Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

For my experiment, I had to melt the agar and pour them into empty Petri plates/dishes. I am in the process of writing the materials portion of my project, and I want to correctly describe the empty container that I used to keep my agar. Does it matter whether I refer to them as Petri plates or Petri dishes? Thanks a lot.

No. Anyone who has poured agar in their life will understand what you are saying. However, if you insist on being so thorough, then you may as well just write down what brand and model plates you used to culture your bacteria.