Handshake Hazard

In this activity you will see how easily and quickly microbes can spread from person to person.

Using special UV powder or gel to represent microbes, you will see how microbes can be transferred from person to person through a simple handshake. Using a UV torch you can see who the powder or gel has been transferred to and how effectively they remove it when they wash their hands in different ways.

Hand-to-hand contact is a critical factor in the spread of disease. When we have a cold we often sneeze or cough into our hands to prevent the spread of the illness. But if we don’t wash our hands immediately we can easily transfer those germs to someone else. Hand washing is therefore a really important way of preventing infections spreading from person to person.

Age: 7 years + (KS2 +)