Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello...my frend is doin tis project
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... m=Home[url]
but she doesnt know where to get the bateria from....

plzz help....[/url]

Hi,

Bacteria culture should be done under the supervision of a trained technician or scientist. I just perused through your link and it seems you're being asked to use a run of the mill strain of E.Coli. While not particularly infectious or dangerous, not being careful with this stuff can get serious. I highly suggest that you align your friend with a laboratory that has the tools and infrastructure to get you started.

Hope this helps.

James

yea it says to use E.coli...which she doesnt want to use...she wants to use any accessible bacteria...like she mentioned sweat or sumthin...but are there any other ways??

nd is there any way to just alter the experiment so tat she doesnt have to do the same exact one??

like changing the variables or anything??

Hi,

There are a few questions that your friend should answer, but the most important one is:
1. What is his/her project?

The science buddies project suggestions are supposed to used as foundation ideas that the student can build off of. The bank of ideas provided helps students to come up with new ideas, or build - offs of what the basic outline is.

If your friend is doing the exact same project, she would need to determine the purpose of the project. Is it to look at how microbial activity at a certain location of the house (i.e. the bathroom) or body (i.e. underarms) is affected by disinfectants, or some other antibacterial, or is it to look at a specific kind of bacteria, like E.coli, and how the species is affected by antibacterials.

The latter can be controlled better, because in the experiment, you are dealing with only one species of bacteria, and therefore eliminate many variables introduced when a variety of bacteria is tested. If your friend wants to do the former, I would suggest that the sample size be large, and that she conduct multiple trials of the experiment.

It is important that she discovers her own interest in this project, and she is more than welcome to post questions if she is unsure of anything. Changing the project is definitely possible, but science buddies experts would not be able to provide the answers.

Hope this helps,
Sareena