The pepper and soap experiment: How soap destroys germs

At the initial stage of the “Start Small Dream Big” (SSDB) project, “Taking care of our elderly”, children did a take home kit activity with their parents. They bonded with their grandparents or an elderly they known of through various forms of kind acts.

We have move on to the next stage. This time round, parents did an educational experiment with their child during this circuit breaker period.

Amidst the coronavirus chaos, everyone seems to be grabbing the hand sanitizer and washing their hands more often than just after using the bathroom.

With the deaths we have seen in Singapore so far, the elderly often has very poor outcomes when contracted with covid-19.

This purpose of the experiment will educate children on the importance of washing hands to maximise germs from spreading.

We hope this is a fun and educational activity for your child as we continue to talk about social distancing and sanitation.

Step 1: Take some pepper and sprinkle it in a plate filled with plain water.

Explain to your child that the pepper represents germs like viruses that can make us sick.

Step 2: Have your child to stick one finger in the “germs” and ask them what happened. They will probably recognise that germs got stuck on them!

Step 3: Have then put a clean finger in the soap and swirl it around until it covers the end of their finger.

Step 4: Have your child to put the finger filled with soap in the ‘germs.’ (Pepper)

Step 5: The ‘germs’ should be repelled by the soap and should quickly move away from your child’s finger.

Hopefully when the children gain knowledge on this, they exhibit kindness and pass this down to our future generations.