‘Tis the season, cold and flu season that is! While studying living things and microorganisms, we conducted an experiment to see how to remove germs from our hands. We tested three methods: hand sanitizer, simply wiping hands and washing with soap and water. First the students made predictions about which method would be most effective and then we tested each one. Since we had learned that these germs are microscopic, we used glitter to represent the germs – making for a much prettier experiment! We divided the class into three groups and the first member of each group was able to dip their hand into the plate of glitter germs. Then, that student tried to remove the germs with the method chosen for their group. When they returned to the group, they shook hands with all the other group members to see if the “germs” would be transferred. When we compared our findings it was clear that washing hands with soap and water is the best way to remove germs! We also learned that hand sanitizer combined with purple glitter causes purple hands!