STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT WORMS, VIRUSES AT GERM FEST
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According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of three people do not wash their hands after using the restroom. The CDC also states that one of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or eyes after their hands have been contaminated with the cold virus. More than 100 middle school students from Maryland learned these and other interesting facts about germs and contamination during Germ Fest, a program at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Students were welcomed to the program by Sandy Saluke, the museum's educator. In order to compare the size of germs and white blood cells, the organisms that help combat disease, Saluke told students to imagine the auditorium as being the size of a white blood cell; she then used tennis balls, balloons, and buttons to demonstrate how small germs are compared to white blood cells.

After the demonstration, students rotated throughout stations in the museum designed by scientists and medical professionals from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology .

Ronald Neafie, chief of parasitic diseases at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, gave participants a better understanding of parasitic diseases and the illnesses these parasites cause. Neafie illustrated the various types and sizes of parasitic worms by passing around photographs and jars of specimens to the students.

Dr. Ann Nelson, chief of AIDS pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, taught students how HIV replicates and affects the body.

"The students are asking a lot of questions. They seem engaged," said Nelson.

Other stations included: Germs in Your Body, where students examined specimens from the museum's collection that illustrate the effects of germs and infection on the body; during the Germ Scavenger Hunt students searched exhibits for examples of diseases caused by germs; and Seeing Germs allowed participants to look at germs and learn how microscopes are used to view them.

"I was able to see germs and things I've never seen before," said 13-year-old Shane Guinard of Crofton, Md, about the microscope station."