The Great Soap Showdown
Human Health and Behavior
Hailey Hakala
Ezequiel Pastorino-Mendoza
- Grade:
- 5
- Teacher:
- Elisabeth Gingrich
We swabbed some pieces of chicken and put them on agar plates to see how dirty they were. After that we washed the chicken with hand soap, hand sanitizer, and bar soap and then we swabbed again and put them on different agar plates to compare and see what soap worked best.
This is an excellent and very relevant human health project! I was impressed by how carefully you designed your experiment using control plates, multiple test trials, grids for counting colonies, and calculating the average percentage of germ reduction. Your materials and procedures were clearly explained, and the use of raw chicken as a consistent bacterial source showed thoughtful experimental planning. The results graph and labeled agar plates made your findings easy to understand. I especially appreciate that you identified a limitation (not washing or replacing the chicken between tests) and explained how you would improve the experiment next time that shows real scientific thinking. This project demonstrates strong teamwork, careful data collection, and a clear understanding of how soap works to reduce bacteria. Keep exploring health science you are developing impressive research skills!
What a wonderful presentation, so many details and images, well done! Your project was very well executed. Thank you for sharing.
This project addresses an incredibly relevant topic food safety and hygiene. I was impressed by your systematic approach to testing different cleaning agents on raw chicken to determine which was most effective at reducing bacterial growth. Your methodology clearly isolated your variables, which is a great skill in scientific inquiry. It is also excellent that you were able to visually compare the agar plates to draw your conclusions. For future studies, you might consider how ‘mechanical action’ (the act of scrubbing or rinsing) might interact with the chemical properties of the soaps you tested. Keep up the excellent work; you have a great eye for designing experiments that solve real-world problems!