The Effect of Hand Washing Method on Germ Growth - Kathy Egbert | Library

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Last Name First Name

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Class Period

 Now that you have collected germ growth on your specimen for about a week, we are going to analyze the data and draw a conclusion from the data collected by your class.

A. Your name should have already been entered on your Class Google Sheet under the Type of Hand Washing Method that you were assigned to gather data on.  If your name is not in the correct location, move your name to the correct method.

B. You need your lab book that you have been using to record your observations each day.

C. Next we are going to assign a “value” to each of your 4 locations that you swabbed on your hand.  (Quadrant 1: back of hand; Quadrant 2: palm of hand; Quadrant 3: in between fingers; Quadrant 4: underneath nails).  You will use the last day you observed your specimen.  The values willgo from Most Growth ---> Least Growth→ no growth [5  4  3  2  1  0]

           5 = Beet surface 100% covered with germ growth (this is only the top and sides of specimen, not the bottom)
           4 = 75% to 99% of the surface covered with germ growth
           3 = 50% to 74%  of the surface covered with germ growth
           2 = 25% to 49% of the surface covered with germ growth
           1 = 1% to 24% of the surface covered with germ growth
           0 = no growth of germs

D. Enter the values into the Class Google Sheet in the correct column.

E.  Once your Hand Washing Method group has all of their assigned values entered, we will add up the columns and then get averages for each the column. 

F.  Next you will graph the data so it will be easier to analyze.  X axis is the Independent Variable (it is the different washing methods)   It should look something like:

Q1  Q2  Q3  Q4                       Q1  Q2  Q3  Q4                     Q1  Q2  Q3  Q4               Q1  Q2  Q3  Q4
Group 1 (only water)       Group 2 (water & soap)        Group 3 (sanitizer)         Group 4 (no washing)
                                                                  Hand Washing Methods

 Y axis is the Dependent Variable (it is our averaged germ growth values - a number between 0 and 5)  Y axis should have intervals of ½.  First is “0”, then 0.5, then 1, and so forth to “5”.  You will have 10 tick marks on the Y axis when you are finished.
 

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Does the class data show that one hand washing method is better than the other?

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Does the class data show that one part of the hand was cleaned better than others?

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Was there germ growth on the petri dish that wasn't connected to a piece of the specimen?

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How many different types of germs was there growing on your specimen? [Different colors, textures or shapes indicate that the germs were different.]

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Reflect on the procedure that was used. List possible procedures that could account for the germ growth instead of the washing method. [When and where could germs have been introduced into your specimen?]