Learning all about Germs vs Soap

Since we are in the thick of cold and flu season and our family has been no stranger to illness this past month. We decided to talk a little more about germs. We also talked more about what hand washing does and how it helps. We decided to take it a step further and do a fun science experiment. Come see how we learned more about germs vs soap.

Germs vs Soap

Something that is difficult to explain to children is how and why we wash our hands. Most germs are not visible to our eyes. So explaining to a toddler that they need to wash their hands, despite them not being able to see any visible dirt can be hard. Sometimes, taking the time to explain why we do things and allowing them to see why and how soap works can be helpful. This is such a quick and easy experiment, it takes less than 2 minutes total. You can obviously extend this and have fun with it if you have time. If you simply need a quick activity and want to prove a point about how soap works, this one takes no time at all. We found this experiment from Emily’s Science Lab, follow her channel for so many more fun experiments!!

The Science Behind the Experiment

Not only is this a simple and quick experiment, the science behind it is also fairly simple. Depending on the age of your children, they might be able to understand surface tension and surfactant. Dish soap is a surfactant, a substance that reduces surface tension. Soap molecules have one end that is attracted to water and another end that repels water. When you add soap to water, the soap moves between the water. This breaks up the cohesion between the water molecules and allows them to spread out more easily. The surface tension of soapy water is much lower than plain water, this makes bubbles more stable.

Keep checking back for more fun science experiments like this one. Some others here: scratch off messages and snow in a jar!