The Engineering Place (K-20 Outreach)

Colds and Germs (K-2nd)

Lesson plan developed by Sarah Tudor

Objective: The students will be able to see the spread of disease and see the importance of washing hands.

Overview: Show how diseases spread and how to prevent disease. This lesson took about 30 minutes with a 25 student first grade class.

Subject Covered: Chemistry

Materials:

• Some normal flour
• Balloons
• Sink to wash hands in

Background Information: I used these books Germs make me sick! by Mevin Bergen and Germs make me sick: A health handbook for kids by Parnell Donahue M.D. and Helen Capellaro. I also used Chandra Green, my sister, who gave me this activity. She filled the gaps I was missing. Chandra is a health educator in Craven County.

Motivate! (Engage): I read them part of Germs make me sick! I asked them if they have ever felt like the boy in the story. I then told them they were going to get to see how we spread germs.

Activity (Explore): We discussed how our body fights disease. I had them dip their fingers in a bowl of flour then pass a dark colored balloon around their table. Their fingerprints stayed on the balloons. They washed their hands. We talked about germs being on our hand. They really thought the flour was germs!

Safety Tips: I made sure no one was allergic to latex balloons.

Closure: I did a quick summery of the body and why we should wash our hands often.

Assessment (Evaluation): I asked them questions at the end to see how much they understood. For the most part they did. One girl asked me, “Then why do people die that are sick?” I was not prepared for this question. I told her that some diseases are so bad that medicines can’t help. I don’t think that is the best way to answer her, but I was on the spot.

Connections (Integration with Other Content Areas): I think that this spreading idea could be used in a history class. They could discover how disease spreads in other countries and in our own. They can include math with statistics and graphs. Of course they can write papers on this.

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