Stem week

Big Roars to you. We are at the end of a very special and fun week!

It has just been National STEM week. Dino wanted to know what STEM meant…  it means

‘Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths’ week!!

We both had lots of fun…we went into our new primary school and showed the children why it is important to keep clean and healthy!

The children told us that keeping clean and healthy meant:

Washing your clothes regularly and washing your pants and socks after each day!

Having a bath and shower regularly

Combing your hair

Cleaning your teeth

washing your face

This is what the children did every morning before school

We then asked why it was important to keep clean?

The children found out that bacteria are everywhere…. we have good bacteria….but also some bad bacteria….

Good bacteria:

Lactobacillus are bacteria that live in the intestines of animals and help the body break down food. Probiotic yoghurts have this bacteria in to help aid normal digestion.

Some bacteria can digest or break down oil. When an oil tanker has spilt oil into the sea, these bacteria can remove the oil and make the sea safe once more. Here are the bacteria magnified.

By breaking down the oil, they can help save the animals that live in the water from being coated in oil and dying.

Some bacteria turn milk into cheese! How helpful! “Yum” says Dino.. “Thats my favourite food…imagine…there would be no cheese in the world if we didn’t have bacteria!”

Here the milk is being stirred whilst bacteria is being added. The bacteria help the milk to turn into cheese.

There are also some bad bacteria:

Tuberculosis is a disease that affects the lungs. It is caused by a bacterium. It causes 1.5 million deaths a year!!

Read more about World TB day here:

http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2013/

E.coli is also a bad bacteria that causes food poisoning. This is what E.coli looks like. Can you see the flagella that the bacteria uses to move! Dino thinks that it looks like hair!!

Here are some other pictures of bacteria…some are rods, cones or spirals.

Even though there are so so so many good bacteria…it is important we keep clean to avoid being infected with the bad bacteria.

Lion told the children that we should always use a tissue when we sneeze and also wash our hands after going to the toilet and before we eat.

Dino wondered if we really have to wash our hands….

So we did an experiment!

We covered the children’s hands in a special ultraviolet light…

Thier hands looked clean but when we shone the UV light on their hands, their hands glowed bright blue!!!

The children then washed their hands with just water!

They all thought their hands were clean and predicted that all the gel had been washed off…

but… their hands were still covered in dirt!!

All of the children cried “URRGHH!!!”

They then washed their hands really well with soap and water!  Thankfully, when they checked their hands this time…all the gel had gone!

The children decided that the best way to avoid getting sick and transferring germs is to wash your hands with soap and water!!

We had a great week learning all about science!!

What did you do for STEM week?

Find out more information about STEM week activities and lots of resources and activities to do at home at the official website:

 http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/nsew

Big roars!  See you next week!!

Dino and Lion

Follow us on twitter:  @dinoandlion