How easily do diseases spread? Lab activity

Show your kids how diseases like the flu or common cold are passed by facilitating this fun activity.

Each student is given a dixie cup filled with water. One of the cups has mix of cornstarch and water in a diluted solution. *note - you want there to be just enough cornstarch so that the water isn't cloudy. I also use white plastic cups as opposed to paper.

You instruct students to exchange liquids by pouring the water back and forth between their cups a couple of times.

They repeat this procedure three more times. When done, have them return to their seats. **IMPORTANT: Make sure they write down who they exchanged with and in what order.

When done, place a few drops of iodine in each up. If the water turns black, they have the disease. If it remains yellow, they are healthy.

You may wrap this activity up however you would like. In my 7th grade classroom, we draw a concept map of everyone who was infected and we act like epidemiologists to determine who it was that started the infection.


This can be used in health class, science class or even FACS.