What Are You Spreading?

STUDENT LAB GUIDE

WHAT ARE YOU SPREADING?

Procedure:

1. Place a glove on the hand you DO NOT use for writing.

2. Place your gloved hand through the hole in the box hiding the two bottles of lotion. The teacher will apply a small amount of lotion to the palm of your gloved hand.

3. Remove your gloved hand from the box and use the fingers of your gloved hand to spread the lotion on your gloved hand. Use care not to get the lotion on your skin. You are now ready to perform the experiment.

4. Select a student to be your “Contact 1” and shakeGLOVEDhands with this student; at this point you will not be aware if he or she is a carrier of the infection.

5. Record the code number for Contact 1 on your 3”x5” card.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for a second time by randomly selecting a second student. Remember to record the code number for Contact 2.

7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for a third time by randomly selecting a third student. Remember to record the code number for Contact 3.

8. It is possible that you or one or more of the students were the carrier of the infectious agents. Your Instructor knows the identity of the carrier(s) and it’s up to you to determine who it is.

9. Pass a long-wave UV fluorescent black light over your glove to determine if you have contracted the “infectious agent”; if your glove fluoresces you have contracted the “infectious agent.”

10. On the class DATA SHEET,next to your Code Number, record the Code Numbers of your three Student Contacts. Highlight your Code Number if your gloved hand fluoresced.

11. If your gloved hand fluoresces under the light, you or one or more of your contacts is a carrier of the disease. After all the data has been collected, answer the following questions:

a. How many students have contracted the infectious agent?

b. What percentage of the student groups does this cover?

c. Who are the suspected carriers? They would be common among the groups whose hand fluoresced.