COEUR d'ALENE - Rhena Cooper began her presentation Wednesday to fourth and fifth grade students at Ramsey Magnet School of Science with a vocabulary word, and it was a doozie: Ubiquitous.

"Ubiquitous means found everywhere," said Cooper, a microbiologist who teaches at North Idaho College and serves as Idaho Network of Biomedical Research (INBRE) outreach coordinator for the University of Idaho. "Bacteria are found everywhere. They are ubiquitous."

Ramsey students learned from Cooper that not only are bacteria almost freakishly ubiquitous, but an outrageously high number of them can fit in a very small space. Using 1,000 grains of rice in a plastic sandwich bag, and a ruler, Cooper illustrated that 1,000 bacteria are cozy in just one millimeter of space.

"You can't even see them until their population reaches a million or more, and becomes a colony," she said.

The kids gathered in the school library for Cooper's Junior Science Cafe presentation, supported by the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research and by INBRE.

Ramsey Elementary Student Council members organized much of the program, creating announcements, making presentations to classmates, introducing the speaker, shooting photos, writing for the school paper and sending out thank you notes.

As Cooper spoke, teachers held out closed Petri dishes with Staphylococcus, E. Coli, Streptococcus and other bacterial colonies for kids to examine up close - keeping it safe, scientific, and just gross enough to pique everyone's interest.

So many kids from the science magnet school were interested in attending the science cafe that a lottery system was used to select the audience. They listened attentively, asked good questions and learned quickly.

"Streptococcus loves sugar, so it lives in your mouth," said Cooper. "How do you keep it from growing in there?"

"Brush and floss!" the crowd called out.

"Staphylococcus like salt, so they live on your skin," said Cooper. "How do you keep it under control?"

"Wash your hands!" the kids answered in unison. "Take a bath," some voices added.