Bacteria on our hands

We are comparing the numbers of bacteria on both sides of the hand. We think that the palm of your hand is going to have the most bacteria because your palm is the part of your hand that touches stuff the MOST. Stuff like: pets, public washrooms, food, dust, and even drool from your mouth when you’re sleeping.

Every day, our hands come into contact with countless surfaces, picking up invisible germs along the way. In this project, we wanted to find out whether the palm or the back of the hand carries more bacteria.

We predicted that the palm would have the most bacteria since it touches objects the most; like pets, food, public washrooms, and even dust.

To test this, we collected bacteria from both sides of the hand using cotton swabs, grew them in an incubator, and compared the results.

Our goal was to see if our hypothesis was correct and to understand the importance of hand hygiene.

Number of bacteria on both sides of the hand.

Procedure

Our project is to find out which side of our hand has the most bacteria our palm or the backside of our hands.This is how to do it:

1.Rub your palm and the back of our hands with a cotton swab.

2.Spread the bacteria into a plate.

3.Label which plates are your palm and your hands backside and whose hand it is.

4.Grow the bacteria in an incubator.

5.And wait for the bacteria to grow in the incubator.

Our experiment showed that the palm of the hand had more bacteria than the back, confirming our hypothesis.

The Result

• The palm has the most bacteria as you can see on the chart we made on the Paper you're lookin at.

• Volunteer 1 has 4 Bacteria on her palm and 2 bacteria on her Backside.

• Volunteer 2 has 3 bacteria on her Palm and 2 bacteria on her backside.

• Volunteer 3 has 3 bacteria on her palm and 1 Bacteria on her backside.

• Volunteer 4 has 5 Bacteria on her palm and 3 bacteria on her Backside.

Conclusion

Our experiment showed that the palm of the hand had more bacteria than the back, confirming our hypothesis.

Since we use our palms to touch many objects, it makes sense that they collect more germs. This experiment tells us why washing our hands properly is important to reduce the spread of bacteria and keep us healthy.

Since we use our palms to touch many objects, it makes sense that they collect more germs. This experiment tells us why washing our hands properly is important to reduce the spread of bacteria and keep us healthy.

Human errors in counting, analysing and or concluding are possible, but we worked in colaboration to avoid or minimize the possible errors.

The human skin microbiome | Nature Reviews Microbiology

Thank you to my dad, sisters and my brother for helping me with my research and the experiment. My sisters offered to volunteer and my brother gave me feedback.