Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello! My name is Kaleigh and I'm a senior right now. I am currently enrolled in an Honors Biology II course. We have been doing lots of work with bacteria and have begun solo projects culturing our own with agar plates. I've recently inoculated some plates with swabs taken from various items. It's only been about 24 hours and I wanted to know if there were any characteristics I can look for in the colonies (once they start to grow) to give me a clue as to what the shape of the bacteria may be (spiral-shaped, rod-shaped, circular, etc.). Any information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!!

Here is a site with some characteristic shapes and dividing patterns of bacteria:https://www.thoughtco.com/bacteria-shapes-373278
Unfortunately, I think you would need an electron microscope to get a reliable measure of the shape of the bacteria in your plate. Alternatively, you may be able to identify the species present with some other method and then report the known shape of each of the species. Here is a site (unreliable, use only as reference for types of tests to research further) of other methods: https://www.studyread.com/bacterial-identification/