Hypothesis

Shoe smell does indicate bacteria. If a

shoe is old and smelly, the agar plate
will show bacterial growth. If the shoe
is new, there will not be bacterial
growth on the agar plate
 Key Words
Bacteria Small single-celled organisms
Petri Dish A circular dish used to grow
bacteria
Agar A jelly substance usually made
from red seaweed that acts as
food for bacter
Colony A collection of bacteria
 Research
Feet Background:Feet are an important part of your body. You use them to stand
up, walk around, or run a race. Your feet work so hard that sometimes they get
sweaty and stinky.

Why shoes smell: Bacteria is the reason they start to smell. Bacteria are small
single celled organisms that make your feet smell. They like dark and damp places
like sneakers. When they have dark and damp places they multiply. They multiply
when they eat your dead skin cells and the oils on your feet. After they eat they
remove the waste from themselves by making organic acids. The organic acids is
what gives the bad smell.
 Procedure and Material
Get 3 pairs of new shoes and get 3 pairs of old shoes. Then you get 6 agar plates

and 6 swabs. Next, swab each shoe and rub onto agar plate. Label each agar

plate cover with name of shoe (new #1, New #2, New #3, Old #1, Old #2 and Old

#3) and date. After that, you put them in a dry and dark place because bacteria

like dark and dry places to mimic a shoe. Wait 4-5 days and observe which sample

has bacteria colonies.

 Results
The old shoe plates were heavily coated in bacterial cultures (They grew
day by day). The new shoe plates were not covered in bacterial cultures at
all.
 Conclusion
My hypothesis was what I expected would happen. My hypothesis was that the
old shoes (which already had odor) would have bacteria growth on the agar
plate samples, but the new shoes would not because they did not smell
(showing there was no bacteria there in the first place). I could improve the
experiment by learning how to determine which bacteria is growing in the shoe
and how to get rid of that bacteria to get rid of the smell and save the shoe and
money.
 Introduction
Foot and sneaker odor is a big problem for many people. The purpose of this
experiment is to determine if there are more bacteria in old sneakers or new
sneakers. People should care about this experiment because there are many
bacterias that can cause odor in the sneaker and in your feet. If we can identify if
there are bacteria in old sneakers or new sneakers than we can make something
that gets rid of odor in the sneakers. This can save money because then you do
not have to buy new sneakers every time they smell.
 Start of Experiment

New Sneakers Old Sneakers

Date: 2/1/2024
 End of Experiment

New Sneakers
Old Sneakers