I tried emailing you but it didn't go through. So what level is 9th
Grade, what's the average age at this level? For text books I didn't
think a high school library would be of much help. If you have a
university in your town you could go there and read their books on
microbiology. One book I used as an undergraduate was 'Biology of
microorganisms' by Brock and Madigan, this maybe quite helpful for
you, but you should be able to search the university catalogue for
more.
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 02:54:23 GMT, Riffi <riffi at cyberspace.org> wrote:
>To answer your questions, I'm in 9th grade Biology. This is sort of an
>optional extra credit assignment. Although the teacher is will help some
>what by setting it up in the lab, we have to get all research ourself, and
>do all the work ourself. The textbook does not cover this area, and the
>school library was not very helpful. And yes, my education is the american
>type (pennsylvania actually).
>Thanks for the help
>Riffi
>Errol wrote:
>>> Judging by the question I would say that you probably couldn't follow
>> this answer.
>>>> >Best bet is some flavor of growth media like LB.
>>>> LB stands for Luria broth, it's a basic solution that allows the
>> growth of most micro-organisms. I would suggest that if you use this
>> that you make it into an agar plate, this is done by adding some agar
>> into the solution and poured into a petri dish, when it cools it
>> solidifies and you can see colonies growing on the surface, then from
>> this you can look at the colonies for their shape colour and other
>> physical features, and look at a sample of each under a microscope to
>> look at the cells.
>>>> >Depends upon the strain of bacteria.
>> >That depends on where you grow it. If you put a plate of LB in your
>> >bed room, bathroom, dining room, outside, etc bacteria will begin to
>> >grow on it as they are everywhere. If you are doing this in a 'clean'
>> >lab setting you will need to innoculate the media with bacteria.
>>>> If you expose your plates to the air, then you should incubate the
>> plates after exposure at about 25 degrees celcius as this is
>> considered to be room temperature. This will allow microbes in the
>> room to grow. I would grow them overnight and see what the growth is
>> like, you don't want growth of one organism to cover the entire plate
>> so you can't see any other colonies. If there isn't much growth then
>> leave it another night. You'll want to seal the lids on the plate as
>> well, as if anything pathogenic grows you don't want to expose
>> yourself to it and make yourself sick.
>>>> >First you will need to identify the different species of bacteria you
>> >have. There SOPs for this and commercial kits you can buy as well.
>> >Once you have that, count up the number of colonies each type of
>> >bacteria has.
>>>> You probably won't have access to these sorts of kits and may have
>> some difficulty buying them, but try to get them anyway.
>>>> >>How do I figure out the kinds that grew?
>> >
>> >See above.
>>>> You could also look at them under the microscope and examine the
>> individual cells and try to identify them this way, along with the
>> physical features of the colony. I would suggest that you try to
>> identify them this was as you will get more out of the experience than
>> just reading what the testing kit tells you.
>>>> >>Are they any books or websites that can help me out?
>> >
>> >O.K., a wuick search on 'ANY' search engine will bring up plenty of
>> >sites. Checking in at you school's library will reveal plenty of
>> >microbiology texts/journals. Have you tried your class text book?!?!?
>> >
>> >Just out of curiosity what level class is this that give syou such
>> >pitiful instruction? Anyone worried that you might infect yourself
>> >with something that you would be better off without?
>> >
>> I would like to know you class level as well and your age in case your
>> education system is the american type. I'm also not sure what sort of
>> microbiology text and journals your school would have. You should
>> consult your science teacher as she/he may have some books and should
>> explain about making up culture media.
>>>
