In 2020 the Edmonson County School Systems had already closed multiple days for illness. The Family Resource Center reached out to the Edmonson County Family and Consumer Sciences Agents to teach a lesson about the importance of hand washing.

The FCS agent worked with 200 students in the middle and high school in February and March of 2020. An initial lesson was on the importance of proper hand washing utilizing glow germ to show students spots they missed when  they washed their hands. After covering hand washing techniques the FCS Agent lead a discussion with students to think of the dirtiest surfaces that they encounter on a daily basis. In class discussion showed that 90% of students believed the toilet and money were the dirtiest items they encountered. 

Students were giving a sterile Petri dish and cotton swab. Students were then asked to swab their cell phones and put the sample in the Petri dish. One Petri dish was left empty. Other Petri dishes were swabbed with the floor, toilets, money, and other surfaces students thought were dirty. The FCS agent took the Petri dishes back to the extension office and left them in an incubator for week. When the FCS agent returned to the school students were able to examine their Petri dishes. In 90% of Petri dishes the cell phones were the dirtiest objects the students had sampled. Post discussion showed that students realized the everyday surfahas can be dirtier than they realize and that cleaning frequently used surfaces and objects is important as well as hand washing.