www . Science-Projects . com

PREVENTION OF THE SPREAD OF DISEASE IN YOUR SCHOOL AND OTHER PUBLIC BUILDINGS

| Previous and a few Future Projects in the South Hill Enterprise |

This is a "school project" because it interrelates several of your classes, and because you may want to ask students in these other classes to join you in putting together a collaborative final report. This does not mean that every participant must do every activity. Each one of you can become a specialist and contribute what you are best at doing. This project begins with some information you are learning in biology class, and then information from a history class can add into it to help you do the actual research project. If your results indicate that your building should be modified to help prevent the spread of disease, then you should call upon your friends in the government or civics classes so that, together, you might strive as good citizens to change the current Public Health law so that buildings are modified accordingly. (Teachers: you might ask other teachers to have their classes join yours in this activity. Lots of "intersections;" lots of interrelationships!")

Again: this project will have an impact on the welfare of the people in your school - including you! Perhaps you have heard that colds and flu are mostly transmitted through the skin or into the eyes by fingers rather than being transmitted through the air. It is important to know that objects such as railings, doorknobs and faucet handles, which are touched by so many people in your school and other public places, are important links in the spread of disease. You might think that the only means of prevention is by washing hands frequently. Yes, hand washing is one way, but what about those times when you do not wash your hands frequently enough. Another method of prevention might be - just imagine it! - that the railings and doorknobs be "self-sterilizing." Interesting the U.S. Treasury Dept and the mints of coins in many other nations have considered this for many decades and have applied this knowledge in the choice of metals used in the coins. Alas, though, building and construction codes have not.

But before we continue further, it would be well for you to recognize that your teachers love projects that have many educational "intersections" - involve or intersect or interrelate with several different subjects. This one draws together microbiology, chemistry, public health and government. And, if the teacher is sufficiently courageous, you might as a class suggest small but significant changes in the construction of public buildings in your area. Can you imagine yourself telling City Council of your findings and recommendations? Welcome to active citizenship. Remember that we are a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people! Now let's get back to the nitty-gritty of the project.

An important concept for you to realize is that "clean" does not mean "sterile" and that "dirty" does not necessarily mean "non-sterile." All the word "sterile" means is that there are no living things present at that "sterile place" - no living bacteria or viruses, for example. You can have sterile dirt because you can treat dirt so as to kill all the living things in it - yet it still looks like dirty dirt! So what we are dreaming of are railings, doorknobs, faucets, push plates on doors, etc., all being capable of sterilizing themselves just like most coins do. Thus if you have a drippy nose, your hand wipes that nose, and then your hand runs along a railing, and then following hands pick up those germs which can be rubbed into eyes, and - voila! - lots of colds and flu are spread around! What you need to do is to break that chain by making that railing out of something that rapidly kills the germs. Sounds difficult doesn't it? BUT IT IS NOT because most of the work has already been done for you, as said above, by the various coinage mints, but, alas, have not been applied in public buildings. If you wish, this is a form of biotechnology that your teacher has never thought of!

Again as mentioned, you already own some self-sterilizing metals - coins - specifically the coins of at least the U.S.A., Canada, Britain, the Scandinavian countries, and Germany - perhaps others, too! They are made out of gold, silver, platinum, copper, and/or nickel. These compositions have been planned that way because each of them is a self-sterilizing metal. The U. S. National Institutes of Health, for example, mandated that the Treasury use those metals. You will notice that most advanced countries use those very same metals. (Which common metals are missing? Ans.: iron, aluminum and zinc. Less common metals you might want to include in your experiments are tin and lead.)

For starters, take an inventory: what your school's railings, doorknobs, faucet handles (taps for you in the U.K.), etc., are made of. Probably NOT brass (contains copper and tin; also known as bronze) or stainless steel (contains iron and chromium). They are probably aluminum or varnished wood, which are not harmful to bacteria or viruses. The only thing that aluminum and wood have going for themselves is that when they dry many of the viruses and bacteria dry out and die. Many, but not all, and it takes only one to make a person sick. So what about when you put your hand on it immediately after some sniffler delivers those germs to the railing?

Here is a proposed general research project plan for you:

1. Find some aluminum, stainless steel and brass doorknobs and railings. (Make sure you know how to discern aluminum from stainless steel - aluminum scratches easily with a knife.) These knobs and railings should be in highly used places.
    
2. At various times during the day, you will swab the surfaces and rub those swabs onto the surfaces of petri plates. (Later I can tell you how to make those.)
    
3. You can try coins in the same fashion.
    
4. You could even get bits of aluminum and brass (and other metals) from your local hardware store. Clean them of any surface coatings, and then coat them with some bacteria (from your hands), and swab them after various timed intervals. (Remember that you would like your coins to be sterile by the next morning after they have sat all night on your table. And this simulates all those coins that sit around overnight in stores and supermarkets and banks. You want them to be sterile for the next day's customers.)
    

Finally, you will have lots of possibly incriminating data. But you still are not a scientist because you need to publish your findings - and not only just in a class report - but phone a newspaper reporter and photographer. Scientists must be good citizens and you are trying to make the school and other public buildings healthier places in which to live.

There are many different ways you can do the necessary experiments. It would be highly desirable for you to devise a plan and then write to this website outlining your plans. We will go over your plans, make suggestions and offer you some helpful hints. Please remember to tell us your age or year in school.

Click here to correspond with this website.

| Site's Table of Contents | Site's Index |