Bacteria Resistance Lab

1. Question: (List as many as possible, BIG or small)

What is the main bacteria on a quarter?

What is the best disinfectant for the bacteria on a quarter?
How many colonies of bacteria will the bacteria from our quarter produce?
Does bleach kill 99.9% of germs?
If 99.9% of germs are killed will the 1% grow back again resistant to the disinfectant used?
Where our Petri dishes 100% sterile before we swabbed the quarter?
What variables are contributing to the outcome of our lab?
How dangerous is the germs we pick up from our money?
Do natural disinfectants work as well as disinfectants possibly dangerous to humans?
How well does bleach kill bacteria?
How do antibiotics target bacteria without killing human cells?

2. Research: ​What background information did you do to generate enough knowledge on

the topic, in order to generate deeper questions? Keep an ongoing list of research
references here, in order to generate a work cited later.
Agar plates are the standard solid support material for growing microorganisms. Microbial
growth media contains nutrients and an energy source to fuel the microbes as they grow, and
agar to keep the media in a semi-solid, gel-like state.
http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/microbiology/plates/
Two videos on making agar plates.
how to pour agar plates
making agar procedures
37 degrees celsius is the optimal incubation temperature to grow bacteria. -
temperature for bacteria
Possible options to kill the bacteria on the petri dish
● Antibiotics
● Hand sanitizer
● Chlorine
● Bleach
● Natural options like essential oils

How dirty are coins?

Coins can contain up to 2,400 bacteria
● Staphylococcus Epidermidis
● Bacillus
● Streptococcus
● E-col
- https://steptohealth.com/bacteria-found-on-money/
Bleach is a solution of sodium hypochlorite and water that is very ​Preview
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effective in killing microorganisms. It can enter microbial cells where it reacts with
many cellular components, destroying them and killing the cell. The bleach you
buy in the grocery store is a 5.25% solution. -
bleach as a disinfectant
They found that the effect of hypochlorous acid, the active ingredient contained in 
bleach​, is the same as heat on the proteins of b ​ acteria​. When both heat and 
bleach​ are applied the proteins "unfold" and start to clump together. 
How bleach kills bacteria revealed - Telegraph 
 
Garlic​ is also a triple threat against infections, offering antibacterial, antiviral and 
antifungal properties.  
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/23/garlic-health-benefits.aspx 
 

1. Purpose:​ A single question that states the problem you are trying to answer.

What does killing 99.9% of germs look like, and what about the other 0.1%?

3. Hypothesis:​ ​If…[insert what is changed or what you are doing], then [insert what you
think will happen/what you think you will see or observe], because [insert WHY you think
this will happen, give a reason for your guess].

If a quarter is swabbed onto four separate agar petri dish and colonies of bacteria grow
and after swabbed with germ x hand sanitizer then 99.9% of the bacteria will be killed but
a small fraction will not die and multiply, because bacteria produces mutations that could
live in the antibiotics and the natural selection will kill all the other bacteria but the
mutation will live and reproduce.

4. Design and Test an Experiment:

Materials:​ This is a list of all the materials that you need to do the experiment. This list
should include the ​NUMBERS​ of the items needed.
Materials for creating agar plates:
100 ml LB (​Luria-Bertani)​ ​ agar premixed broth base
Erlenmeyer flask
7 ​100 mm​ Petri dishes
Distilled water
graduated cylinder for measuring water
Heat source
heat-resistant gloves
Apron
goggles
Masking tape

Quarter
Cotton swabs
Incubator
Disinfectant
Camera (to compare results)

Procedure:​ List the specific steps that you went through to conduct the experiment.

How to make agar plates:

● Read the outside of the LB base

● mix the base with the correct amount of water proportional to the base
● heat the mixture to make around 200 mls of mixture
● Be watching the base in case of overflow
● When the mixture is completely dissolved remove from heat source
● (optional) sterilize/autoclave
● Poor quickly before dries

● Lay out the dishes and

arrange caps like shown
● Pour 25mls of the
mixture quickly and efficiently
being careful not to shed any
bacteria into the mixture into the
dishes
● As one person pours
other person slides caps into
place without contaminating.
● seal in masking tape
● (optional) label the tape
 How to swab a dish with agar:

Decide on the bacteria the group wants to use (phone, sneeze, desk, ground, saliva)
Dampen a cotton swab and wipe the end of it over a surface to be tested
Then take that swab and run it over the agar

Record the data of our petri dish swabbed with a Quarter’s bacteria.
Choose one or two disinfectants.
Swab the disinfectants with a sterile cotton swab.
Swab the disinfectant cotton swab onto the bacteria.
Observe and record.
 o

Data Table:
o Should be done with a ruler and a pencil (NO WHITEOUT!)

Day 1

o Title
o Heading for each column (what was being measured)
o Units for each column
Identify the Independent and Dependent Variable:
o X:
o Y:

Graph: ​Should be done with a ruler and a pencil (NO WHITEOUT!)

o Title
o Axes should be labeled and have units of measurement
o A key should be provided when necessary
o Numbers should be correctly/evenly spaced
o Independent variable should be listed on the X axis
o Dependent variable should be listed on the Y axis

5. Conclusion:​ This section shows YOUR UNDERSTANDING of the lab. A strong

conclusion will be 2 – 3 paragraphs long and follow the argumentation from evidence
format.
Paragraph One:
o Claim​ – Your claim is the answer to the question you were trying to answer. This
should be the first sentence in your paragraph. ​If you have multiple claims, you
need to address them in separate paragraphs.
o Evidence​ – Your evidence is the ​data​ you collected during the lab. Use your data
to support and backup your claim. Discuss the patterns in your data; reference the
ACTUAL numbers and trends in your data table and graph.
o Explain ​– Provide an explanation for what your data tells you. Explain why or how
the evidence/data supports your claim.
Paragraph Two​:
o Reflect​ on your original hypothesis, does your data support your original idea or
not? Explain your answer. (​Paper that earns a 3 or 4 will do this well)​ .
o Discuss sources of error or ways to improve the experiment. What problems did
you encounter when conducting the experiment? How could you make this
experiment better?
o Discuss the conclusiveness of your results based on the number of trials you did,
class results, etc. Can you be sure about the results of your experiment? Are you
confident that someone else following your exact procedure would end up with the
same results?
Format to the analysis