Name:

Chelsea Ye

Discovering the Conditions That Promote the Growth of Bacteria

I) Problem: What kind of microhabitats most effectively promotes the growth of bacteria? II) Background Information: Even though we cant see them, microbes are present wherever the proper conditions exist to sustain life. They live in and on humans and other animals, as well as on plants. They also live in the water, soil, and air. In this investigation, you will scavenge for bacteria in various microhabitats. Bacteria are simple and small; they are single-celled prokaryotes, typically only 1 micrometer in diameter. They are among the most numerous life forms on the planet. Bacteria can be found everywhere other life exists and even many places too extreme for larger organisms. Bacteria are so small that they cannot be seen without the aid of a microscope, so people didnt know they existed at all before 1676 when Anton van Leeuwenhoek used his handcrafted microscopes and keen eye to observe the bacteria living in a droplet of water, Bacteria can be cultured, or grown, on nutrient agar. Nutrient agar is a jellylike substance extracted from seaweed to which nutrients have been added so that bacteria or other microorganisms cab be grown on it. If conditions are favorable, bacteria will rapidly reproduce by dividing in two. Eventually, bacterial reproduction produces spots on the nutrient agar, each of which consists of the many descendants of a single bacterium. These spots, which are visible to the unaided eye, are called colonies. Bacteria grow best in warm areas, also in body temperature. III) Hypothesis: If bacteria grow best in warm places then a sample swabbed from a microwave/heating vent will produce a large number of bacteria colonies when swabbed on a dish of nutrient agar. IV) Materials Nutrient agar plates China marker Applicator swabs
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07:48 AM CT

Experiment Plan:

Ye Chelsea

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 1) 2) 3)

4) 5)

6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

Procedure Be sure to follow sterile techniques during this lab so that contamination doesnt occur and ruin the results of this lab. Using the china marker, draw a line on the bottom of your nutrient agar Petri dish dividing it in half. Number each half with a different number. Select a variety of microhabitats to test for the presence of bacteria. Record the microhabitats in your data table. Identify characteristics of this microhabitat and record in your data table. (wet or dry, light or dark, clean or dirty, isolated or high-traffic) With a sterile applicator stick, swab the given microhabitat. Streak the swab across the center of the nutrient agar plate section in a straight line, beginning and ending about 2cm from each edge of the dish. Do not break through the nutrient agar. Try to keep each streak mark the same size. Remember, you will be applying two different streak marks from two different microhabitats to each nutrient agar plate. Keep the cover off the dish for as little time as possible. Discard the applicator stick in the manner instructed by Mr. Ogden. Repeat steps 4-6 for the other microhabitats. Mr. Ogden will leave one dish untouched as a control. Incubate the dishes for at least five days. Record the growth of the microorganism on each plate in both qualitative and quantitative terms in the data collection section of this lab.

Experimental Components Manipulated (Independent) Variable The area in which the bacteria are taken from is the manipulated variable. Responding (Dependent) Variable: The amount of bacteria in a section is the responding variable. Controlled (Constants) Variables: Same kind of food (agar) Kept in same temperature Same type of container Control: a dish without any bacteria put into it V) Data Collection: Observations: Section 1: 2 (white, smuggled coloring) big colonies, 5 big clear colonies, some yellow and orange dots Section 2: 1 huge colony of bacteria (looks thin, white and dark in the center), lots of smaller ones. Section 3: Not a lot of bacteria, few dots Section 4: 1 huge colony (white yellow, smuggled). There are many smaller white and yellow colonies. Section 5: 1 white, fuzzy colony huge size, and many yellow/orange colonies median sized.
Ye Chelsea Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07:48 AM CT 00:25:4b:af:3f:12

 Section 6: 1 big colony (tan, smudged), many smaller colony (yellow, white) Section 7: (control) no bacteria, light yellow Data Table: Section Microhabitat Microhabitat characteristics: Amount of bacteria Number dry/wet, 10-numerous/1-very clean/dirty, light/dark, few isolated/high-traffic 1 Microwave Hot, 8 2 Hot laptop Warm, Dusty 8 3 Fridge/Freezer Cold, Clean, Dark 1 4 Hand Body Temperature, High-traffic 5 5 Tech Lab Cold, Dusty 7 6 Heating Vent Dusty, warm 6 7 Control ------------------------------ 0 (untouched) --------------------- Photographs:

Ye Chelsea

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 Conclusion 1) Why was it important to keep the agar plates uncovered for as little time as possible? It is important to keep agar plates uncovered for as little time as possible because unpredicted bacteria might fall into the plate. For example the dust for the ceiling of bacteria in the air might float in, so it could disrupt the other bacteria growth. 2) Why was it important to observe sterile methods and use a new, sterile swab for each different microhabitat? If you use the same swab every time then the bacteria from other substances could rub off into the wrong section. This could make all of the sections the same. You also have to observe sterile methods because if you swab one section twice, or if you broke the agar then you will have more variables then you accounted for. 3) Why was the nutrient agar sterilized (made free from bacteria) before the investigation? The nutrient agar was sterilized because if it had extra bacteria in some places then you would have inaccurate data. For if there was already bacteria in one section, you would get it confused with the true bacteria. 4) Early biologists grew bacteria on freshly cut slices of vegetables. Why would it be important to have freshly cut vegetable slices? It is important to grow bacteria on freshly cut vegetables because vegetable develop mold over a long period of time. So it would look like bacteria when it is actually mold. 5) What was the purpose of the control? The purpose of the control was to compare it with your bacteria grown dishes. You can observe the growth of bacteria better when you have the clean dish to compare it to. 6) Which microhabitat seemed to result in the most bacterial growth? According to my observations warmer habitats result in the most bacteria growth. Sections 1,2,4, and 6 seem to have numerous amounts of colonies. 1,2,4 and 6 are all the warmer places. 7) Aside from the control, which microhabitat seemed to result in the least bacterial growth?
Ye Chelsea Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07:48 AM CT 00:25:4b:af:3f:12

Aside from the control, cold microhabitats seem to result in the least bacterial growth according to my observations. Section 3 has little to no bacteria growth because I got this sample from a freezer/fridge. 5 is also in a cool place but it is a very high-traffic area. 8) What kinds of microhabitat characteristics seem to have the greatest impact on the growth of bacteria? Warm and high-traffic areas seem to have the greatest impact on the growth of bacteria. For example section 3 grew no bacteria because it was taken from a cold place and a semi-low traffic area. 9) There are thousands of different kinds of bacteria. Do you think that shape alone is enough to identify a particular species of bacteria? Why? I think the shape alone cannot identify a particular species of bacteria. I know this because in my bacteria sections there were some bacteria colonies that had the same shape but different colors. Those two colonies of same shape but different color were most likely different species of bacteria. 10) Do all the bacteria colonies have the same appearance (i.e. color, shape, and size)? If not, what does that indicate? The bacteria colonies do not all have the same appearance because there could be different kinds of bacteria living in the same area. For example in section 4 there are different colored colonies, this is because on my hand there could have been different species of bacteria from the places I touched. Reflection Colleen and I tested the same hypothesis (If bacteria grow best in warm places then a sample swabbed from a microwave/heating vent will produce a large number of bacteria colonies when swabbed on a dish of nutrient agar.) but we got totally different results. Colleens sample of the fridge/freezer has tons of bacteria colonies while I have almost no bacteria growing there. This may be because we swabbed different places in the fridge/freezer. There could have been a spill there, but I still think it should have been the same. This unpredicted bacteria growth has been very intresting.

Ye Chelsea

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 Colleens Section 3 (freezer)

My Section 3 (freezer)
Ye Chelsea Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07:48 AM CT 00:25:4b:af:3f:12

Ye Chelsea

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:07:48 AM CT

00:25:4b:af:3f:12