Anyone working with children can agree that they are not the cleanest people. It can be especially difficult to get children to wash their hands. One teacher in North Carolina managed to come up with an awesome (yet disturbing) experiment to show these kids the importance of keeping things clean. Better yet—it can be done at home. Here’s what he did to pull off the dirty hands bread experiment:
• He took three slices of bread for three separate conditions.
• The teacher wore a latex glove and took the first slice of bread from the sealed package into a zip-lock bag.
• The teacher took his glove off, but washed his hands, to take the second slice of bread from the sealed package into another zip-lock bag.
• The teacher had every kid in his class touch the final slice of bread before putting it into a third zip-lock bag.
Just seeing what happens to the third slice of bread over time is a stark reminder of the necessity of washing your hands. Here’s what it looked like:
(h/t IFLS)