M ICROORGANISMS Angelica Carter and Brooke Udero

W HAT ARE M ICROBES ? Microorganisms are very tiny one-celled organisms that include: viruses, fungi, and bacteria, archaea, algae, protozoa.

W HERE D O T HEY L IVE ? They are found in all living things, plants and animal. Microorganisms can live in the air, on land, in fresh or salt water environments and even on food!

P OSITIVE E FFECTS ON H UMANS We have good bacteria that live on and in us to protect us from the bad invaders that might come our way. Without the good bacteria, the bad ones can slip in and easily cause us problems. Antibiotics is a drug that destroys bad bacteria in our bodies and helps us get better when we are sick.

N EGATIVE I MPACT OF M ICROBES ON H UMAN H EALTH Microorganisms are the cause of many infectious diseases. For example, tuberculosis, malaria, influenza (the flu), ringworm, and aids. Parasites are microorganisms that live off of the human body. They harm humans by consuming their food and nutrients. Often, they destroy the tissues and cells of their humans by burrowing into or digesting those tissues for food, and they produce toxic waste products that can make humans ill.

3 WAYS TO AVOID BAD MICROBES Make sure when you eat meat, it is cooked and not raw to avoid getting bad bacteria in your body that can make you sick. Drink only milk and fruit juices that have been pasteurized (heated to kill germs) Wash your hands as much as possible to avoid spreading germs. Especially after using the bathroom, before eating or covering a cough.

Microorganisms Microbes make more than 3,500 foods worldwide. These include bread, cheese, soda, chocolate, pickles and sauerkraut. The characteristic flavours of cheeses come from the type of milk used and from the action of microbes during manufacture and storage. Bread is made from cereal grains ground into flour. Leavened bread is softer due to the action of yeast, which is a fungus. Yeast contributes both to the texture and flavour of bread. Dill pickles, olives and sauerkraut are all fermented foods. They are made using microbes, giving the foods their characteristic flavour and extending the storage life of the product. The contents of the cocoa pods are scooped out and set in heaps where microbes occurring naturally on the plant cause a fermentation which lasts for 7 days.

R EFERENCES living.org/html/avoid_harmful_microorganisms.html html (for images)