Trace a hand-to-face route

Supplied materials

• Paper or a text document; all cases below are original fictional learning inputs.
• An adult may read aloud; drawing or spoken answers are valid. No personal health information or physical performance is required.
• The fictional route is cough into hands-shared handle-other hand-mouth. An arrow chain shows how contact could continue. Washing after coughing interrupts the first hand-to-handle link; washing before touching food adds another prevention opportunity. This is a possible route, not proof that the handle contains germs or that the second character will become sick. No real contamination test is needed.
• Cough into hands is followed immediately by sharing a toy. Which repair fits?
• A character touches an animal then begins lunch. Which repair fits?
• The route shows cough into hands-wash-shared handle. What fits?
• Two people are drawn with no contact or events between them. What fits?
• A character handles garbage then eats with no wash. Which repair fits?
• The chain is cough-hands-table and no wash appears. Which repair fits?

Learn the idea

Germs can move through contact with contaminated hands and objects. Some routes reach eyes, nose, mouth or food. A route diagram shows a possible path; it does not prove that an illness will occur.

Use arrows between the supplied events. Identify where hands contact something and where an appropriate prevention step would interrupt the route. Washing after a listed contact and before eating matters even when dirt is not visible.

Do not collect microbes or touch unsafe materials. Work only with fictional diagrams. Handwashing reduces risk; it does not guarantee that nobody will become ill, because infections can spread through different routes.

1. Read or listen to the pretend story. Point to the details the question gives you.
2. Follow the story’s arrows. Find the contact step and place the stated prevention step before the next relevant contact.
3. Check your answer against the example. Say what matches and what you would change.
4. Try the practice questions, then the extra task. Drawing or spoken answers are welcome.

Check your reasoning

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Take it further

Draw pet contact-wash-food and explain one limit. Expected: washing between contact and food; the diagram shows prevention opportunity, not a guarantee of no infection.

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