Topic: Culturing Bacteria

Materials: Agar, petri dishes, cotton swabs

Procedures:
1.) Get 3 petri dishes prepared with nutrient agar and inoculate the plates as
follows:
a.) Open the plate and expose to the air
b.) Use a cotton swab to sample the female bathroom surfaces. Streak the
swab on the plate and cover.
c.) Repeat the same in the male bathroom.
d.) Cough several times on the cotton swab and streak the agar surface.
e.) Next, use the swab to dip into the drain water and streak the plate and
cover.
2.) Label the base of each plate with your name, date and exposure.
3.) Incubate in an inverted position for 24 hours.
4.) Record the number of colonies and use you handout of colony
characteristics to describe the colonies.
5.) Record your result in the table below.

Source Number of different Detailed description of

colonies colonies
Cough
Female bathroom
Male bathroom
Drain water

Questions:

1.) Describe how bacterial colonies are differentiated.

2.) Which source had the most similar types of bacteria? Explain your
answer.
3.) Is there a type that appears in all petri dishes?
4.) Which source shows the greatest diversity? Why?
5.) Explain what this experiment tells us about the presence of bacteria in the
environment.