Hand-washing is an important sanitation topic. The Department of Health promotes it as the No. 1 way to prevent colds and influenza. Students can locate hand-washing stations on the school's campus and record the percentage of other students who wash their hands and the average length of time it takes. According to the American Society for Microbiology, approximately 85 percent of adults wash their hands after using the bathroom and handling potentially contaminated foods and chemicals, and 20 seconds is the optimal length of time for hand-washing. Students can compage the effectiveness of hand-washing to using a hand sanitizer by swabbing pathogens onto a microscope slide after handling a contaminated object, such as the handle on a trash dumpster, and again after washing or sanitizing.
The temperature danger zone for foods is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Students can explore the significance of food-borne illnesses -- which harm one out of every six Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- by learning about proper food handling. Students tasked with reducing the temperature of hot food, such as soups, from higher than 140 to lower than 40 in one hour will learn to use an instant-read thermometer and cool foods safely at home. Learning about salmonella and E. coli bacteria will further develop the students' understanding of the subject.
A class-wide project can involve dividing students into groups that develop visual representations of areas in a house, such as a kitchen, bathroom or garage, and the potential safety hazards to be found in each area. The "stations" should include U.S. statistics about injuries suffered and illnesses transmitted in each area, as well as facts about prevention and treatment. Students will move from one area to the next, as in a museum, answering questions and completing exercises. Presentations will recap the day's activities and results.
Hobbies and sports become particular important for teenagers exploring and strengthening their identity, and many hobbies and sports involve safety hazards the students can explore. Ask students to choose a hobby or activity and illustrate its safety challenges, such as falling while skateboarding or chemical exposure while engaged in sculpting and ceramics, and the prevention and treatment of such safety challenges. Presenting these topics linked with show-and-tell activities will help build knowledge and confidence.
Requesting safety-related and sanitation-related pamphlets and information from state health departments and researching statistics online will help teach students skills of correspondence, research and business writing that will be important for their future career development.