 3.Rinse hands under warm running water. 4.Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the door.

Which is Better: Soap And Water or Hand Sanitizer?  You should always use soap and water if available.  If you can not use soap and water, the next best thing is the foamy hand sanitizer.  The reason soap and water is better is because regular hand sanitizer contains alcohol which dries out your skin.  If you use too much hand sanitizer your hands can become almost like an open sore.  If you do use hand sanitizer, you should also use hand lotion to keep your hands moisturized.

Educating Our Community Germ Busters have and plans on continuing to share our researched information with children in our community through:  4-H Clubs  Local Preschools  Wee Care Daycare  Our Middle School  Local Elementary Schools

Swabbing Our School  We went to our school nurse for help on swabbing. She gave us what looked to be red plate like containers. The red in the container was actually sheep’s blood.  To swab you need to take what seem to be extra long q-tips that are called swabs. Then you smear them over the surface you wish to swab and next you take the swab and smear it on the sheep’s blood.  We swabbed things like: Locker rooms Door Handles Locks (on lockers)  The results from the lab showed many bacteria and viruses had grown.

So Remember…  Wash your hands often with soap and water.  Wash after you use the bathroom, sneeze or cough, and before eating or touching anything that you might put in your mouth.  Hand sanitizer with lotion may be used if no running water is available.

Research:  To help get our research we interviewed a local doctor, Dr. Jerry Bean. We also interviewed Angie Harlan (she is an RN).  We asked him questions like the ones you see on this power point. Here is an example of a question we asked him: Q-Which is better: Germ-x or soap and water? A-Soap and water but germ-x is also very good for fast hand cleaning.  We asked Mrs. Harlan questions like: Q-How long do we need to wash our hands? A-20 to 30 seconds (sing the happy birthday song twice.)

Sources For The Presentation:  

Thank You From The Monroe County Middle School Germ Busters!