What I Learned in Science This Week

This week in science, we kept observing and hypothesizing the Truman Middle School Problem. We started looking at interviews with the sick children and we have hypothesized some ideas about some of the restaurants people went to after the band concert. We are thing that Cheep Chicken Hut is suspicious because many interviewers said before they got sick, they wen to Cheep Chicken Hut. Mr. Segan will be giving us some more information on Cheep Chicken Hut and will be getting some food samples. We are also getting some blood samples of children that were sick to help us with this problem.

We also learned about some viruses, bacteria, and parasites in a simulation that shows just how small they are, compared to

the head of a pin. We had to magnify 1,000,000 times to see the rhinovirus. They are so tiny. We put these viruses, bacteria, and parasites into the categories of Macroscopic, Microscopic and Sub-Microscopic. Here is the link to show to the simulation that shows just how small some viruses, bacteria, and parasites are.

http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm

We discussed and started an experiment this week too. This experiment is about the places in a bathroom with the least and most amount or viruses, bacteria, and parasites that cause sicknesses. For homework, we had to try to think about which places in our bathroom are the dirtiest and the cleanest. Then we had to make a hypothesis on WHY they were clean or dirty. The next day at school, we took swabs into the boys ad girls bathrooms and swabbed the places our objects that our group decided were the least dirty and the dirtiest. Our table tested the handle that flushes the toilet as the dirtiest and the paper towel handle as the least dirty one. Then we lightly swiped a Petri dish with the swab twice (Once for the flusher and once for the paper towel handle) with two different swabs. If we are right, at school, the place where we swiped the dirty swab should be very noticable and the place where we swabbed it we think will turn moldy. The place where we swiped the swab of the paper towel handle should be fairly clear with no mold. We will see what happens.

That is what we learned this week.