Germs

[deleted-315590]

I did a project about bacteria in the school. My results came out fine..I think.
There were fungi on 2 of the plates and the bacteria (I hope) were all different colors. Did I do it right? HELP!!

[sunmoonstars]

Hi,

If you were trying to grow specific bacteria, but also got fungus growth, this may not be the results you were looking for. Often the colors come from fungus, not bacteria.

If you were taking environmental samples and looking for both fungal and bacterial colonies, I would say you got what you were supposed to.

Tell us a bit more about your project and we will be able to give you a better answer.

Tonya

[deleted-315590]

I was trying to find if anything at my school was ''dirtier that a toilet seat". The experiment said to incubate it 3 days and checked at 3 days and then made conclusions at 5. I think I kept everything very sanitary but did I do any thing wrong?

[deleted-288920]

Thanks for telling us more about your project, sounds interesting! I'm a microbiologist and I work with bacteria all day and they can teach us a lot about what we find around us everyday. I have some other questions for you.

Do you know what kind of agar you used? There is some agar called CHROMagar that allows different kinds of bacteria to grow different colors. Basically the way it works is that as the bacteria grow they ferment different sugars and the sugars react with other things in the agar to produce different colors. However, even on regular agar, such as nutrient agar or tryptic soy, some bacteria may appear yellow, white or beige, it really depends on the species you find.

What did you sample and how did you sample? If you are sampling things found in your school, then yes I would certainly expect to find a combination of bacteria and fungi. It sounds like you did your project correctly!

Have you checked out the information on microbiology on ScienceBuddies? https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ques.shtml Here is the link to check out.

If you have any questions, please keep us posted.

Nikki

[deleted-315590]

Nikki,
Thanks for replying. Your job sounds so cool!
I know I used nutrient agar. The experiment came from the myth busters science fair book and I followed the instructions clearly. (besides the incubate one). But I was wondering more about nutrient agar. Could you tell me about it (who invented it, how it's made,how it works ext.)
The Bacteria colors included yellow, white, beige and very few orange. Is the orange normal?
Thanks again,
katherine

[deleted-288920]

Here is some information from the science buddies website about agar in general, there is some specific information on nutrient agar on this page as well https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... Agar.shtml. I'm also attaching some information I found online from a company that makes nutrient agar, I hope you can find it useful. Orange is normal, from personal experience on nutrient agar I have seen yellow, white, cream/beige, orange and pink.

Nikki

[deleted-288920]

I'm not sure the attachment posted, hopefully if it didn't this link works http://himedialabs.com/TD/M001.pdf