Microbes live at the North Pole: SBU at the school

Do you know where do microbes live? Read more to know what do the children from Fluvià School think about it.

Last week we went to CEIP Fluvià (Barcelona) with Microbes!, our activity directed young children. The activity wants to show the most relevant issues of microbes, illustrates the scientific task and highlights the importance of keeping a good hygiene of both hands and tooth. Rosa Perez, researcher from the unit, and Laia Vives, communication officer, carried out the activity with three groups of 25 children.

During the activity we ask participants what do they know about microbes and Maria let us know about her theory: “Microbes live at the North Pole because they like the cold. At Christmas, when Santa Claus delivers presents brings microbes with him and spreads them round-the-world. That is how we use to get ill in winter”. Pau also explained how our body fights against microbes: “When microbes enter in our body, there are some cells that hit them with sticks. Once they are unconscious, some balloons eat them” (in catalan white blood cell is glòbul blanc so he was confused with globus blanc which is white balloon).

Once dressed like scientifics, the kids got the opportunity of experimenting with Petri’s dishes, and introduce some bacteria from their hands, face, saliva or yogurt. We explained them that following one of the main doctrines of science, like patience is, and tracking the dishes everyday they would find little bacteria colonies product of their experiment.