Urgent: Growing Bacteria

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angie_chalet
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:57 pm
Occupation: Student
Project Question: I want to do a science project using cornstarch and water. When you squeeze it, it's a solid but then turns to a liquid. It's also known as a non-newtonian fluid. My problem is that my teacher wants us to use the scientific method (problem/question, hypothesis, research, etc) for the science fair. I can't find a question/problem to use. Please help, I'm stuck on this and the science fair is close by.
Project Due Date: April 20th, 2013
Project Status: I am just starting

Urgent: Growing Bacteria

Post by angie_chalet »

So my science fair project is "What cleaning product is the most effective in killing bacteria?" I rubbed a chopping board with a piece of raw chicken, left it overnight, and cleaned different sections of it with various cleaning products. I used sterilized swabs to swab the chopping board and rubbed them on pre-poured nurtient agar petri dishes (which i ordered online). At the moment they are being stored in a dark place at room temperature because I don't have an incubator. It's been 3 days and I see no results on my petri dishes, and the science fair is in 2 weeks (March 26) . How long will it take the bacteria to grow? Will it not grow if the petri dishes are not stored in an incubator? This is urgent. Thank you :cry:
SciB
Expert
Posts: 2066
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 7:00 am
Occupation: Retired molecular biologist, university researcher and teacher
Project Question: I wish to join Scibuddies to be able to help students achieve the best science project possible and to understand the science behind it.
Project Due Date: n/a
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Urgent: Growing Bacteria

Post by SciB »

Hi Angie,

Sorry to take so long getting back to you. Are you seeing any colonies now on the plates? E coli will grow at room temp but it can take as long as a week to see visible colonies depending on how cold your room is. If you have a big cardboard box, put a small lamp inside it with a thermometer and close the box. Check the temperature after an hour or so. If it is around 30C then you can wrap your plates in aluminum foil to keep out the light and put them in the box as a DIY incubator. The bacteria will grow much faster if they are warm.

Sybee
dpututor
Expert
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 2:09 pm
Occupation: Student
Project Question: I would like to become an Ask the Expert in order to become a part of this wonderful program!
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Re: Urgent: Growing Bacteria

Post by dpututor »

Good luck on your experiment! I hope you are beginning to see growth. If you haven't already, I would ask your school or even a neighboring school (perhaps a high school?) to see if you could use an incubator if they have one.

Lily
Milley_09
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:10 pm
Occupation: assistant dentist
Project Question: Regular dental care
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Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Urgent: Growing Bacteria

Post by Milley_09 »

This is great information.
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