Under the Microscope with STEM Projects and Kit

How Well Do Disinfectants Work? (beginner project): Grow bacteria from food or environmental samples and then experiment to see how effective disinfectants are at decontaminating surfaces.

Germ Invasion: Learn how to safely culture and study common bacteria and explore how bacteria can be characterized by color, shape, and rate of growth.

Is That Really Bacteria Living in My Yogurt?: Experiment to see if yogurt with "live cultures" contains bacteria by observing what grows on agar plates from yogurt samples.

How Can Life Survive on a Planet with Extreme Tidal Locking?: Investigate the extreme temperatures that microscopic life can survive to learn more about the harsh conditions for life on a tidally locked planet.

What Modern Microbes Could Survive on Early Earth?: Try to grow microscopic life under conditions representing some of the different pH levels of Earth's earliest oceans.

Learn How to Disinfect Contaminated Water: Investigate whether sunlight can be used as an inexpensive method to disinfect contaminated water.

Create Glowing Bacteria: Insert a fluorescent protein gene into the DNA of bacteria to make it glow under UV light.

Create a Painting with Genetically Modified Bacteria: Investigate the colors of bacteria and use genetically modified bacteria to create a painting.

Which Acne Medication Can Really Zap That Zit?: Use the Kirby-Bauer disk-diffusion method to measure the effectiveness of over-the-counter acne medications.

Worm Hunt: Isolating Soil Nematodes from Your Backyard: Learn how to streak plates and then experiment to determine which types of soil provide the best habitats for nematodes.

Measuring Antimicrobial Effectiveness with Zones of Inhibition: Compare the effectiveness of different antimicrobial agents by measuring zones of inhibition on a bacterial culture plate.

Death Rays: What Duration of Ultraviolet Exposure Kills Bacteria?: Experiment to see how much exposure to UV light is needed to kill bacteria on culture plates.

Can Silver Nanoparticles Neutralize E. coli Bacteria?: Investigate the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles at different concentrations.