Glo Germ Powder


John Fedors, Educational Innovationsby: John Fedors

As infants become aware of their surroundings, fingers, toes, toys, pacifiers and other objects that can be handled, always end up in their mouths. It’s no wonder that parents become first fascinated, then concerned, and eventually oblivious for it seems almost everything ends up being “tasted”.

Alertness, curiosity, and fascination inspire investigation, which begins at an early age. Teachers encourage this direction and take advantage of it. Repetition of this experience should be reinforced and developed to become habitual. Children come to recognize, “It Makes Sense” .

Did you wash your hands? How many times have we heard this? How many times do we “forget”? This simple, though important task, must be difficult to instill, for so many fail to perform it.

We are continually reminded during our early lives and even as adults, that hand-washing must be difficult or of low priority, because we so often forget. It would seem that demonstrating the effectiveness of using soap and water should be encouraged!

Glo GermThe use of Glo Germ powder may help to develop this habit.

When I mention this to teachers, most are aware of its uses, but many are not. Some teachers are aware because the school nurse or health teacher has demonstrated it in their class, then it is forgotten. Teachers have multiple opportunities to demonstrate and reinforce this awareness.

Glo-Germ is a nontoxic product, which simulates a microorganism. This product is not easily visible but fluoresces when exposed to UV light. It is used in hospitals, fast food chains, and schools to demonstrate the effectiveness of hand washing.

Suggested Uses or Demonstrations for Glo Germ powder:

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Science Activities with First Graders!


David Crowtherby: Dave Crowther

Recently, I was asked to visit a first grade classroom and teach a lesson on Solids and Liquids. As a university professor, I always get excited when I get to work with real kids in real classrooms – there is nothing like the passion that children have when they are actively engaged in doing science! So, after looking up the specific standards and objectives as well as perusing through the adopted curriculum for the school, I chose to explore ice melting as an introduction to the lesson (engagement), making ice cream in a bag (exploration), and then making Gak (white school glue, water and Borax) as both the elaboration and assessment.

Having taught elementary school as well as teaching science methods for over 15 years, I know, as well as all of you know, the importance of having a good plan and being as organized with materials as possible. This organization even goes to the extent of pre-measuring glue into individual 2 ounce portion cups and mixing up the Borax to the specified solution ratio and then putting all of this into plastic bins so that I could easily hand a bin with the materials to each group.

I was ready to go. I showed up at the school thirty minutes early with 2 copy paper boxes loaded up with materials, only to find out that our lesson would be delayed another thirty minutes due to an assembly. Not a problem, I had the classroom to myself and quickly organized the materials and was ready to go when the kids entered the classroom. Oh, the energy these wonderful children have! We quickly got out the science notebooks that are used in the classroom and we drew pictures of the ice cube as it melted for the first two minutes (about the entire attention span of all of these children.) Then we decided to see what we could do to melt the cube faster and the creativity kicked in.

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