Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello! I decided to do my science fair project about growing bacteria cultures in agar plates from random samples. The problem is, I need a source of qualitative data, but don't know what and how to measure the bacteria. Do you think I should measure and compare the amounts of bacteria from different samples, and if so, how?

Dear george96,

In order to measure bacteria, you would use one swab in the same spot in each agar plate for all the agar plates. I think that it would be a good idea to compare the different amounts of bacteria from different samples because this would allow you to understand why a certain agar plate had more/less/equal amount of bacteria than other agar plates.

If you have any further questions, please let me know.

RicaC